no signs of life from ultimachine RAMPS board

Hi All,

I am building my first Prusa and cant get it to do anything.
I am not very experienced with electronics but I have previously built a CNC router using off-the-shelf electronics.
I am using a fully assembled RAMPS 1.4 board and motors from Ultimachine, a hotend from MakerGear, and an ATX power supply.
My problem is that I can get the machine to do ANYTHING.
Motors dont move, hotend doesn't get hot, nuthin.

Anyway, I have verified with a multimeter that the power connector from my ATX power supply that plugs into the RAMPS board has voltage.
I have verified that the Arduino works by uploading and running the Arduino sample blink sketch.
I have gone over the RAMPS wiring schematic about 50 times, I'm pretty sure that everything is wired correctly.
When I try running this RAMPS test code nothing happens (except that some red LEDS on the RAMPS board flash):
[forums.reprap.org]

I'm stumped.
Does anybody have a clue what the problem might be?
Or have any idea what I could test next?

Thanks,


-ted

Can you upload a photo of your setup? Probably won't be able to spot any problems visually, but it can't hurt...

All I have is a fixed focused webcam so these photos are kinda crappy...

This one shows my ATX power supply and the line running from the power supply up to the RAMPS card.
Note that I have shorted the green power on pin.


This on shows the power cord plugged into the RAMPS card


This one will make your eyes water :-) but it shows the motor connections and end stop connections on the other side of the board.


This is a farther away shot of how my machine looks.

Maybe it's a firmware issue?

Are you using the sprinter firmware?: https://github.com/kliment/Sprinter

I don't think its a firmware issue because I have a RAMPS 1.4 board and the RAMPS 1.4 test code doesn't work.
Here's the test code I used: [reprap.org]
I have verified that my Arduino works.

When I run this test code red LEDs on the RAMPS board flash but thats all that happens

---------------

PS: I originally started out with ReplicatorG and Teacup.
If/When I get the test code to work then I'll go back to that unless somebody tells me that ReplicatorG and Teacup definitely don't work.

One thing I can think of is make sure the sensing voltage wires for the power supply are cross linked.
If you have more than one wire in a plug on the power supply connection then it is a sensing wire (most likely).
To protect your stepper drivers I would only hook up one at a time. Remove the others from the board...you may have fried them.
Are you sure the stepper wires are hooked up correctly? Are the motors getting warm? Hot? You might need to adjust the regulator on the stepper driver. Have you reversed the stepper wire hookup to see if the motor responds?
Are you sure the power terminal on the RAMPS board has around 12v and not 5v on the one side?

I have noticed that my RAMPS board does not have a reset button on it.
That shouldn't be a problem should it?

mc_n_g Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One thing I can think of is make sure the sensing
> voltage wires for the power supply are cross
> linked.
> If you have more than one wire in a plug on the
> power supply connection then it is a sensing wire
> (most likely).
> To protect your stepper drivers I would only hook
> up one at a time. Remove the others from the
> board...you may have fried them.

Well, I dont know what this means but I dont have more than one wire pluggged in anywhere.

> Are the motors getting warm? Hot?
The motors have remained totally cold, not even slightly warm.
The motors do not vibrate, or buzz.
At no time has any part got even slightly warm.
At no time has there been any pops, fizzes, or smoke.
However, it seems unlikely to me that I blew out all four stepper drivers.
Especially since I am confident that I never hooked up the power incorrectly.


> Have you reversed the stepper wire hookup
> to see if the motor responds?

Tried that, no difference.

> Are you sure the power terminal on the RAMPS board
> has around 12v and not 5v on the one side?

Positive. I measured with a multimeter by applying the multimeter probes to the associated solder blobs on the board, so I know the board is getting the correct voltage.


> You
> might need to adjust the regulator on the stepper
> driver.
I cranked them all the way up (clockwise).

Why do you have both 5v and 12v hooked up to your RAMPS? Both positive connections should be 12v.

---

Help improve the RepRap wiki! Just click "Edit" in the top-right corner of the page and start typing. Anyone can edit the wiki!

NewPerfection Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why do you have both 5v and 12v hooked up to your
> RAMPS?

Why? Because I'm an idiot :-).
That was totally my problem.
I can't tell you how many times I looked at that and didn't realize it was wrong.
Thanks so much.

@mc_n_g: You were the first one to spot it.
When you asked me if I was sure that I had 12V on one side I was thinking that you meant "was I sure I had 12V on one side and 5V on the other".
Duh.


Guys, thanks so much for taking the time to look at the crappy photos...

How can you tell from the photos that both 12V and 5V were hooked up

I did not know from the photos.
Taking a guess he had full communication with the board but no power. The problem was either power into the board or bad power components on the board. I all I thought he fried the stepper drivers.

csw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How can you tell from the photos that both 12V and
> 5V were hooked up

Image16.jpg

The red wire is 5v, unless he rewired it at the PSU end of the cable.

Very good catch rarldrich!!
I aldo just noticed the power connection for D10 (power for heated end) has two red wires connected to it.
Hopefully they are just jumper wires of the same color and around 12v if he is using a PC power supply.

hi guys, I've read your topic and having some trouble with the ramps1.4 as well. Only led 1 (green) is flashing when I test the board, same code as Emorning uses. I connected only the X axis stepper+board, jumpers and endstop. I expected the other leds to flash as well.
I am afraid that the leds or possibly other components on the ramps were overheated during soldering. any suggestions for testing with a volt-/resistance meter?

cheers, tim

i could tell in your picture that you had a red wire going to where there should have been a yellow wire

---

[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

do you guys know if the red LEDs would respond to the test code with no PSU connected?