Adjusted my pololu boards and now MEGA2560 board resets when the z probe goes to move

Adjusted my pololu boards and now MEGA2560 board resets when the z probe starts to move, is my ramps board dying? I was battling my Y axis loosing place so I tuned my driver boards to the correct current but....could it have been a ramps problem? X, Y and Z axis move fine, when the z probe goes to move into the down position the ramps board resets.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2015 12:22AM by lunarkingdom.

What do you mean your "RAMPS board resets"? The RAMPS board doesn't have a processor, so I don't think it can reset.

And "when the z probe goes to move"? Surely the Z probe is physically attached to the hotend so they move together? Do you mean "when the Z axis moves"?

I'd guess that your problem is that your power supply isn't strong enough to provide the required current. And maybe your MEGA2560 board is resetting?

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frankvdh
What do you mean your "RAMPS board resets"? The RAMPS board doesn't have a processor, so I don't think it can reset.

And "when the z probe goes to move"? Surely the Z probe is physically attached to the hotend so they move together? Do you mean "when the Z axis moves"?

I'd guess that your problem is that your power supply isn't strong enough to provide the required current. And maybe your MEGA2560 board is resetting?

I have auto bed leveling, on the extruder carriage is a servo with a z probe arm, when I try and print on the printer, x, y and z home, for z to home it positions the z probe in the center of the heat bed then the z probe arm servos to the down position, as soon as it tries to servo down the lcd display resets and the machine stops printing. Here is a video of my bed leveling on my printer, what happens is at the 3 second mark on this video is when all axis stop and the screen resets as if I just turned it on, first the marlin version shows on the screen then it boots up fine like nothing is wrong.

[www.youtube.com]

And I think you are correct, my MEGA2560 board is resetting when the z probe starts to lower.

Pretty sure it is not the power supply, it has been working great for a few weeks since I got it brand new.It probes at 12.1V so it seems to be good. I must have shorted something when I was adjusting the pololu boards, I did miss a couple times and the electronics had to be on at the time to get a voltage reading. Do I need a new mega2650? I have 2 coming in the mail, I have 2 backup ramps boards as well on hand.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2015 11:01PM by lunarkingdom.

You probbly have to power your servo seperatly.. as it can use to much power and cause a brown out

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2015 12:47AM by Dust.

yeah but if it was working perfect before for the last week or two? I am pretty sure I shorted something in the vicinity of the Y pololu board, the mega2650 runs on 5v, so does the servo, whatever is going on is in the 5 volt supply.

What it puzzles me is that in your video, everything continues normally, it doesn't loose track of what was doing.

Did you have the mega plug into a computer, or it was running from sd card?

ggherbas, that video was from a week ago before I adjusted the pololu current and possibly shorted something. It was running from an sd card. It was working fine before I messed it up somehow.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2015 10:26AM by lunarkingdom.

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lunarkingdom
yeah but if it was working perfect before for the last week or two? I am pretty sure I shorted something in the vicinity of the Y pololu board, the mega2650 runs on 5v, so does the servo, whatever is going on is in the 5 volt supply.

If your only 5V supply is the one provided by the 5V regulator on the Arduino, that is definitely inadequate to power a servo regardless of what may have appeared to work in the past.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2015 10:33AM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Ok. Then most likely as dc42 said, your 5 volts regulator in the mega board is getting overheated.

Get a cheap LM7805 and supply the power to the servo via power supply instead of the mega board.

I just happened to get my 2 backup mega 2560 boards today so I swapped the 2560 and the ramps 1.4, got it flashed with my copy of marlin and started a print. It leveled the bed fine and started to print and then..........marlin rebooted from a brown out I assume. Pretty sure the ghost I have been chasing is the power supply going out! Anyone know how to test the power supply besides a volt meter measuring voltage?

Unless you have a multimeter that can read values higher than 10 amps, you need something like this:

[www.circuitspecialists.com]

Disconnect you heated bed and run the test, if it doesn't reset, then check your bed wiring, if everything is ok, then set your heated bed on a different power supply or get one that can handle everything + 10% more.

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ggherbaz
Unless you have a multimeter that can read values higher than 10 amps, you need something like this:

[www.circuitspecialists.com]

Disconnect you heated bed and run the test, if it doesn't reset, then check your bed wiring, if everything is ok, then set your heated bed on a different power supply or get one that can handle everything + 10% more.

I am already running 2 power supplies as I have a 12x12 inch heat bed and it is on a relay so the heat bed is not on the main power supply. I am using two 12v30a320w supplies, they came from china and I had to resolder a choke in one and a capacitor in the other as they had shook free in transport so I am not surprised one failed. I ordered another one and it should be here in a couple days I will look at the link you gave me and either borrow a meter like that or buy one.

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ggherbaz
Ok. Then most likely as dc42 said, your 5 volts regulator in the mega board is getting overheated.

Get a cheap LM7805 and supply the power to the servo via power supply instead of the mega board.

I will try this before I swap out the power supply, I have an adjustable dc to dc step down converter I can use as I have it on hand. So can I just reroute the pos and neg wires to the dc to dc step down converter and only connect the signal line where it currently is on the board? Should I remove the jumper that supplies the 5v to the servo if I am going to power it with the dc to dc converter?

That is correct, leave signal cable plug where it is. You don't need to remove the jumper.

Well I put the servo on it's own power from the power sup[ply through a step down convertor and....no more brown outs! Thanks for all the advice!

I had the same problem, I used a big servo for my auto bed level and the board would reset when it tried moving the servo. I use a smaller servo now with no problems.

Although, I did supply 6V from a dedicated BEC and that worked fine with the big servo. Just more stuff to wire.

Yeah, it worked for a week before the brown out's started, made me think it would run fine on a ramps platform. I even bought a new power supply lol well at least I have a spare now. I swapped out the mega and ramps boards for brand new ones and had the same brownout problem, once I got the 5v from a step down converter off the power supply it went away.

I was and still am using a SG90 9 gram Tower Pro micro servo