Connection and printing problems for my Ormerod (Red RS edition)

Hi,

my name is Rosario, and I bought a RepRapPro Ormerod from RS (the red limited edition).
I've succesfully built up my 3d printer, but I've problems with the electronics:

- I printed succesfully the axis compensation parts
- I tried to print the "snowman.g" sample part, but this time the print was far from good. I tracked down the problem, and it seemed that the Z axis wasn't moving of the right value between one layer and another... I think the Z stepper motor is losing steps... This leads to extruder stepper motor to stuck often while estruding filament... there is no room on the bed to extrude because of the wrong Z position
- The next day I tried to to print other parts, but unsuccessfully. The printer doesn't connect to the PC via ethernet any more, and Pronterface says "printer is offline". I tried with a terminal program, and I saw that config.g was not being loaded, I tried with another SD card (FAT32 formatted with the right folders and files) but the problem remains the same. I also tried to update firmware, but nothing changed.

Could you please help me?

Thanks,

Rosario

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2013 03:56PM by rosario.

Regarding the z axis drive check that the gear on the motor shaft is the correct way round i.e. flat surface to the top.
If it is the other way round the motor stalls. Note in the original instructions the gear was shown with the wrong orientation.
It should be easy to rotate by hand (power off).

I have not yet connected via the network, there are many posts discussing this, but for commissioning everything can be done via Pronterface.
Note there has been a DUET firmware update today to correct some issues relating to Pronterface, so worth doing this now.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2013 04:07PM by Treth.

Hi Rosario,

I just had my z-motor missing steps because the gears were too tight (this was because I had replaced one of them with my won printed part). I suggest you check that with the power off, you can rotate the threaded rod clockwise easily by hand.

The Pronterface "printer is offline" message occurs when config.g has not been run, so the Ormerod is not in Marlin emulation mode.

When you updated the firmware, did you select the Duet branch instead of the Master branch in github?

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Thanks Threth and dc42,

- for the Z axis, I double checked, in attachment you can find a foto , if I understood right, it should be correct. The threaded rod moves (clockwise) without any problem by hand. The only thing I noticed is that the gear on the Z motor is a little bit eccentric.
- for the software update, I've just tried with firmware 049 (from the duet branch), but with the same results. Printer hangs randomly at the firsts commands of the g file (some times completes the axis homing, others not). When the printer hangs, no other command are accepted, but bed and extruder resistor remain on. The g file is the snowman.g example file.
- i found that the config.g file is not loaded. I tried with two other SD cards (working fine on my tablet!), formatted them in FAT32, adding the three-folder structure and files supplied in the github repository (SDImage) but still nothing: the configuration file is not loaded.

I'm quite sad :-(

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2013 04:50PM by rosario.

I've just started another thread on incorrect z-axis height. I think there should be 1 revolution of the z stepper per 2 x 0.24mm layers, but I'm getting more like 1 revolution every 3 layers. The web interface is reporting z=23.28mm, but holding a ruler up to it, it looks more like 14mm to me.

The axis compensation piece seemed to print OK. I don't know what size it is meant to be, but I measured all 3 axes as 90mm from each end to the corner.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42
I've just started another thread on incorrect z-axis height. I think there should be 1 revolution of the z stepper per 2 x 0.24mm layers, but I'm getting more like 1 revolution every 3 layers. The web interface is reporting z=23.28mm, but holding a ruler up to it, it looks more like 14mm to me.

The axis compensation piece seemed to print OK. I don't know what size it is meant to be, but I measured all 3 axes as 90mm from each end to the corner.

Also for me, the same...
...axis compensation pieces printed just fine, while others (like snowman.g) printed squeezed on the z azis, and with related problem (extruder jamming because there was no room for the extruded pla)

Plus, connections problems (I told in my first post) are affecting me since yesterday, problems that prevent me to print both from the USB and LAN.

Just an update and a recap.

My machine with firmware 0.49 duet branch:
- is not connecting by ethernet
- is not reading config.g from the SD card anymore (I tried also with other SD cards that I have)
- if connecting with USB, after enabling the Marlin emulation mode, Pronterface recognize it but when printing it stops randomly at one the firsts commands, with the Atmel MCU that seems frozen.

Tried to:
- use an hi-courrent USB power adapter
- connecting JP9 and using external PSU

But nothing changed.

The strange thing was that the first day:
- The SD was working
- Ethernet was working (sometimes needed a RESET)
- I printed the test part succesfully
- I tried to print snowman.g both from PC and SD and the printed object was squeezed on the Z axis, like if the motor is loosing steps

Then, from the next day, nothing at all...

Hi Rosario,
I have the red RS Ormerod printer too. After a major work up I have built it and have observerd the following issues
1) The SD card did not work - I then purchased a SanDisk that does.

2) Arduino dropout - If you set up connection with Pronterface OK then I have found that running the base heater plate alone causes the crash.
What seems to happen is that the heater comes on OK (red led) but when it is turned off the the Arduino then it crashes about 50% of the time.
This may appear random if you are printing! The first thing to crash seems to be the USB port. (which you can hear on the host pc) and shortly
after the thing backlogs up!
I tried putting a 4700Uf 25Vdc capacitor across the power supply lines and it stopped crashes on heater turn on, but not turn off.

I have not solved this problem - RATS!

Regards
Dennis

Quote
DennisCowdery
Hi Rosario,
I have the red RS Ormerod printer too. After a major work up I have built it and have observerd the following issues
1) The SD card did not work - I then purchased a SanDisk that does.

2) Arduino dropout - If you set up connection with Pronterface OK then I have found that running the base heater plate alone causes the crash.
What seems to happen is that the heater comes on OK (red led) but when it is turned off the the Arduino then it crashes about 50% of the time.
This may appear random if you are printing! The first thing to crash seems to be the USB port. (which you can hear on the host pc) and shortly
after the thing backlogs up!
I tried putting a 4700Uf 25Vdc capacitor across the power supply lines and it stopped crashes on heater turn on, but not turn off.

I have not solved this problem - RATS!

Regards
Dennis

Yes, is true!!!
The printer hangs as soon as the bed plate is switched on!
It seems definetly a power issue, due to a bad electronic design...
Hope that RepRapPro/RS will sort that out quickly!

If the Duet crashes when the bed heater first turns on, then I would suspect the power supply connections between the power distribution board and the Duet. Check that the terminal block screws are done up tight. The power mosfet turns on quite slowly, so the transient you get at this point is modest. I suppose it is possible that RapRapPro may be using different makes of ATX power supply and some are better than others at handling sudden load changes. Mine is an Alpine 550W.

OTOH when the bed heater mosfet switches off, it does so very fast and there is a large but short-lived positive transient on the +12V line.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].