How to fix Marlin random driver error detected coil short circuit crash (Trinamic TMC)

Problem:

When using Trinamic drivers with the Marlin 3D printer firmware, you might occasionally experience errors like

Send: N4193 G1 X12.345 Y34.567 E122.15252
Recv: 
Recv: E driver error detected: 0x10136000
Recv: coil short circuit
Recv: 		X	Y	Z	E
Recv: Enabled		true	true	true	true
Recv: Set current	2000	2000	2000	1000
Recv: RMS current	1999	1999	1999	990
Recv: MAX current	2819	2819	2819	1396
Recv: Run current	31/31	31/31	31/31	19/31
Recv: Hold current	15/31	15/31	15/31	9/31
Recv: Global scaler	167/256	167/256	167/256	133/256
Recv: CS actual	31/31	31/31	22/31	19/31
Recv: PWM scale	196716	33095745	65576	33488924
Recv: vsense
Recv: stealthChop	true	true	true	true
Recv: msteps		128	128	128	128
Recv: interp		true	true	true	true
Recv: tstep		171	678	max	1580
Recv: PWM thresh.	24	24	411	13
Recv: [mm/s]		102	102	3	41
Recv: OT prewarn	false	false	false	false
Recv: triggered
Recv:  OTP		false	false	false	false
Recv: off time	4	4	4	4
Recv: blank time	24	24	24	24
Recv: hysteresis
Recv:  -end		2	2	2	2
Recv:  -start		1	1	1	1
Recv: Stallguard thrs	0	0	0	0
Recv: uStep count	62	32	227	497
Recv: DRVSTATUS	X	Y	Z	E
Recv: sg_result	0	0	395	0
Recv: stallguard
Recv: fsactive
Recv: stst		*	*		*
Recv: olb
Recv: ola
Recv: s2gb					*
Recv: s2ga
Recv: otpw
Recv: ot
Recv: Driver registers:
Recv: 		X	0x00:1F:40:00
Recv: 		Y	0x00:1F:40:00
Recv: 		Z	0x80:16:41:8B
Recv: 		E	0x10:13:60:00
Recv: 
Recv: 
Recv: echo:Driver error
Recv: Error:Printer halted. kill() called!
Changing monitoring state from "Printing" to "Error"

Solution

If the error always occurs at the start of each print, be sure to check your stepper motor setup for actual shorts! Measure the inducitivity using an LCR meter to be sure, it should be around the rated value for your motor! See this post for information about typical stepper motor inductivity.

If the error occurs occasionally, it is recommended in the datasheet that you use more conservative short detection settings.

You need to make the change this in Marlin/src/module/stepper/trinamic.cpp.

Go to the section for the driver type you are using. In my example, this would be

#if HAS_DRIVER(TMC5160)
// ...
void tmc_init(/* ... */) {
   // NOTE: tmc_init() is the function we need to insert code in!
}
#endif

Now insert, just before the TERN(HYBRID_THRESHOLD, /* ... */) line (if such a line does not exist, insert at the end of the function:

// Set more conservative short detection settings
st.shortfilter(3); // 3us SHORT filter
st.s2vs_level(15); // Lowest sensitivity short to supply voltage protection
st.s2g_level(15); // Lowest sensitivity short to ground protection
st.shortdelay(1); // 1.5us instead of 0.75us short delay

These are the most conservative settings possible using this setup.

Now retry your print.

In case this still doesn’t help, you can disable short protection entirely. Note that short protection exists to prevent damage to your stepper motor, your mainboard and your cabling, so you should only disable it if there is no other choice!

In order to disable short protection entirely, insert this code block instead of the conservative setting code block from above:

// Disable short protection entirely
st.diss2g(true);
st.diss2vs(true);

Tested with Marlin version 2.0.9.1