Z axis problem during print

So i set up everything and calibrated all directions for my mendel90 dibond/aluminuim... i can manually set movements to exact distances in pronterface... when i home all, they all move to the end stops as they should... the X endstop at the right, Y endstop at the front, Z endstop at the top...in HOME position the X carriage is at the top right of the printer...Y carriage at the front, and Z axis at the top...

so when i print thru pronterface, everything heats up as it should, the X axis centers at the top, the bed starts to center, but the Z axis doesnt do much. it does a HOME check then stops...it wont come down to the bed...what am i missing? everything works in manual mode as it should...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2015 11:34PM by 09zx-6r.

After homing, send an M114, check that z position is reporting as 200 something (it sounds as if you have z=0 at the top)

M114 says everything is at 0

so how do i switch it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2015 07:36AM by 09zx-6r.

If this is a Nophead kit then use his supplied version of Marlin which should be correctly configured.

I've only ever done it with vanila Marlin and RAMPS, but the principles are:

• make sure the z endstop is physically connected to the MAX pins on your controller, not MIN
• enable max pins in pins.h , that would be "#define Z_MAX_PIN 19" for RAMPS (no idea what it is for Melzi)
• you can also set Z_MIN_PIN to -1 to disable it
• in configuration.h set: #define Z_HOME_DIR 1 (1 tells it to home to the top, -1 is the bottom)

---

Tim

Printers:
Prusa i3 (plywood box frame)
RAMPS 1.4 and Arduino Mega

Mendel 90 (sturdy)
Smoothieware

My RepRap Blog

yeah its nopheads design....but made of aluminum... only difference is i run the ramps 1.4 setup... everything else is the same...

what pin number is "#define Z_MIN_PIN " in the Pins.h....? i chaned it and didnt even think to save a copy before hand... <---- never mind found it... pin 18


however,
do i make all 4 changes?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2015 12:17PM by 09zx-6r.

If you mean my 4 bullet points, yes make all 4 changes.

i made all four of your suggested changes... and nothing happens now... says "Endstops Hit: Z" and nothing will work thru pronterface... so i sent a g28 command to home all... but only the x and y moved...so i closed the switch to Z and resent the code... then they all moved but the Z axis only moved about 1mm...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2015 10:52PM by 09zx-6r.

ANYONE ?!?

Can't think off the top of my head what else you would need to change, I've had a max endstop working with those settings, however you are not the first person to use RAMPS with a Mendel90, have a search on the forums and see what other people did.

Alternatively you could just use one of the Mendel90 flavours of Marlin, I've not looked but I think that Neil's version probably supports RAMPS, see this thread

A quick search also threw up this thread about Mendel90 with RAMPS.

FIXED and PRINTING !!! THANKS PLANKTON