Problem with ramps 1.4 motor is rotating only with sprinter in one direction

Hello,

My knowledge of electronics is minimal, but I hope some people here can help me out.
We are trying to build our own 3D printer and we are stuck.
The set up is as followed an Arduino mega 2560 with a Ramps 1.4 and 4988 drivers and step motors.
With sprinter firmware the motors rotate only one way (counter clockwise) with Pronterface and if we install the Marlin firmware nothing rotates at all.
I don't understand why Marlin doesn't give us any movement at all.
But we are also puzzled why we can't let the motor rotate clockwise with sprinter in Pronterface?
See the picture how one of the step motors is connected to the Ramps 1.4 this way it let's the motor run only counter-clockwise.
We don't need to use the microswitch to achieve to get rotation in two ways do we?

I have added 2 photos

[nl.tinypic.com]

Can anybody explain if we connect the microswitch what the plus and the ground is or doesn't this mater the pins are marked 1,2 and 3?
(See picture of the microswitch)

I really hope that someone can help us out.

Thanks in advance,

Ray

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2015 02:44PM by ray23.

You do not want microswitch on yor motors. Direction is controlled by the direction pin. This should change from 4+volts to near zero depending on direection.
In Pronterface enter M119
This is "Get Endstop Status"
If your axis that you are using show as triggered Marlin will not let the motor run in the negative direction.
If you have mechanical endstops then changing pin on microswitch from NC to NO or viceversa will correct this problem.

Thank you so much for your reply.

I have entered M119 in pronterface (box in the low right corner) but then nothing happens in Marlin and with sprinter the motor is still running only in one direction.
I don't understand the part of the direction pin, should I change this in Marlin if so where?

"If your axis that you are using show as triggered Marlin will not let the motor run in the negative direction"
Where can I change this in Marlin?

I apologize that you have to explain everything in such detail but we are only experienced in mechanical design not in electronics

Thanks again for your time

Did you just downloaded marlin and flashed it without editing the configuration.h file?
Do you try to run the steppermotor from USB-power? Where are the 12V Connections ( you need two 12V connections ) to the RAMPS board ? ( pic 1 )
How did you find out, how to wire the stepper to the RAMPS? Does the stepper have 4 or 6 wires? Are there any labels?
-Olaf

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2015 05:04AM by o_lampe.

Hello Olaf,

Marlin was the first firmware that we tried and we looked at some examples online on how to adjust some setting but that didn't do anything for us.
Then I used sprinter instead of Marlin and then the motors where rotating but only counter clockwise.
Yes we flashed with marlin without any adjusting. When that didn't work we tried some adjustments but they failed.
With Marlin I can't find the line where I can change the motherboard number into 33 so I assume that this is now no longer used?
In Sprinter that difines that the arduino mega works with the ramps1.4
Is there something important that I have overlooked in Marlin that I should adjust?

This part worries me also or doesn't this matter.
I have tried to change #define MOTHERBOARD 33 but that didn't solve anything.

// The following define selects which electronics board you have.
// Please choose the name from boards.h that matches your setup
#ifndef MOTHERBOARD
#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_ULTIMAKE
#endif

Yes we run the stepmotor from USB and the 12v adapter we also have used an old pc powersupply.
Two 12v connections is new for me is this the reason the motor is only rotating in one direction?

The motors didn't have labels but came with some information red/blue coil 1 and green/black coil 2

Thanks for the input I really appreciate it.

Eureka problem is solved at least in Sprinter

To clear things up the above suggestions didn't help us out, but are still appreciated.
The only thing we had to do was replace false with true within the Sprinter firmware.

We have changed in the Sprinter firmware (line 48) false into true and now the motor is rotating in both ways.
Why it is not working in Marlin we have not figured out yet, but now at least we know there was nothing wrong with the hardware set up.
Pretty sure we will get it to work in Marlin also.


//// Endstop Settings
#define ENDSTOPPULLUPS // Comment this out (using // at the start of the line) to disable the endstop pullup resistors
// The pullups are needed if you directly connect a mechanical endswitch between the signal and ground pins.
//If your axes are only moving in one direction, make sure the endstops are connected properly.
//If your axes move in one direction ONLY when the endstops are triggered, set [XYZ]_ENDSTOP_INVERT to true here:
const bool X_ENDSTOP_INVERT = false; (this must be TRUE)
const bool Y_ENDSTOP_INVERT = false; (this must be TRUE)
const bool Z_ENDSTOP_INVERT = false; (this must be TRUE)

Thanks for the input and I hope this will help someone in the near future with the same problem.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2015 08:02AM by ray23.

Hello Olaf,

I'm having the same problem. But when I do the change it runs in both directions but the endstop then doesn't work when its hit. Do your home buttons work?

regards,
Paul

Hi Paul,
you might have mixed up min and max endstops on the RAMPS board?
-Olaf

We have a new problem now we are working with Marlin.
In pronterface when I select the X home button the motor rotates but -x and +x doesn't work.
At this moment we have only one motor connected.
Which setting in marlin has to be changed to fix this.

Thanks,

Ray

Line 107 till 110 caused the problem had to be changed to 0 because we didn't have the heater connected yet.

#define TEMP_SENSOR_0
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0
#define TEMP_SENSOR_0
#define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 0

After this everything works just fine.

You can also comment out a line
"//#define PREVENT_DANGEROUS_EXTRUDE"
This solved the problem for me