Firmware 0.61 not heating up my Ramps 1.3 hotend

Alright, I'm a little baffled. I was running the firmware from github commit 2c51c2d. That was roughly version 0.51. I checked out the code about a week after the announcement so it may have had a fix or two beyond 0.51. It was working fine, although yesterday I was having troubles with a print so I decided to upgrade to the newest one (github commit 93ff206).

The config file was very similar so it was a breeze to upgrade. Right up until I went to fire up my hotend for a print. The LED on my RAMPS 1.3 comes on, but the hotend never starts to heat. My heated bed and fan work fine, its just the extruder that doesn't work. If I downgrade back to to 0.51 everything works. If I load the latest Marlin, it works. So something is going wrong with the latest 0.61 firmware from what I can tell.

I've gone through my config file a couple times to make sure I didn't miss anything, but it looks ok.

My original configuration.h file for 0.51 : [pastebin.com]
My new configuration.h file for 0.61 : [pastebin.com]

There are a bunch of new #ifdef statements in the code trying to auto detect the board configuration. Possibly something is being misdetected, but the fact that it turns on LED1 when I turn the extruder heat on with the GUI makes me think that it is at least trying. Possibly something has gone wrong in the PWM for the main extruder?

That is very strange. I compared the two configuration files and there were no difference except my updates.
I checked my modification since 0.51 and nothing I have done would explain your problem.

The led states, the extrude should go on. I don't see a reason why the PWM and timer should have switched, but you can try

#define SIMULATE_PWM

then software PWM is used and the heater should work in any case, even the PWM is not free for use. In the long run I perhaps should disable all hardware PWM like Marlin did. It's not really worth the trouble it makes and there are better uses for the timer.

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Thanks for the hint. It didn't work unfortunately. The LED still comes on but the extruder doesn't heat.

As an experiment, just tried setting the EXT0_HEATER_PIN to HEATER_1_PIN (instead of HEATER_0_PIN) and HEATED_BED_HEATER_PIN to HEATER_0_PIN (instead of HEATER_1_PIN) in the configuration.h file.

After that swap, turning the extruder on in the GUI does nothing (aside from enabling LED1). Turning the heated bed on in the GUI turns the extruder heat on (as expected). So it looks like the HEATER_0_PIN works as expected with hardware PWM, just not when it is tied to the extruder control code.

I'm going to try downloading the firmware again from github to make sure that nothing is corrupted in my current .zip file.

Ok, using a fresh install of the code didn't make an difference. Same issue.

I normally use Arduino 1.0 to compile, but I just tried 0023 to see if it would make a difference. No change unfortunately.

For completeness sake, I'm using a Mega1280, RAMPS 1.3, and the Mac GUI side software.

I see the Arduino GUI has no breakpoints or anything to make it easy to debug with. Grrrrr.... I'm going to try throwing some debug code around (starting in the interrupt routine) to see if I can track down where the error is. A single breakcode would have been nice! I guess the Arduino guys figured that that would just cause confusion with some users, but I'm sure it would have made everyone elses life easier.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2012 10:38AM by amramsey.

Hi,

debugging software an an other hardware is not that easy with a debugger. You need a JTAG connector and of course a debugger that is not contained in Arduino.

With your switching test no pwm was used. The heated bed only toggles heater on/off.

On the other side if toggling works, simultate PWM should have a good result as it does the same only periodically.

One thing you should do is check how large the output is, the firmware wants to set. You can do this is the host if you have Show Heater Power enabled. Shoud start with 100%. Whats really strange is, that I know other RAMPS user without that problem.

For debugging purposes you could also add an output which pin he wants to use. Perhaps the extruder is just using not the pin you said.

void extruder_select(byte ext_num) {
   if(ext_num>=NUM_EXTRUDER)
     ext_num = 0;
   current_extruder->extrudePosition = printer_state.currentPositionSteps[3];
   printer_state.currentPositionSteps[0] -= current_extruder->xOffset;
   printer_state.currentPositionSteps[1] -= current_extruder->yOffset;
   current_extruder = &extruder[ext_num];
out.println_int_P(PSTR("Heater pin "),current_extruder->heaterPin);  // <--------- add this line

This should print Heater pin 10 in your log if it is correct.

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I get the following when I connect to the printer now that I've added that line:

  1:52:28 PM: Attempting to connect to printer
  1:52:28 PM: Connection opened
< 1:52:29 PM: start
> 1:52:29 PM: N1 M110 *2
> 1:52:29 PM: N2 M115 *4
< 1:52:29 PM: External Reset
> 1:52:29 PM: N4 M111 S6 *67
< 1:52:29 PM: Heater pin 10
> 1:52:29 PM: N5 M111 S6 *66
< 1:52:29 PM: FIRMWARE_NAME:Repetier FIRMWARE_URL:[github.com] PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Mendel EXTRUDER_COUNT:1 REPETIER_PROTOCOL:1

So it looks like the correct pin is being selected.

How do I enable 'Show Heater Power' in the OSX GUI?

I teste your Firmware I have the same Problem, the Firmware 0.61 not heating up the Extruder


Hardwarekiller

I think I have found the problem. I have uploaded the corrected version on github (still 0.61) which also fixes the G28 command with no parameter.

It was a wrong initialization of the extruder structure, where I added a new variable. Because I use the EEPROM I didn't have the problem, because the values from EEPROM were written to the correct place. So a problem only user with disabled EEPROM had.

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Awesome! I will give it a try when I get home from work tonight.

I just finished a print with it. Works great! Thanks for the quick fix.

Hi,

Just updated to latest (0.62b) on my Gen7, now I get no outputs switched on, either on hotend (#define HEATER_0_PIN 3) or on fan (#define FAN_PIN 4), weird ... I do use EEPROM and I have no heated bed.

My config and pins are attached thanks.

@TinHead Have you compared the Configuration.h with the latest working version? On a first check I couldn't see something wrong. Perhaps it is a problem with PWM interferring with used timers. You could try to enable fan/heater pwm simulation, so you know it's not a timer/PWM problem.

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Config looks fine as far as I can tell. The thing is I can get the old version working either ... same symptoms.

Oh man it's new compiler/Arduino hell allover again. I though my hardware went wild so I compiled Teacup ... it works, Repetier don't. I get some warnings I'll check them out, try to get them sorted.... thanks I'll keep you updated.

One other possible reason is, you installed an other programm that used the eeprom. This may have damaged the stored data. Try changing the eeprom mode, so it is rewritten on next update.

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Right! Did not think of that, will test and get back to you.

OK working now.

The problem appears only when compiling in Arduino 1.0 it works just fine with 0.23.
On 1.0 nothing helped, enabling/disabling EEPROM did not fix it.

They changed stuff in there ... but I cannot find the problem so I guess it's best to stick to 0.23 for compiling for now.

I have the same problem as the one described above but with RAMPS 1.4 and Repetier-Firmware 0.70.
I tried compiling it with Arduino 0.23, running on Linux, Kubuntu 12.04, but the problem remains.

The rest of the printer works fine, I've tried the dry run and all is OK. The bed heater works fine as does the fan. I used a multimeter and the hot end heater is not getting any voltage. I've tried both PID and bang-bang control. I checked the pins in pins.h and they are the same as in Sprinter. The heater works fine with Sprinter.

Here is a photo showing setpoints, power and temperatures.


And these are my EEPROM settings:


Is there something else I could try to make the heater work?

Thanks

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3D extruder performance tests
dzach's ORDbot Hadron build

Same issue as dzach.

No heating (no LED)

My data:

Arduino Compiler 1.0.1
Arduino Mega 2560, RAMPS 1.4 ( -> MOTHERBOARD=33)
Repetier-Firmware: 0.7

The Printer works with Marlin (same pins).

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2012 04:29AM by flurin.

Ok, I found the reason. The latest update to 0.70 had a configuration for extruder 1 included which caused the trouble. You need to change

#define EXT1_HEATER_PIN HEATER_0_PIN

into

#define EXT1_HEATER_PIN HEATER_1_PIN

in Configuration.h and the heater will work as expected. Or update to version 0.71 where I fixed the error and some ui related compile errors.

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Repetier-Software - the home of Repetier-Host (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) and Repetier-Firmware.
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Thanks Repetier

I've updated to Version 0.71 -> bug fixed!

Thanks Repetier!
The problem is solved.

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--------------------------------------------------------
3D extruder performance tests
dzach's ORDbot Hadron build