Hello everyone, I'm very new here and this is actually my first post! I'm also very new to 3D printing and I've been having some trouble getting my printer's motors to work.
First things first, I should describe the setup. I made the 3D printer out of old CD disk drives and I'm using an Arduino Mega and Ramps 1.4 to control it. I'm using the red Polulu stepper motor drivers and an old ATX power supply. I've also attached a heated bed and extruder and I got a Nema 17 stepper motor for extruding.
The main problem I've been trying to fix without any success is that everything seems to work except for the motors. The heat bed and extruder heat up and cool off just fine, the Pronterface software seems to work fine, and I ran this test code: [reprap.org] and the leds on the ramps 1.4 blinked fine. The motors, however don't move (that test program should have also moved them but they don't move). I checked and they seem to be fine - I used the trick were you wire the motor to the led and if you move it and the led lights up that coil is good. So the motors work, and the ramps 1.4 works but something isn't working in terms of powering them. I think my power supply is a little under the voltage and current that's needed, but even so, it should still have made them budge. And it's not just an issue with the motors being from old disk drives and thus being unreliable - I tried it all with the Nema 17 and get the same results. Maybe the way I'm wiring them into the ramps is wrong? I just don't know. I read somewhere that I should try turning the potentiometers on the drivers, but I didn't want to risk it without a plastic or ceramic screwdriver unless I was 100% sure that was the issue - besides, would the motors still do something? I mean they're totally dead - no movement.
Another issue is with the LCD Graphic Smart Display Controller. When I power everything up, it lights up and it also shows the full grid of pixels on the lcd, but nothing else. There's just no display. Pushing the select button makes the buzzer go off so i guess that's good, but again, nothing works. I already tried moving the potentiometer on this one and that just changes the contrast between the backlight and the pixels showing up. At it's optimal contrast it's only showing the full grid of pixels.
Any and all tips/questions/help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
