Pronterface says Motors are Off

With pronterface connected to the tantillus, it finds the printer but the motors off button is greyed out and pressing it does nothing.

Anyone know?

Note: I don't think I can currently print because of my bed issue ...but I'm trying to learn more anyway.

Does anything move when you press the jog buttons? Does the panel on the right display any data about the firmware when you first connect?

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

This is what my screen shows in pronterface:



The Tantillus LCD shows 023/000 Tantillus 000%

When I click the connect button, and then the Motors button this happens:



When I click the reset button the Tantillus LCD shows 023/000 Released. 000%

I'm guessing by bumpers you mean clicking the left, right, up, down target area. Nothing happens when I do that.

The right panel does not show anything on startup currently although I thought it did yesterday.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2012 12:19PM by Lisa M.

Got brave and hit the print button... I didnt' think anything would happen yet ...but I thought maybe some clue would be given

This is what was in the Panel on the right:

Connecting...
start
Printer is now online.
echo: External Reset
Marlin: 1.0.0 RC2
echo: Last Updated: 2012-06-22 | Author: Sublime
echo: Free Memory: 4542 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Using Default settings:
echoD card ok
ok T:22.3 /0.0 B:0.0 /0.0
SENDING:M84
plate function activated
Not an ascii stl solid - attempting to parse as binary
wrote tempstl/935.stl
plated: tempstl/935.stl
Slicing tempstl/935.stl
Slicing: Slic3r/slic3r.exe $s --load Slic3r/config.ini --output $o
=> Processing input file tempstl/935.stl

=> Processing triangulated mesh

=> Generating perimeters

=> Detecting solid surfaces

=> Preparing infill surfaces

=> Cleaning up

=> Detect bridges

=> Cleaning up the perimeters

=> Generating horizontal shells

=> Combining infill

=> Infilling layers

=> Generating skirt

=> Exporting GCODE to tempstl/935_export.gcode

Done. Process took 0 minutes and 1.547 seconds

Filament required: 170.8mm (1.2cm3)

169.8205 mm of filament used in this print

the print goes from 74.517000 mm to 125.477000 mm in X
and is 50.960000 mm wide

the print goes from 86.761000 mm to 113.231000 mm in Y
and is 26.470000 mm wide

the print goes from 0.400000 mm to 2.000000 mm in Z
and is 1.600000 mm high

Estimated duration (pessimistic): 5 layers, 00:03:40
Print Started at: 09:29:28
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.3 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.0 E:0 W
T:24.3 E:0 W
Paused.
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.3 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.2 E:0 W
T:24.3 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
T:24.1 E:0 W
Disconnected.

I'm not sure how the Tantillus branch handles homing the X and Y axis, or if Sublime just disabled XY homing altogether due to the missing endstops. In that case the X and Y arrows and home buttons may work. But the Z home should work.

Try clicking the purple Z home button (the one with a house) and see if it moves the Z axis up to the limit switch.

The T:xx.x E:0 W messages are the printer waiting to warm up. Slic3r takes the hotend temperature you've configured for the first layer and adds two commands to the start of the .gcode. One tells the hotend to warm up to that temp, and the next tells the printer to not do anything else until it reaches that temp. Normally you'd set the temp in Pronterface, wait for it to heat up, then start printing. But in this case you've started cold and are letting the .gcode tell the printer to warm up.

The good news is that the thermistor is reading room temp correctly. The bad news is that the temp should start climbing up pretty quickly, and your temps seem to be hovering around 24C. That combined with a lack of motor movement would lead me to look at your power wiring. The Arduino can get its power to drive itself plus the 5V components from either your PC's USB or the 15V power brick. A quick test is to unplug the USB and see if the LCD lights up and displays messages and stuff with only the power brick.

On my computer the Z button is actually green. ...and it doesn't do anything when I click on it.

I figured out (a little later - face palm) that the long string of T:24.* was a temperature reading. Make sense. A bit disturbing that it isn't going up. Although it's a handy home thermometer because the analog one on the wall is very hard to read when the temperature goes above 20. Currently (if anyone cares) my living room is a nice balmy 29 with the fans going and blinds drawn.

With only the power brick (not USB connected to computer) I get 029/000^o Tantillus 000% displayed. The dial under the LCD does not seem to do anything but I don't know if it should yet.

OK - I was having a similar experience - until I plugged Tantillus into the wall!!

Heated up the hot end immediately. And I was able to move the print head around with the jog buttons.

Although the xy feels smooth when I manually slide it around, it seems to be jamming (mostly in X, and only when I go with larger shift units (a little bit of a 'bad' sound and jamming when I hit 10. It seems to act up mostly in X, and particularly when it's going beyond the midpoint of it's range (in the direction I'm jogging it with the buttons) - and I think they might all be backwards. - Is 0,0 the front left (above the digital readout)? If so, I've got to flip my motors (yes, I'll unplug first).

And for Z - when I go + in the Z direction, the build platform drops - is this how it's supposed to be? It makes sense from the object's perspective. Just wondering if I need to flip all of my motor connectors...

Any thoughts on the jamming? Maybe I should have started a new thread for this...

You got further than me. I apparently still can't control the heat or the xyz from pronterface. I'm stuck.

I've triple checked everything and am pretty confident that I put it together properly.

The platform should drop when you increase Z, since the axes are relative to the extruder.

The motor jamming problem may be due to not having the pots on the stepper drivers turned high enough. On short distances, due to acceleration, the axis doesn't move as fast as it does over a longer distance. At higher speeds the torque of a stepper motor decreases, requiring more current.

Lisa - maybe stepping away from the machine would be good You know, a self-solving machine I've gotta get outside myself...

NewPerfection - thanks for the verification. I can assure you that I've had no pots today whatsoever Sorry, I had to make light of the fact that I know nothing of pots for stepper drivers - something to learn when I come back inside...

Yep ...going for a run ...then going off the grid for a few days ...I'll have to look at it again next week.

ernchesto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NewPerfection - thanks for the verification. I can
> assure you that I've had no pots today
> whatsoever Sorry, I had to make light of the
> fact that I know nothing of pots for stepper
> drivers - something to learn when I come back
> inside...

They are small potentiometers on the stepper drivers
They adjust the current going to the motors.

0,0,0 is the back right rear close to the gears on the right side of the printer.

The orientation takes a bit of getting used to.

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Lem Fugitt
3D Printing Dreams
Robots Dreams
"The map is not the territory."

By the sounds of the other thread the problem was the power connector and the baud rate so I will not add any info now to confuse you. As for what Lem said about home being in the back corner, I did this so when it returns to 0, 0 after printing and you reach into the machine to get the part out that you do not have to reach past the 200c hotend and burn yourself.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2012 08:29AM by Sublime.

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

Sublime Wrote:
> As for what
> Lem said about home being in the back corner, I
> did this so when it returns to 0, 0 after printing
> and you reach into the machine to get the part out
> that you do not have to reach past the 200c hotend
> and burn yourself.

That was definitely the right design decision.

The reason that I said that it took a bit of getting used to was that from school geometry classes we expect 0,0 to be at the lower left of a graph. I understood where 0,0 was on Tantillus because you walked me through it. Still, for a while I wondered why any of my parts that had a 'face' (like the squirrel, statue, etc.) printed facing towards the back of the printer. Then I realized it was because of the 0,0 positioning. Now I just rotate the parts 180 degrees if I want them to face me while printing.

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Lem Fugitt
3D Printing Dreams
Robots Dreams
"The map is not the territory."

Thanks for the clarification NP.

And thanks folks for the clarification on 0,0. I think it's a wise choice, and it's not a big deal to flip one's brain upside down from time to time.

I'm wondering what your recommendation is (Sublime) for dealing with this pots / current / stepper issues? Is it a tweak in the code somewhere? I know you've dialed a number of these machines, so I'm interested in hearing your recommendations on this.

thanks.

ernchesto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the clarification NP.
>
> And thanks folks for the clarification on 0,0. I
> think it's a wise choice, and it's not a big deal
> to flip one's brain upside down from time to
> time.
>
> I'm wondering what your recommendation is
> (Sublime) for dealing with this pots / current /
> stepper issues? Is it a tweak in the code
> somewhere? I know you've dialed a number of these
> machines, so I'm interested in hearing your
> recommendations on this.
>
> thanks.

There are many ways to do this, some take a lot of math and understanding of electronics. I will explain the easiest way now and when I get back I will add them to the instructions. With the pot turned all the way to its minimum current.


Then using Pronterface move one axis from 0mm to 100mm to 0mm at 80mm/s (4800mm/m in pronterface). After each attempt turn the pot clockwise just a couple of degrees. Do this until the machine moves all the way from 0 to 100 to 0 without skipping steps. We need to make sure they are not turned up too high or they will overheat or the motors will get really hot. There are a few signs that this is happening.

1) The driver turns itself off and back on again every few seconds which results in the axis stuttering. This can even happen when the axis is not moving which is noticeable by the sound of the motor engaging and disengaging.

2) The motor gets hot enough that you can not touch it. Careful because they are capable of burning you if the current is too high.

3) The heatsink on the driver gets hot enough that you can not touch it. Careful because they are capable of burning you before they can be damaged.

Normally the pot only needs to be turned a couple of degrees from the minimum. If you have had to turn it up more than 50% of the way to max then odds are the axis has to much friction. This will depend on how smoothly you managed to make the printed bushings slide on the smooth rod. Adding some lubricant to the smooth rods will help this, I use petroleum jelly ( Vaseline ) because it is pet, child and furniture safe.

Once you find the correct setting to move each axis you may notice a high pitch noise coming from the motors. This is fairly normal but undesired. So we will now turn the pot a tiny little bit either direction and see if the noise changes. Usually you will find that the noise can almost be eliminated by adjusting the pot this way while keeping the current really close to the setting you found worked.

Once this is done you may find you need to run the machine without filament for a while to break in the gears and bushings further if it skis steps. Once you find it move reliably you are ready to do a test print.

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm toying with it right now. Thus far I've managed to kill the X entirely But at least now it's becoming demystified.

I'll post my progress..

Quote
Sublime
By the sounds of the other thread the problem was the power connector and the baud rate so I will not add any info now to confuse you. As for what Lem said about home being in the back corner, I did this so when it returns to 0, 0 after printing and you reach into the machine to get the part out that you do not have to reach past the 200c hotend and burn yourself.

Hi Sublime, what is the other thread you are talking about ?
I have the same issue, no reaction from the motors from Pronterface