Is my RAMPS broken?

Hi,

I am having trouble with my Prusa - specifically, I cannot get it to do... anything

I am using RAMPS 1.4, Pronterface and Teacup. I have uploaded Teacup, and I can connect using Pronterface. However, I cannot get my motors to move, the endstops do not respond and the extruder thermistor reads 12.5 C, regardless of whether it is plugged in or not (the other thermistor always reads zero).
In fact, the only thing that does anything is LED4, which is always on.

I am happy that I have 12v going into both connectors on RAMPs. I have almost all my wiring connected up (only the extruder heater and heatbed left - but I wanted to get the thermistors working before I plug them in). My endstops are wired NC (I had trouble with this previously, shorting the 5v to the gnd when I pressed it, which "ejects" the USB connection).

I am worried my board is not working at all. Is there anything I can do to diagnose the problem? Any voltages I can read? (I do not know much about electronics )

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Cinnamonwhirl

hi,
Could you please post a pic of your ramps,, are the FETS in their correct installation,

Hi,

Here is a photo: [imgur.com]

can you also post your configuration.h file

My config.h is the Teacup RAMPS 1.4:

[pastebin.com]

The only change I have made is to uncomment the "define internal pullups" when I was having trouble with my endstops.

edit:---- I get it its neet, a copy bin on the web.

your showing me the default configuration.h file, not yours. have you tried replacing your configuration.h file with this one?

can you depress your x axis switch and see if x axis moves. that is the only thing i can think of is that the switch setup could be reverese. otherwise, I'm not sure if your board is bad or what. since you are able to connect up and communicate, it makes me think the limit switchs are being seen as contacted.

I am not as familier with some on teacup.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2013 10:01PM by jamesdanielv.

By "x axis switch" do you mean the software (Pronterface) buttons that say "+X" "+Y" and "1", "10", "100"? Or do you mean a phyisical switch somewhere?

I have tried the software buttons, but I do not get any movement, I'm afraid. Where would I look to reverse the setup? Software or hardware?

Two possible follow up questions:

1) When Pronterface says "connected", I assume it means to the Arduino - but does it actually know about the RAMPS board being installed? If I disconnected RAMPS would it still connect? If so, "connected" doesn't tell me anything about the state of the RAMPS board.

2) I think I read somewhere that if power is flowing to the stepper motors, they are energised and will not move if I try to turn them by hand. Is this correct? If so, I will try to move them by hand when I get home.

Thanks for the help so far!

you would look most likely in configuration.h

in this section of code for the x,y,x _INVERT_DIR comment it out to change direction i think...


#define Y_STEP_PIN AIO6
#define Y_DIR_PIN AIO7
#define Y_MIN_PIN DIO14
//#define Y_MAX_PIN DIO15
//#define Y_ENABLE_PIN AIO2
#define Y_INVERT_DIR
//#define Y_INVERT_MIN
//#define Y_INVERT_MAX
//#define Y_INVERT_ENABLE

#define Z_STEP_PIN DIO46
#define Z_DIR_PIN DIO48
#define Z_INVERT_DIR
#define Z_MIN_PIN DIO18


also i think you have commented out the enable pins.. look at x,y,z enable, and remove the comments '//' to enable them

such as :
//#define X_ENABLE_PIN DIO38

make it this:
#define X_ENABLE_PIN DIO38

do the same for x/y/z/e

Thanks! I shall have a look at these when I get home and let you know what happens.

cinnamonwhirl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> 2) I think I read somewhere that if power is
> flowing to the stepper motors, they are energised
> and will not move if I try to turn them by hand.
> Is this correct? If so, I will try to move them by
> hand when I get home.
>
> Thanks for the help so far!

If your power supply is giving the RAMPS the 12V power it needs, no, you should not be able to move any of the steppers by hand.

Load the RAMPS 1.4 test program into the Audrino.

http://reprap.org/wiki/File:RAMPS14_test.zip

It will cause your X,Y,Z etc to move back and forth slightly.

This will confirm if your Power Supply, RAMPS board, Arduino and Stepper Drivers are working or not.

If they are all working fine, then you know the problem is either Teacup Firmware and/or Pronterface.

I ran the test program and my y motor moved the heated bed! Lots of lights flashed!

I am grinning like a buffoon

The other two motors didn't move, so perhaps there is still a problem there.

Also, with Teacup installed, none of the motors are energised - they can be moved by hand - I will check out the suggestions above about pins, and see if that solves the problem.

Thanks for the help so far, everyone. I am sure I will have more questions soon, but this is still good news!

Quick Question,

Why are you using Teacup? It appears Teacup is meant for slower small microprocessors.

If you are using RAMPS 1.4, I'm assuming you have a mega 2560??

You may want to use Sprinter or Marlin as your firmware.

ShadowRam , take a look at his config he posted. see if you see anything that needs to be changed.

sprinter may work out of the box for this person.

When I initially tried compiling my firmware (Sprinter, I think) I kept getting errors that I couldn't resolve, due to it using other Arduino IDEs. I gave Teacup a try because it doesn't depend on those IDEs, and it uploaded and connected straight away.

I don't know if Teacup performs slower as a result - I think it was written for chips with less memory, but I don't know how that affects performace or it it limits any other options.

Having seen a bit of progress now, I might go back and look at a few other firmwares - like Marlin as you suggest and see what happens.

I'm having a similar issue. Did you ever get this resolved?

I'm trying to run Teacup on RAMPS 1.4/Arduino Mega 2560. I'm using the default RAMPS 1.3 config file. Thermistors and heaters work, but no motors will go. I checked the enable pins with my multimeter, and they always read HIGH. I also tried the test firmware and Marlin, and the motors run fine using both. It seems like its a Teacup specific issue.

Hi,

I am afraid I never did get Teacup to work - I switched to Marlin and never looked back.

Sorry I cannot be of more help!

Just taking a quick look at [github.com]
All the enable pins for the steppers on X, Y, Z and E are commented out by default. You need to enable them, Pololu modules in a ramps uses the enable line.

Yep, that was it. I also had to uncomment the INVERT_ENABLE lines, too. I guess I should read the config file more carefully, but isn't it weird that these aren't set by default?