only z motor works, nothing else

Hello out there,

Today I tried to get my home made Prusa Mendel to work. Components: Mac OS 10.6.8, Arduino mega 2560 R3, Ramps 1.4, steppermotors Nema 17, mechanical endstops makerbot v1.2, 12V powersupply, Teacup-firmware (succesfully uploaded on Arduino), Replicatorg 0040 (changed this into Pronterface and Slic3r today).

In Replicatorg I used the controlpanel, jog the motors with the controls. Only z-axis worked, but reverse, so up is down and down is up, x- and y-axis do nothing nor do the endstops or the extruder motor. I see no differences in the connections, checked it several times. I didn't change the config.h except for the endstops, set it to use_internal_pullups and changed define_endstop_steps from 4 to 8. Pushing the endstops manually gives no effect, besides a red led going on. The result of all my trying stays the same: z motor works in the wrong direction, all the rest is not reacting in any way. What am I doing wrong? After changing to Pronterface I had the same result.

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Maryon

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2013 06:35PM by lesiur.

Hello all,

I've tested the stepper motors by changing the cables to the z and they all work fine, all 4 of them. So the problem seems to be in the Ramps, it only executes the z-motor connection. I may have to change some settings in the config.h but I don't know how. I've been reading that ReplicatorG works from the center and uses -100 to 100 instead of 0 to 200. Where do I change that in the file.

After reading a lot more I decided to change RepG into Pronterface and use Slic3r. Got the same result: only the z-axis works. And the temp of the heater is accurate. All the rest is not working. I tried homing the z and it kept running down, endstop didn't do anything for it.

So is there anyone who can help me a step further? Thanks!
~~
Maryon

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2013 06:33PM by lesiur.

You using Sprinter?

No, Teacup. Is Sprinter a better choice in my configuration?

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Maryon

I don't know which is the best. I have only experience with Sprinter. You still having problems?

Yes, can't get the other motors to work from the ramps. Maybe I have broken drivers, but I don't know how to check this.

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Maryon

Well, unless someone with Teacup experience comes to the party, I would try Sprinter next. You can probably fix the z direction by turning the Z plug around on the ramps board. I don't think you need internal pullups enabled 'cos Arduino takes care of that.

Thanks Waitaki for trying to help me!

I managed to fix the z-direction in the config.h, commented #define Z_INVERT_DIR. When I now use pronterface the Z goes up with the + and down with the -. But when I use the home-button the Z goes up instead of down. So it helped only partly.

I changed the stepper drivers, in order to find out if the others then the z were broken. But with another stepperdriver on the z it is still the only one that works. By now I think it is something in the software, but I haven't a clou as to what is the problem.

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Maryon