Repetier on RAMBo only extruding some of the time.

(Obligatory comment about being a noob who has only had a 3d printer for a month!)

So I'm running repetier-firmware on my Rambo board. I have gotten everything to work and have even gotten an okay print for the first try with this firmware. The problem is the next time i start up the Repetier-Host, the extruder does not want to run. I've restarted the software, disconnected the printer and reconnected it and it still does not want to extrude. But i have put my old firmware back on the rambo (Marlin 1.0 RC2), and then put Repetier-firmware back on, then It works again for this session. This behavior has been repeatable.

Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated!

If I understand you right everything works except extruding.

The difference between the first and second run is that on the second run the data is taken from eeprom if con configured otherwise. The problem is when you connect with the host the board gets reset (or should do that) so it is already working on eeprom values.

If you are using the Reepetier-Host make sure you have disabled Dry-run in the debug options at the bottom of the host. If enabled you get exactly your behaviour, also I don't understand how changing the firmware could disable it.

If it is not the problem check the eeprom values in the host if there is something wrong.

Speaking of wrong you didn't say what the problem with the extruder is. Did it not heat up or not extrude or both?

You can always restore the eeprom values with the one in Configuration.h using the

M502

command.

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Thanks for the reply. The extruder is getting to the set temperature and dry run mode is off. The stepper motor would not turn on after resetting the system. Also, the extruder temp is above my set min temp for extrusion.

I think I found it also I don't understand why the xyz motors run. Please load the latest pins.h from github assuming you are using version 0.81

I misconfiguration in pins.h prevented the motor current to get set, which is essential for a RAMBO board to function.

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Okay, I'll have to test it out later this evening. Several days ago I compared the pins.h file to the one I used in marlin and they matched up except for the X_Max_Pin, y and z. Which I saw why it was changed on github not too long ago.

Just compared xyz min/max with marlin and they are the same. What you need in my firmware is to tell you are using digipots to set the current, so I added

#define STEPPER_CURRENT_CONTROL CURRENT_CONTROL_DIGIPOT

which was missing. Default is no current control.

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Repetier-Software - the home of Repetier-Host (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) and Repetier-Firmware.
Repetier-Server - the solution to control your printer from everywhere.
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Okay great. I'll try it out later today.

That took care of my issues! I even have it running off my raspberry pi now. Thanks for your help!