Trouble Commissioning - No Response

Hey Everyone

I received my Ormerod on friday and have been super excited to get going, I built the machine with no issues and moved on to commissioning. I was carefully following instructions, got to plugging the duet in, received the Reprappro firmware is working message typed in M105 and ... nothing. Typed M503, nothing. Unplugged and tried again, again got the connection message and still no response to any M codes I tried to send. I then tried the whole procedure again on a win 7 machine (originally using win 8) with exactly the same results. Repeated the whole process using the ATX PSU to power the duet (all motor and heaters unplugged) same problem. I don't know if it's possible to update the firmware if the duet is not responding but I'll probably try when I get home tonight. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'm hoping I'm just making a stupid mistake somewhere.

Regards

Andrew

In Arduino serial monitor, check what setting you have for line ending. You need either Newline or Both NL + CR. Also check that you are using an upper case M when you send the command.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2014 06:38AM by dc42.

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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].

Is your Ormerod (or rather the Arduino Duet) listed in the device manager of your pc?

Yes, it picks it up straight away as an Arduino Due.

I use Arduinos quite a bit including the Due so I had all of that installed and working including the latest drivers already. I double checked the drivers just in case and it all checked out.

Aj just go ahead and download then flash the latest release firmware, the original version was very flakey. When you reset and restart the duet, it'll show up as a bossa device on another port, then it will auto-restart and show up as a due on the original port after you've flashed it. If it still doesn't play ball try replacing the sd card with another. By the way, when updating to current firmware from original, you should also replace the sd card files,

Ray

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2014 03:15PM by rayhicks.

Ok flashed the firmware and now get the following response about a minute after sending M105:

Class GCodes spinning.
Class Webserver spinning.
Class Move spinning.
Class Platform spinning.
Class Heat spinning.

I have no idea what that means but it's not the expected response. Still no response to M503. More disappontingly no response to my tech support email :-/

Those "spinning" statements mean the firmware is running - have you tried running a print or sending commands through printrun/pronterface? Circle.g from the sd card is a good place to start (it doesn't actually print anything, but it exercises the x and y axis,

Ray

So went ahead and installed pronterface and the printer responds no problem to console commands there seems only the Arduino console doesn't work for me???

The Duet takes about a minute to come alive after powerup or reset if you don't have an ethernet connection - if plugged into a router or hub it wakes up immediately. I don't know if it recognizes the M503 command, and cannot try right now. The Duet firmware does not currently support all the codes. I've found RRP support to be very good, they have always worked hard to solve the issue and have some first rate very savvy tech support guys who do not work from a script, lie about problems or try to fob off the customer, but there are times when they have been swamped and taken a day or two to reply. You will however also get some first class and quite rapid help and advice from this forum.

Dave
(#503)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2014 04:22PM by dmould.

Did you check you had the right line ending setting as I suggested in reply #1?

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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 for all the advice guys I did check that I have the right line ending I think maybe something in my arduino drivers is misbehaving , pronterface however works perfectly and I have managed to get going with the rest of the setup so clearly its a problem on my side and not with the printer. Now it seems that on running G28 Z0 the printer homes and then crashes straight into the bed however its just past midnight here so going to get to bed and will continue tomorrow.

P.S. Dave I'm not too worried about the support, it was more a combination of noticing the prompt response to other posts and being frustrated with my own lack of progress that led to my disappointment rather than any ill feeling towards them

Quote
AJBecker
Now it seems that on running G28 Z0 the printer homes and then crashes straight into the bed however its just past midnight here so going to get to bed and will continue tomorrow.

The IR homing method is not very satisfactory as it is affected greatly by ambient light. You know you have to calibrate it before trying the homing command? I have given up using automatic Z homing, and do it (and the bed levelling) by hand before every print. Besides the ambient light issue, I print on solvent-coated glass rather than tape, and so it is not as easy to fix white tape to 4 places on the bed.

Dave
(#106)

I also print on glass coated with solvent cement, but I leave white PVC tape in the corners. It wouldn't work for a maximal-size print though Homing is fairly reliable using a modulated IR sensor, but I'm now trying out ultrasonic sensing, because that would work anywhere on the bed without any tape.

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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 also print on glass coated with solvent cement, but I leave white PVC tape in the corners. It wouldn't work for a maximal-size print though Homing is fairly reliable using a modulated IR sensor, but I'm now trying out ultrasonic sensing, because that would work anywhere on the bed without any tape.

Yes, the ultrasonic method sounds extremely promising. I was planning to try the modulated IR somewhen, but I'll wait to see how the ultrasonic method works out. There are several mods I want to make on my Omerod, and my priority is with mods that improve the print quality, reliability, ruggedness or speed. Automatic Z homing merely makes it a bit more convenient, so is not at the top of the list. What I really should do is get another machine and do all the mods on that from scratch so I can keep this one printing - it's very addictive! One objective is to get the machine to a state where I am comfortable with leaving it unattended so that it can be left to print a large job overnight. That will need the addition of a few safety cutouts.

Dave
(#106)

I agree fully Dave, with some incorrect homing procedures my machine carried on trying to print about 50 mm out in z and would have continued without intervention. The beauty of additive manufacturing is the very low forces on the print head so something is simple as a mechanical switch that is activated when the hot end tilts would be enough to detect a z axis crash.

In terms of z axis homing, mechanical home switches work for my CNC milling machine & all of the HAAS and Mazak machines at work as well as the Y-axis on the Ormerod so not sure why the z doesn't use the same. A 2mm high raised square in each corner would allow the switch to be 1mm back from the nozzle height without the nozzle touching when it homes. I assume (having not yet taken the time to check the schematics or documentation) that the IR sensor is set up as a voltage divider and feeding 0 - 5 v to the Duet so simply replacing the sensor wire with a 5v excited mechanical switch with a current limiting resistor should work just peachy.

I'll be playing around when I get home later tonight, I must just print something before I get too carried away with ideas for modifications (the z axis will definitely be getting a baby ball screw and I'm go build an 'environment chamber' to control air temp and monitor humidity while printing).