Testing without thermistors and "another question"

Hi, people,
I would like to test all my motors and movement before installing everything on the printer.
So I put together the RAMPS 1.4, stepper drivers and 3 stepper motors, installed and roughly configured the Marlin so I could play a bit...
Can I somehow make Pronterface think that thermistor readings are ok so I could move motors in any direction, not only to "home" ie one direction until endstop? Or should I reconfigure the firmware? What would be the quickest way?

Another question: I had a problem turning my z-axis motors. They would only make noise and not move. I tried swapping the drivers, the motors, and found that all components are healthy and fine, just the z-axis on my ramps board seems "dead". So I tried setting it to 1/16 microstepping and the motors started turning. Anyone knows where the catch could be? I didn't change current settings on stepper drivers or anything. z-axis doesn't even work with only one motor attached, if not in microstepping mode.

There is test code for RAMPS, it replaces the current firmware, so make sure you have the current settings to reinstall marlin afterwards

See: [www.reprap.org] All it does is move the steppers and turn on/off the hotend, fan, heatbed outputs.

figgured it out, should anyone have similar questions, I give answers:

Quote
peroz
Hi, people,
I would like to test all my motors and movement before installing everything on the printer.
So I put together the RAMPS 1.4, stepper drivers and 3 stepper motors, installed and roughly configured the Marlin so I could play a bit...
Can I somehow make Pronterface think that thermistor readings are ok so I could move motors in any direction, not only to "home" ie one direction until endstop? Or should I reconfigure the firmware? What would be the quickest way?

#define HEATER_0_MINTEMP 0 //#define HEATER_0_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_1_MINTEMP 0 //#define HEATER_1_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_2_MINTEMP 0 //#define HEATER_2_MINTEMP 5
#define BED_MINTEMP 0 //#define BED_MINTEMP 5

Quote

Another question: I had a problem turning my z-axis motors. They would only make noise and not move. I tried swapping the drivers, the motors, and found that all components are healthy and fine, just the z-axis on my ramps board seems "dead". So I tried setting it to 1/16 microstepping and the motors started turning. Anyone knows where the catch could be? I didn't change current settings on stepper drivers or anything. z-axis doesn't even work with only one motor attached, if not in microstepping mode.

None of the assembly instructions say explicitly that you should use microstepping, and as a first time machine builder, how should I know? Then I came across this:

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT   {100, 100, 4000,600}

and figured that's waaay to many steps, and as such - waaay to fast. So I installed jumpers under drivers on my ramps to 1/16th microstepping, and the motors all turn smoothly and the movements are correct. Now I'm able to play with my machine and test it without heatbed and extruder.

Quote
peroz
figgured it out, should anyone have similar questions, I give answers:

Quote
peroz
Hi, people,
I would like to test all my motors and movement before installing everything on the printer.
So I put together the RAMPS 1.4, stepper drivers and 3 stepper motors, installed and roughly configured the Marlin so I could play a bit...
Can I somehow make Pronterface think that thermistor readings are ok so I could move motors in any direction, not only to "home" ie one direction until endstop? Or should I reconfigure the firmware? What would be the quickest way?

#define HEATER_0_MINTEMP 0 //#define HEATER_0_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_1_MINTEMP 0 //#define HEATER_1_MINTEMP 5
#define HEATER_2_MINTEMP 0 //#define HEATER_2_MINTEMP 5
#define BED_MINTEMP 0 //#define BED_MINTEMP 5

Quote

Another question: I had a problem turning my z-axis motors. They would only make noise and not move. I tried swapping the drivers, the motors, and found that all components are healthy and fine, just the z-axis on my ramps board seems "dead". So I tried setting it to 1/16 microstepping and the motors started turning. Anyone knows where the catch could be? I didn't change current settings on stepper drivers or anything. z-axis doesn't even work with only one motor attached, if not in microstepping mode.

None of the assembly instructions say explicitly that you should use microstepping, and as a first time machine builder, how should I know? Then I came across this:

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT   {100, 100, 4000,600}

and figured that's waaay to many steps, and as such - waaay to fast. So I installed jumpers under drivers on my ramps to 1/16th microstepping, and the motors all turn smoothly and the movements are correct. Now I'm able to play with my machine and test it without heatbed and extruder.

I can recommend using pronterface/ printrun for testing. It has nice arrows and such to control the printer.
You need to allow cold extrude to play with the extruded motor without heating the hotend.

I have some instructables I think you might find usefull.

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My Instructables - both total newbie instructables and some for intermediate users.
My Designs on Thingiverse
YouTube channel containing a few 3D printing videos - they are videos for my Instructables, and mostly not standalone.
Ultius / Tantillus Thingiverse Group