New tank, "Expired" warning

I am putting this in General Discussion because I just tap on Ignore (so it is no “trouble”).

Short version: Rigid 10K. New tank. Form 3 printer did not detect it. Updated firmware to 1.13.3. After rebooting there was a message something like “… new unused tank …”. Great!. Started my print job. Got big ominous warning something like (paraphrasing here) "… tank is expired. Your better replace it. … ". I hit ignore. Good grief.

It’s an “undocumented feature”!

The printer software sets the tank’s date to the date and time from the Internet.

It doesn’t verify if “today’s date” is correct by checking if the printer is online and time synced, nor if the date is default epoch, nor if the date is older than the printer’s software release date, nor if the date is older than the printer’s manufacturing date, nor even if the date is older than the tank’s manufacturing date. Neither does it sanity check that the life used on the tank means it is older than the internet itself. I doubt it reads back what it has written to the tank EEPROM to verify it saved correctly. It looks like inexperienced programmers and no quality control.

You can ignore it, but I think you can no longer remote print, because manual intervention is needed?

There are other issues:

You can start on-boarding while the printer is primed.
You can’t manually set the time and date.
You can’t reset, or set a specific time/date on a tank without taking printer out of service so an engineer can log in.
If the ambient is less than 18 deg C it will heat the resin indefinitely without a timeout.
You can prime the printer (for remote printing) when the printer is offline.
Printer says it’s on-line and has an IP address showing when it’s not connected.
You can send a job to the printer by wifi and it starts, but you can’t track it because it’s off line.
The tank filling system doesn’t work - the solenoid/motor driver overheats.

It would be great if there was a permanent forum space, where the known and new issues could be updated by owners and FormLabs could acknowledge and update progress on resolving.

…also…
When I’m logged into dashboard to monitor prints and I click to buy resin, it takes me to the USA website, even though it knows where I am.

@BradDunagan this was fixed in our most recent firmware release, 1.14.7, which was released about 4 days after you posted this. Please give it a spin and let me know how it goes!

@F1Andy this forum is intended for the exact purpose you are asking for, that’s why we have the “Support & Troubleshooting” section. I’ve filed tickets for those issues you raised that we are not already aware of.

Thanks gtl!

I’ll make sure I’m on latest SW, and pop any new issues in the right place.

Andy

I recently updated to 3.19.01 and I just had the same issue with Rigid 4k. It says the first fill date was 12/31/1969, but it was today and is now saying the tank is at 25,228%. Is there a way to reprogram the tank to clear this error?

Shouldn’t show in your next print, it’s only on the first one (at least that’s what I’m used to get).

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