RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation Lately my RAMPS board has been acting very strangely. At random times during printing, the RAMPS will stop sending voltage to the heated bed. I tested, and I am getting 12 volts into the RAMPS, I also see 12 volts on both sides of the fuse. I just don't see 12 volts on the output of the MOSFET. My first thought was that a wire had come loose, and sure enough, pulling on the wires caused the LED on the output to light up and the voltage to turn on, so I redid all of my screw-in connections. But if happened again. This time, I pulled the board, repaired what I though looked like a bad solder joint, checked all connections and put everything together. It still failed, so I replaced the MOSFET, and it still failed. This time, I noticed that if I just seated the board a little better into the arduino, that it came on, so I thought that was it. But when I tried to print something, the bed turned off again and no amount of pushing/pulling would get it going again. I didn't know what else to try, so I went to Lulzbot and ordered a new RAMPS board. Should be here in a couple of days, but I'd sure like to know what happened to the current board. Does anybody know of anything else I could try? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315483#msg-315483 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:10:56 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,336121#msg-336121 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,336121#msg-336121
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cat.farmer
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Cefiar
cat.farmer: You might not disconnect them often, but I do.

As for a redesign, that was sort of what RAMPS-FD was all about, except going to a Due.

There are a lot of new electronics ideas out there at the moment, so I suspect the whole landscape will change in the coming months.

FWIW: On the boards I made, I used 16A ones. Never had an issue.

I would expect you to be the exception. Your involvement with new designs and testing, I could see why you are changing offten. but for the average user, I doubt they touch it after it is installed, until it melts.

I'm looking forward to what is coming next. including the RAMPS-FD.

Actually, I remove them fairly often too. But yes, many people may have no reason to do so. I'ts not such a bad idea as it keeps the contacts 'clean'.]]> waitaki RAMPS Electronics Sun, 06 Apr 2014 20:56:31 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,336033#msg-336033 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,336033#msg-336033
What I do a lot is move the machine and the PSU is a separate item. While I can unplug it from the PSUend , I don't like carrying the printer with a cable dangling from it, so I remove it from the board end as well.

PS: I was - on average - moving it twice to three times a month for about 1.5 yrs straight - taking it to my local hackerspace.]]> Cefiar RAMPS Electronics Sun, 06 Apr 2014 16:42:44 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335859#msg-335859 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335859#msg-335859
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Cefiar
cat.farmer: You might not disconnect them often, but I do.

As for a redesign, that was sort of what RAMPS-FD was all about, except going to a Due.

There are a lot of new electronics ideas out there at the moment, so I suspect the whole landscape will change in the coming months.

FWIW: On the boards I made, I used 16A ones. Never had an issue.

I would expect you to be the exception. Your involvement with new designs and testing, I could see why you are changing offten. but for the average user, I doubt they touch it after it is installed, until it melts.

I'm looking forward to what is coming next. including the RAMPS-FD.]]> cat.farmer RAMPS Electronics Sun, 06 Apr 2014 08:47:38 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335689#msg-335689 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335689#msg-335689
As for a redesign, that was sort of what RAMPS-FD was all about, except going to a Due.

There are a lot of new electronics ideas out there at the moment, so I suspect the whole landscape will change in the coming months.

FWIW: On the boards I made, I used 16A ones. Never had an issue.]]> Cefiar RAMPS Electronics Sat, 05 Apr 2014 20:26:15 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335599#msg-335599 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335599#msg-335599 jbernardis RAMPS Electronics Sat, 05 Apr 2014 14:46:08 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335493#msg-335493 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335493#msg-335493 I ended up replacing mine with one of the 4 pin power connectors from a ATX power supply, and soldered the leads to the board. the added bonus to that is adding a fan, most of them come with the inline 4 pin connector so it's plug and play( if you want it on all the time).

I would love to see a re-design of the ramps. different power connectors and get rid of those silly fuses, and replace them with a replacible fuse,again a cheaper solution.]]> cat.farmer RAMPS Electronics Sat, 05 Apr 2014 10:16:54 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335314#msg-335314 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335314#msg-335314 waitaki RAMPS Electronics Sat, 05 Apr 2014 02:20:48 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335301#msg-335301 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,335301#msg-335301

]]> jbernardis RAMPS Electronics Fri, 04 Apr 2014 23:33:18 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315699#msg-315699 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315699#msg-315699
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jbernardis
You mean the 11Amp socket? Yes - the power connection from my power supply for the 11 Amp rail - specifically the positive side - is discolored from overheating. Other that that, there seems to be no evidence of overheating anywhere else on the board..

Yes, 11A of course, my error. I had that problem once - caused by a slightly loose clamping screw. I managed to clean out the socket and re-wire the connection - been all good since.]]> waitaki RAMPS Electronics Tue, 25 Feb 2014 01:23:07 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315686#msg-315686 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315686#msg-315686
Specifically the connectors that go to the heated bed tend to be slightly sub-par and may not even be specced for the ~10A that flows through the heated bed. I've seen many connectors that look very similar and yet differ in current capacity by a much as 7A (eg: 15A vs 8A rating). The lower the current rating, the more likely they'll fail.]]> Cefiar RAMPS Electronics Tue, 25 Feb 2014 00:02:30 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315677#msg-315677 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315677#msg-315677
One further note - I needed to make a part for the local high school FRC robot, and it was going to be a 5 hour print. I was afraid to babysit such a long print, but I needed to get it done prior to this week's competition. I am in the process of making a second printer, but it is not quite ready to go, so I "borrowed" that printer's RAMPS and put it in my original printer, and it is working just fine. I still have about 2 hours to go in the print, but the temperature is holding steady.

As I mentioned above, my new board is on its way from Lulzbot, but when the dust settles, I'm going to go over the bad board more closely to see if I can figure anything out.]]> jbernardis RAMPS Electronics Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:47:51 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315626#msg-315626 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315626#msg-315626
Also, the output of the mosfet is actually 0 volts, in other words, when it's switched to power the bed, it grounds the return path of the heater bed.]]> waitaki RAMPS Electronics Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:14:00 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315490#msg-315490 Re: RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315490#msg-315490
I would redo the solder connections on the D8, D9 and D10 pins on both the RAMPS board and Arduino.]]> Cefiar RAMPS Electronics Mon, 24 Feb 2014 14:30:24 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315483#msg-315483 RAMPS died after solid year and a half of operation https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,315483,315483#msg-315483
Does anybody know of anything else I could try?]]> jbernardis RAMPS Electronics Mon, 24 Feb 2014 14:16:15 -0500