RAMPS with SD card support?

I understand that you need to use level shifters to adapt the 5V logic from the Arduino to the 3.3 logic for the SD card instead of a simple voltage divider but I don't know the exact reason why. Check Kliment's SDRAMPS design and also the design of the board from Gravitech.

I understand that you need to use level shifters to adapt the 5V logic from the Arduino to the 3.3 logic for the SD card instead of a simple voltage divider but I don't know the exact reason why. Check Kliment's SDRAMPS design and also the design of the board from Gravitech that I used in this post.

I guess using a level shifter is more accurate and allows faster communication, but the thing is that the motherboard on my Makerbot uses similar circuity for the card and it works flawlessly. Also, it's used in many other non-RepRap Arduino based applications. Could it be that SD card support is disabled by default in the Sprinter firmware? I don't think that's the case though, because in that case it wouldn't have told me that it failed to initialize the card, or would it?

Apparently, the voltage divider method is not compatible with some cards and it can even break them according to the info in Sparkfun.

Strange thing is that I tried with the exact same cards that work in my Makerbot without problems including some others (Still reads and writes flawlessly). But oh well, I guess I'll have to redo this with a level shifter and... Thanks for the info.

Have you also tried Kliment's Sprinter firmware with Pronterface (part of Kliment Printrun) to make sure it's not a firmware/repsnapper issue? This is what I use with RAMPS 1.2 and it works fine.

Just tried with Pronterface and got the exact same "SD init fail" message. I'll try making a new SD board.

I somehow got it working now without making a new board. It seems that it's an electrical problem with the SD card holder itself. I guess the contacts inside the SD holder didn't make a solid connection with the card itself. It takes a long time to send the file to the card over the serial connection though. In ReplicatorG, there is a function called "build to file", where you can save the file to the card with a card reader at high speed and then put the card in the printer. Wouldn't it be possible to add this feature to Pronterface?

Why not just copy the file to the SD card after Skeinforge finishes with it?

Not sure it would work, since I think it's a different file format. It is in ReplicatorG anyways, but I'll check it. ReplicatorG turns it into a format called .s3g

Sprinter speaks gcode directly. So you can copy the gcode file from skeinforge directly onto the card. However, you have to rename it to 8.3 format. So instead of blah_export.gcode name it blah.g or something. No more than 8 characters before the point, no more than 3 after.

Kliment

Ok thanks for confirming that Kliment. Can't wait to get my extruder, so I can fire up the beast!

For anyone interested in SD RAMPS, I sell them in a DIY kit for 9.98

[reprapworld.com]
or
[cgi.ebay.nl]

Complete assembled coming soon.

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reprapworld.com
PLA, ABS, PETG multiple colors (3 and 1.75 mm) €16,49 / kg
Megatronics 3.0 €79.99 / Minitronics €37,19

brnrd Wrote:
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> I just tried pronterface.py in Kliment Printrun
> and seems to work well in MacOS 10.5.8 and WinXP.
> I would like to install the SD Card shield in
> RAMPS 1.2. Are the instructions ready for release
> yet or is there a kit or ready to use option?


Sorry for resurrecting a seemingly dead thread. Brnrd, I gather you got this working? What's your secret? The wiki indicates it is only supported on v1.3 and the pictures look very different.

RAMPS 1.3 and 1.4 make no difference for SD RAMPS. What is your problem?

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reprapworld.com
PLA, ABS, PETG multiple colors (3 and 1.75 mm) €16,49 / kg
Megatronics 3.0 €79.99 / Minitronics €37,19

The picture in the wiki (http://reprap.org/wiki/File:Connectsdramp1.jpg) shows the SD card plugged in to the lower right corner. My 1.2 has connectors for thermistors in that spot. Is there another place I need to hook up the SD card to?

RAMPS 1.2 is a different story. If you have stackable headers on the right like [reprap.org] you can plug it in there. If you don't have that, you are going to have a soldering job, I guess.

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reprapworld.com
PLA, ABS, PETG multiple colors (3 and 1.75 mm) €16,49 / kg
Megatronics 3.0 €79.99 / Minitronics €37,19

Yes. You on 1.2, I unsoldered the Aux connector and replaced it with a stackable header so that I can plug the SDRAMPS. If you don't want to do that, you can probably solder the SDRAMPS on top of RAMPS board but then it would be more trouble to remove it for debugging purposes. Perhaps you can just solder some break-apart necessary pins. They are all on the end of the header near the thermistor terminals.

Can you post a picture of what you've done?

OK, sorry I'm a little slow with stuff. I believe I have pieced this together with various comments from the forums along with wiki pages.

I found this picture about testing the SDRamps:


That was my big clue. So I'm guessing that Ramps 1.3 routes those connections just over to the other side of that corner, as in this picture:


and Ramps 1.2 doesn't do anything with them? In that case, with my board:


I will need to completely desolder the two long rows there and replace them with stackable headers so that when I plug-in SDRamps, the connection will just pass directly through to the correct pins on the Arduino?

Please let me know if this is correct. Also where can I get headers that long? Everywhere I look just sells 6 or 8-pin headers.

That is a possibility. But unless you have a hot air station it will get messy probably.

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reprapworld.com
PLA, ABS, PETG multiple colors (3 and 1.75 mm) €16,49 / kg
Megatronics 3.0 €79.99 / Minitronics €37,19

I removed the one on mine using a soldering iron, solder sucker and a wick. You have to be careful not to overheat the PCB and damage the pads. The stackable headers was part of the shield kit that I bought from ultimachine.com. Perhaps they sell the header by itself. If the connectors on your is the breakaway type, perhaps you can just unsolder the last pairs of connectors that you need and replace just those ones with stackable headers or posts.

Sweet, I think I can do that without destroying my board. Actually I just realized the SDRamps I ordered from ultimachine also came with headers and pins. The connectors currently on my arduino are breakaway, so I will just break off what I need and replace with passthrough connectors and stack the headers on there.

I was struggling a bit to understand how to fit my SD RAMPS onto my RAMPS 1.4 - and then I realised the layout of the 1.4 board is subtly different to the 1.3. The photos on the Wiki [reprap.org] show the SD RAMPS lining up neatly with the corner of the RAMPS board. On RAMPS 1.4, the corresponding pin pads have been moved a bit closer to the corner of the board, so it looks a little bit different, because the SD RAMPS daughter-board hangs over the corner of the RAMPS 1.4 board a little bit. I took the liberty of editing the Wiki to add a photo for other 1.4 users who might be confused as to how to install their SD RAMPS.

While I was at it, I also added a note that you MUST install Diode D1 on the RAMPS board if you want to be able to print without being connected to your PC. I know (now!) that this is covered elsewhere in the documentation, but it took me a while to work out why I could load gcode files onto the SD Card (I am using Pronterface - works perfectly!), start printing from the SD Card - and then my printer would stop as soon as I pulled the USB cable out of my Arduino Mega. Doh!

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Follow my Mendel Prusa build here: [julianh72.blogspot.com]

Quote
julianh72
I was struggling a bit to understand how to fit my SD RAMPS onto my RAMPS 1.4 - and then I realised the layout of the 1.4 board is subtly different to the 1.3. The photos on the Wiki [reprap.org] show the SD RAMPS lining up neatly with the corner of the RAMPS board. On RAMPS 1.4, the corresponding pin pads have been moved a bit closer to the corner of the board, so it looks a little bit different, because the SD RAMPS daughter-board hangs over the corner of the RAMPS 1.4 board a little bit. I took the liberty of editing the Wiki to add a photo for other 1.4 users who might be confused as to how to install their SD RAMPS.

While I was at it, I also added a note that you MUST install Diode D1 on the RAMPS board if you want to be able to print without being connected to your PC. I know (now!) that this is covered elsewhere in the documentation, but it took me a while to work out why I could load gcode files onto the SD Card (I am using Pronterface - works perfectly!), start printing from the SD Card - and then my printer would stop as soon as I pulled the USB cable out of my Arduino Mega. Doh!

To other readers passing by here, I'd like to that if you're running it without a computer attached via usb you will need to power the arduino from another power source, as usually usb is the power source. The reason for adding the D1 diode is that it will supply the arduino with whatever voltage you are running the ramps board at. Normally thats fine but keep in mind that the arduino only can take so many volts, so don't go running your ramps at 24V and the adding the D1 diode, because that will make it feed your arduino with 24V which is too much. To quote the official arduino site:

Quote
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardMega2560
The board can operate on an external supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less than 7V, however, the 5V pin may supply less than five volts and the board may be unstable. If using more than 12V, the voltage regulator may overheat and damage the board. The recommended range is 7 to 12 volts.

More about running at higher voltages: [forums.reprap.org]

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2013 04:11PM by TheTechnicalNoob.

..... ummm .... errr.... If "adding other information" to > two year dead threads becomes the fashion , there are a few thousand threads that could be updated ....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2013 11:23AM by uncle_bob.

Apologies, won't happen again.

Not a problem at all, My only concern is that you notice that it's a dead thread. Otherwise you might wonder why nobody likes your (very useful) comment.

But aren't threads sorted by the time the last reply was posted? In that case, this will be bumped up now!

.... and when a long dead thread gets bumped most people ignore it. The assumption is that "noting new there". There is near zero chance of the original participants getting involved, so the whole thing is likely to spin off course quickly. Much simpler to keep new threads new and dead threads dead. Many forums close out old threads for exactly this reason.