New Sainsmart Ramps 1.4 controller issue

So I have a sainsmart controller I just received and trying to get setup on a Kossel mini but so far I can only get output D8 working which I have setup to run my heated bed and planned to use D9 or D10 for my extruder as per most schematics but so far D9 and D10 are dead.

Under pins.h, motherboard type == 33 and if RAMPS_V_1_3 I have this pin configuration:

#define HEATER_0_PIN 10
#define HEATER_1_PIN 8
#define HEATER_2_PIN 9

So far no matter what I do only D8 output is working and I have verified this with a volt meter. D9 shows 0 volts but D10 will jump around at 1.5-1.8v even with the pin turned off.

Forgot to mention that I tried Repetier host and Simplify 3D. The stepper motor commands work, heated bed works on the right buttons on the interface but even when I tried going through all the active toolhead's in Simplify3D I tried Tool 0 through 3 and the only action I got was from Tool 1 which activated the heated bed so I'm pretty positive I'm sending the right command to activate the pin for the heater.

This picture is the board when no heater pin is activated:



This picture is when the heated bed is activated:





Finally when the extruder is activated:



Worst case I'll hook the heated bed strait up to my power supply for now and run the extruder off of the D8 ouput until I can get a better quality board. I half expected this kind of problem based on Sainsmart's feedback on these but it was the best option available for free 2 day shipping from Amazon at the time.

I appreciate any feedback.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2014 11:57PM by ChrisT88.

Stupid question - are your hotend thermistors hooked up?????

Yeah I've tried checking the hot end temps by hand as well (carefully of course) and also checking the outputs with a volt meter to be sure. The D8 heated bed output shows voltage correctly but D9 and D10 do not.

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ChrisT88
Yeah I've tried checking the hot end temps by hand as well (carefully of course) and also checking the outputs with a volt meter to be sure. The D8 heated bed output shows voltage correctly but D9 and D10 do not.

That's as maybe but you pic's don't show a thermistor for your hotend being connected to the board without that they won't heat up at all.

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dougal1957

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ChrisT88
Yeah I've tried checking the hot end temps by hand as well (carefully of course) and also checking the outputs with a volt meter to be sure. The D8 heated bed output shows voltage correctly but D9 and D10 do not.

That's as maybe but you pic's don't show a thermistor for your hotend being connected to the board without that they won't heat up at all.

I assure you it is. You can see the two all black wires and inside Repetier and Simplify3D I have temps for both the hotend and heat bed showing around 25-26C.

Good thinking though, I will try swapping the thermistor from my heat bed and maybe I'll get some action but since they are both showing up I kind of doubt thats the issue.

Found that if I activate the fan D9 output turns on and the extruder heats up and the thermistor shows the temp increasing and I can physically feel the hotend temp rising. Sainsmart schematic shows D8 hooked up to the heated bed and D9 for extruder so I'll need to switch the pins around but I assume any of these outputs can be used?

In the pins header file I found this:

#define ORIG_FAN_PIN 9

I assume I need to make this -1? I plan to start with 120mm PC fans hooked directly up to the 12v power input.

Edit: Got the heated bed and extruder working. This updated pin assignment works well:

#define ORIG_FAN_PIN 10

#define HEATER_0_PIN 9
#define HEATER_1_PIN 8

It seems HEATER_1_PIN is the heated bed (M140) and HEATER_0_PIN is the extruder (M104 T0). I tried to reassign the fan to output on D10 but still it shows a constant voltage of 2-2.3V with and without the fan turned on to S255.

I would really like to get the D10 output working if I'm going to keep this ramps board but a bigger concern right now is the heated bed mosfet gets extremely hot which I have read is common on this brand of ramps using the STP55NF06L. For now I'll add a good fan and eventually replace the mosfets with 3 IRLB8743PBF.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 05:25PM by ChrisT88.