Pronterface connects, but won't move my motors...

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum (and 3D printing in general), so I'm sorry if my questions come off as silly - but from what I've read, everyone here's seems super nice and helpful, so hopefully that's a good sign

I am *so* close to actually printing something with my printer, but I am stuck at trying to use Pronterface to control my motors. I built a Makergear Prusa Mendel with an Arduino Mega 2560 and RAMPS 1.4, and I'm trying to get the software to work on Mac OS X. To check that I wired everything correctly, I ran this test code, and it worked! All of my motors move back and forth prettily, my print bed heats up, LEDs light up in the right places, it was great.

Next I uploaded the sprinter firmware onto my arduino (after editing the header file like the wiki says), started up Pronterface, and pressed "connect". That worked - I got the message:

SD init fail (<--the word "fail" scares me, but I think I can ignore this since I don't plan on printing from an SD card?)
ok T:0 B:0
Printer is now online.

But when I press +x, -z, motor buttons, nothing happens! I don't know what's wrong, though I'm sure it's simple... has anyone had this problem before? I should also say that I'm using the precompiled "pronterfacemac.zip" from this page (since I don't know anything about Python...).

Thanks so much for your help!

Simple question first - do you have endstops fitted? If not, the motors will only move one direction unless you've disabled them in the firmware configuration.h, just checking you've tried both directions.

I ask because it puzzled me for a while...

Presume you have 12V connected exactly as it was for the test firmware (maybe worth reloading that to double-check it's not just wires disturbed etc).

Nige

I'm not sure, but Sprinter might have software endstops like Marlin. These don't allow the stepper motors to go less than 0mm, or more than 200mm. When you turn your electronics on, it sets all positions to zero. So if you endstops are the wrong way around, and there are software endstops, you won't go anywhere!
You could roughly position your hot end in the centre of the bed, and type

G92 X100 Y100

This sets the X and Y position. You should then be able to move the head one way or the other, at least to diagnose endstop and/or software endstop problems.

If there is still no movement, check in the firmware that you have selected the correct board. Choosing the wrong board will mean that the pin assignments are screwed up. Do you get any sound from your motors? Do they 'lock' once a command has been sent?

Consider trying Marlin. I think it's a good improvement on Sprinter, and looks to be the firmware of choice moving forward.

edit: sorry for necroing accidentaly this

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2013 01:27PM by calad.

I had the same message... it was because i forgot to attatch the SD card attatchment onto the arduino.

also. you will need to press the home buttton so that it can find where the end stops are. Once you press the home buttons for each direction (and it finds the end stops), you'll be able to move in both directions. Be sure to have your finger on the power button in case you switched the motors by accident.

Ummm .... errrr.... this is a very long dead thread ....

hahaha lol youre right... i didnt look at the date SMH