NEWBIE ALERT, HELP PLEASE!

Guys Hi,

I'm not exactly a "newbie" to be honest, quick story... I bought a RepRap Prusa i3 12 inch, from Colin at Makerfarm, about 12 months ago. Cant fault the delivery, instructions for the build, videos etc. etc, and the speed of Colin's after advice/emails was second to none. However... My kit came with a RUMBA board. I successfully installed this, had the whole kit working/printing for a short while (the calibration was an issue though as I couldn't get my laptop to connect, so it all had to be done through the SD card, then slotted in to the printer. Then, for some reason (unknown) the RUMBA board decided to "fry" itself. I was confused as then, after smelling a burning smell and some wispy smoke, nothing worked. DEAD.

I emailed Colin at Makerfarm. After many emails explaining the situation, he asked me to send the RUMBA board to the U.S. I did so, and he told me that it "was dead". I said that I only had the whole kit for a couple of weeks, he said there was nothing he could do, as he had looked at the circuit board and it had blown, sand I had to buy another new one. I did this, paid approx. 70 quid for it, waited for delivery from the U.S, and received it several weeks later. Sorry if this getting boring, its boring me writing it....

So.. I get the new RUMBA board. Installed it no probs, have a week trying to get my P.C to connect and run Pronterface, so I can control/calibrate the hotend properly...Guess what? Seemingly the board has F***ing blown again!

That was last year. The whole thing completely pissed me off to be honest, the printer has been sitting on my desk as a expensive desk "paperweight" ever since. I would like to use the thing to be honest for some simple projects I have in mind. I have however reached the point where I need some PROPER advice from some of you experts out there as to what the hell to do next? Do I buy another board?, Is there another way around this? Does this sound like a common issue/story??

Guys, I just want to really get use the thing, I am pretty technically minded, I have just not had much luck/need some guidance, I don't mind buying more stuff as long as it is going to last for at least a bit!

Please anyone! HELP! There is a drink in it for you I promise!

Kind Regards

Dave

Well its either bad boards, or something isn't wired right.

If its bad boards it seems rather too coincidental to have two go in a row.

So that leaves something not wired right. Was there any visible damage to the Rumba board (did you take a photo of it), if we can work out what melted, then we can figure out what might be miswired.

---

Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Are the connectors good enough for the huge 12" bed? Did you fry the boards while heating the bed?
Do you run it at 12V or 24?
Another common fail is a bad ground loop between printer and PC/USB. PC and printer should be fed through the same wall socket.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2017 02:42AM by o_lampe.

did you test fuses?
maybe blow up fuses?

More than likely (happens with kits) you ended up with a wire pinched or loose somewhere that ends up shorting out and kills the board. As I was reading your story to the point where they sent you a second board I immediately said he's gonna fry it. You need to check your wires everywhere, make sure there is no wire that has been pinched, rubbed raw or any exposed copper. It's very easy to do especially if you are new to electronics.

Next all connections must be tight with no excess copper hanging out.

Now, only after you find the cause of the short should you attempt another board.

Another possibility is if you have a wire attached wrong and when it becomes live boom board fries.

Think of this as a learning event (though a costly one) that will make you better at kits in the future.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2017 10:29PM by tmorris9.

When I first built my printer I fried 4 or 5 boards. It was driving me insane! I checked, double checked triple checked all the wiring I had done. Everything seemed fine. The machine would power up just on the mains. It would connect to the PC without the mains connected. However if I did both at the same time with the laptop charging on the mains the board would produce some magic blue smoke and die. It turned out that the printer PSU had a issue where the earth was somehow connected to the negative or positive terminals (I cant remember which now) plugging the USB in shorted out the board near the USB port and the USB cable would get hot. The PC would crash too. I stripped the PSU and found a soldered joint was rubbing on the outer case. Well that's what you get when you by cheap PSU's I guess

I think you'll find your issue in either wiring or the psu as suggested by the last two posts above mine.