just can't start my prusa

I bought ia prusa mendel kit 2 months ago, assembled it, but haven't been able to start the motors,
I am so frustrated, I am ready to throw this thing in the nearest trash.
I live in culver city in the Los angeles area, and was wondering if anyone could give me a hand getting this thing going.

Thanks

Frantz

Im on the wrong side of the atlantic, but if you post some more information -- what have you done to try to get things moving - we can probably solve it on the forum.

What electronics, what power supply, what steppers, what firmware?

Hi Frantz,

Great to see another new reprapper joining the clan.

As Andrew said we need some more information to be able to help.

Here is a great place to start if you haven't done so already...

[reprap.org]

I am using the following setup so you may be able to use this as a step by step as to what we need.

Sanguinololu 1.3 electronics board assembled and shipped with sprinter and bootloader installed and tested.

Software installed on my pc as per wiki guide...

Arduino 0018 NOT Version 1.0 as v 1.0 is not suited to Sanguinololu 1.3
Sanguino version 18 NOT Version 1.0 ...... Ditto
Pronterface
Sprinter
Sli3er

For some reason I cannot get my pc to load using ReplicatorG but others have had no probs so i use Pronterface with no problems.

Tell us what you have tried in detail and someone on here will be happy to help.

We all started somewhere.....

Thanks everyone

Here it is. I bought the electronics from Ultimachine.com and got the pre-assembled kit with double connector,
mechanical endstop switches,
Arduino mega 2560 R3,
RAMPS v1.4.
The motors are Kysan 1124090

I have 2 power supplies right now. A big hefty one for when I will connect the heated bed, but right now I'm using a laptop power supply (Gateway PA 1900-05 with an output of 19V and 4.74A)

For the softwares, I installed Arduino 1.0.1, and as I am running this on my 2007 Macbook pro with OSX 10.5.8, I downloaded ReplicatorG 0034 and also Pronterface-mac-Mar2012.

The wiring was done by a friend, and everything should be done right. He doubled checked everything

Using the Arduino software, I did the blinking test and although it doesn't blink orange as it says it should, it blinks green. Is that a problem?
the fade test works fine, so does the bare minimum test.

OK now you said which firmware? hue what's that? isn't it already on the Arduino board?
OK I know, you're probably thinking that it won't be easy to help that guy if he doesn't have a clue about firmware, and I appreciate youe taking the time.

Thanks again for helping. I put in 3 pictures (the prusa, the RAMPS, the power supplie's specs)

Frantz

I have since looked into the firmware issue a little bit more. (there is so much out there and it is chineese to me)
I downloaded the marlin thing, and opened it in the Arduino.app on my mac. When I verify/compile it it comes up with this error:

/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.3.2/../../../../avr/lib/avr6/crtm2560.o: In function `__vector_default':
(.vectors+0xb0): relocation truncated to fit: R_AVR_13_PCREL against symbol `__vector_44' defined in .text section in /Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.3.2/../../../../avr/lib/avr6/crtm2560.o

What the ^%$*# does it mean?

Thanks

Frantz

By downloading a previous version of arduino (v 023) I managed to verify/compile and then upload Marlin.
I then opened RepG and selected the machine (Mendel with Mega/RAMPS electronics 57600 bauds) and the serial port (/dev/tty.usbmodem1d11)
I tried to connect but it spitted out that:

[00:41:03] Loading simulator.
[00:41:03] No bookend metadata specified for this machine
[00:41:03] Loading driver: replicatorg.drivers.reprap.RepRap5DDriver


The problem is that I don't have a global picture of what all this stuff does: the arduino app, repG, marlin etc and what is needed to control this thing.

Poor me

Frantz

The arduino app gets firmware onto the Ardunio. It also provides a serial monitor you can use to talk directly to the Arduino, open it up and send 'M115', the firmware should respond with a description of itself. You can also send any other gcode if you want to test a specific feature.

Marlin is the firmware, it takes gcode from the PC, and converts it into stepper moves and heater instructions.

RepG is the sender, it sends gcode to the printer and provides a GUI for manual control. You may want to switch to pronterface. Also, you're port looks wrong to me, but Macs are alien territory so maybe Arduino does present as a usb modem. Maybe something to look at if you can't connect with pronterface.

You'll also need a slicer. Skeinforge, SFACT, or Slic3r. These programs take a model in .stl format and generate the gcode to print it. Beyond that, you'll need CAD programs to create models. There are too many options to go into here, but openSCAD is one you'll probably need at some point, a lot of models on thingiverse are published in .scad for easy modification as well as .stl for those that just want to print the standard version.

Thanks Andrew for this global view of what's going on.
I checked for the port, and the /dev/cu/usbmodem1d11 seems to be right according to the various sources on the net.
With the arduino software, I could somewhat communicate with the arduino by running test like the blinking one.
I also succesfully uploaded the marlin firmware, but when I type M115 in the serial monitor, I get nothing at all.
I am now using only Pronterface, but can't connect to the printer at all. It says connecting... but nothing else.
I haven't installed any slicer yet, but I figured that I can do that later when I manage to start them darn motors.
Any more suggestions?

Thanks

Frantz

Hey Frantz
Check the USB com port at the top center of pronterface and try different com ports then try to connect again.
Pronterface doesn't always choose the port your computer is plugged into correctly.
I connected another computer last night to my printer and pronterface was trying to connect to com1 when my printer was plugged into com 5.
When I changed this, it connected straight away.

Hi

I tried uploading marlin after compiling and I get this:
avrdude: stk500_2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
When I try it again, it works ??
What does it mean? why does it only work once in a while? Who is that avr dude thingy?

my board: arduino mega 2560
Ramps 1.4
my port: /dev/tty.usbmodem1d11
my operating system MacOSX 10.5.8
My printer (sort of printer) a prusa Mendel
motors Kysan 1124090
It looks beautiful..... but it don't *&$%#@ing work

the blinking test works fine
the serial monitor is completely silent, The M115 doesn't say anything in return

pronterface doesn't give me any indication that it's alive or able to communicate with Ms Arduino, it just says that it's "Connecting..." but nothing else, even after an hour. Well I didn't wait in front of the machine that long, I just went to diner during that time.

I'm basically screwed from where I stand.

In Arduino, I have tried every serial port ( 8 total: /dev/tty.usbmodem1d11, /dev/cu.usbmodem1d11, /dev/tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync, /dev/cu.Bluetoot-PDA-Sync, /dev/tty.riptou_on_zeugo-Wireles-1, /dev/cu.riptou_on_zeugo-Wireles-1, /dev/tty.Bluetooth-modem, /dev/cu.Bluetooth-modem)

On Pronterface, I tried all combinations of all ports and baud rates. No response whatsoever. wtf?

I can model, rig, animate and even light all of those models I made and will make, but will I ever be able to print them?

Please help, please....


Frantz

Some things to try:

Pull the RAMPS off the Mega, it may be shorting something out. If things start working, we know that the RAMPS needs fixed.

In configuration.h, change baud rate to 115200. 250000 can cause problems.

Replace your USB cable. Use one that's as short as possible and has ferrite cores on it.

There's a bug in the Mega 2560 bootloader causing it to crash when uploading a sketch than includes the sequence 0x21, 0x21, 0x21. I don't know if Marlin is likely to trigger this bug. If possible, burn a new bootloader to your board. You will need an ISP progammer or a spare Arduino of some sort. Google will turn up instructions as well as the new bootloader.

Hi Frantz,

I am not up with Mac so others might have to help there. All I can do for you is tell you what worked for me.

In windows you need to check start, control panel, system, hardware, device manager, universal serial bus controllers.

With the usb to printer cable disconnected, watch the list of universal serial bus controllers and then plug in your printer.

When you plug in your printer, usb serial converter should appear. If not download ft232r drivers from here

[www.ftdichip.com]

If there is a conflict there you need to update the drivers. If not, the next step is to check your usb connections.

Open pronterface. Click the arrow beside the com port and see available ports.

When you click connect, a message should appear in the command window to the right. It should say Connecting, M105.

If you have the wrong port selected, that will be all you see and the computer will not connect.

Change the com port and try again. If you get it right you should see something like this.

Sprinter
1.3.11T / 19.03.2012
start
Printer is now online.
SD Start
SD init fail
Soft PWM Init
Planner Init
Stepper Timer init
Free Ram: 493
Plan Buffer Size:1152 / 16

At this point you are connected.

I notice you use Marlin. Others use this but I can't get it to work on my system so I use sprinter from here.

[www.reprapfordummies.net]

It might be worth a try.

Wahoo I changed the baud rate in configuration.h and it worked.
Then I opened pronterface and it did a lot more than before. I did get this message though:

Connecting...
start
Printer is now online.
echo: External Reset
Marlin 1.0.0 RC2
echo: Last Updated: 2012-05-02 | Author: erik
echo: Free Memory: 5609 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Using Default settings:
ok T:457.6 /0.0 B:0.0 /0.0 @:0
Error: 0
: Extruder switched off. MAXTEMP triggered !
Error: Printer stopped deu to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart!. (Temperature is reset. Set it before restarting)
Printer stopped deu to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart!. (Temperature is reset. Set it before restarting)

Any suggestions?
One thing. My hotend is not connected to the board yet. I wanted to get some kind of response from the motors first. Is that a problem?

Thanks everyone, and thanks Andrew

Frantz seeing the light far far away, but seeing some light

You can increase the MAXTEMP limit in configuration.h

Hi there.

I increased the MAXTEMP to 457 in configuration.h
I remind everyone that neither my hot bed nor my hotend are connected. That temp of 457 seems to be a bit high, but for my purpose of starting the motors, it seems to be working.

I got this in pronterface:

Connecting...
start
Printer is now online.
echo: External Reset
Marlin 1.0.0 RC2
echo: Last Updated: 2012-05-02 | Author: erik
echo: Free Memory: 5609 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Using Default settings:
ok T:457.6 /0.0 B:0.0 /0.0 @:0

The motors are set to off in Pronterface, and when I click on that button it sends a M84 command... Nothing happens.
That's what I'm trying to do first. I want to calibrate the printer. I haven't been able to make them move at all, none of them!
I also would love to hear them sing, it would reassure me.

What should I do?
Are there any commands to test that stuff? How can I know if my motors can run?

Thanks guys. I appreciate your help. I can't wait to print.

Frantz

You just click on the rings of the jog control. You can move X and Y 0.1mm, 1mm, 10mm or 100mm in each direction.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Hi Frantz,

The baud rate in configuration h was one I missed. Good work.

You are right about the max temp. The numbers mean nothing while there is no hotend or bed connected.

The reason you got the max temp alarm was because the thermistor sensor on the electronics board was getting no feedback from the thermistor so could not set temp. This will have to be reset before you fire up the hotend and hot bed or you will fry them.

Clicking the motor button just turns the motors off and will do nothing if they are already off. Also you need the power supply connected to your electronics and running to supply power to the motors. But remember this will also supply power to the hotend and hot bed. However these will not get hot until you click the set buttons on pronteface.

Pronterface will respond the same to your commands without power to the motors but the motors will not run from the power supplied by the usb.

With pronterface on and connected, ensure your end-stops are connected and in place, then you need to turn on your power supply, then click any of the home buttons being x, y, or z and the motors should move but be ready to click disconnect if the bed or hotend gets too close to its limit of travel or you may damage them.

A safer idea may be to click the 1, or 10 on the Z axis. This will move the hotend by 1 or 10mm at a time.

If this works you can start to calibrate all axis by trying the commands on pronterface and then checking pronerface movement against actual mms moved.

After this I designed a simple 20mm cube on sketchup and printed this and then checked all sides and height and then adjusted the numbers in sprinter and tried again. This is a quick and easy way to see how you are going and doesn't waste much filament.

The extrusion number will need adjustment and will give you a much better defined print.

Initially any holes printed were closed as the extruder produced too much filament and the sides of my cubes were very ridged. Now I am down to 800 and the holes need no cleaning up and the sides are nearly smooth.

Hi

My printer is connected with Pronterface, my power supply is plugged in, and I can see the rings on the interface with the homes, the .1, 1, 10 etc and they are clickable. So what did I do?
I clicked on everything that I could click on that had something to do with the motors, but nothing, NOTHING.

I was wondering if there are any programs, or lines of commands, or any other way to test if my motors are working, if the signal comes out of the arduino. Some glimpse of hope that I will one day hear the sweet sound of f%^$#&* moving parts.

Thanks

Frantz

You probably have the motor current turned down too low for them to move. Adjust it with the pots on the pololu drivers. Be sure to test in both directions, if you have your endstop logic inverted the firmware won't let you move in the negative direction, and the directions might be inverted as well. Get it moving in one direction and we can fix it.

As for manual control, you can send gcode from pronterface. [reprap.org] details the available commands. Marlin includes a few extra but nothing you need to worry about.

Andrew my have hit on another thing I had forgot.

When I first set up my printer I got nothing from my motors until I connected my end stops.

Make sure these are connected, plugged in correctly and test the micro switches manually to see if they click. One of mine was faulty right out of the box.

I know this is frustrating for you Frantz, but the trouble will be worth it when you see your first print.

My whole family gathered round as " Woody " printed his first VERY shoddy gear but we it still holds pride of place on the shelf.

We don't mind helping, so don't think you are wasting our time. We may learn something we can use later ourselves and this becomes a vendetta for us against the dreaded machines.

This may have been covered but are you sure the power supply is supplying power to the board and therefore the motors.

Check leads from your power supply with multimeter.

I noticed you are using a laptop supply at 19 volts.

You state this as your circuit board.

Arduino mega 2560 R3,
RAMPS v1.4.

The arduino and ramps are the cpu and drivers for the steppers but what is your main circuit board as in Sanguinololu etc. Mine is Sanguinololu and it requires 12 volt input not 19 volts.

Details on this site.

[reprap.org]

I have included a wiring diagram for you to check against yours if you are using Sanguinololu.

Also check the wiring of your endstops. The 2 wires from the circuit board need to be connected to the outer 2 pins of the micro switches and leave the center one dissconnected.

gregted Wrote:

> The arduino and ramps are the cpu and drivers for
> the steppers but what is your main circuit board
> as in Sanguinololu etc. Mine is Sanguinololu and
> it requires 12 volt input not 19 volts.

RAMPS plus the Arduino Mega is a complete set of electronics, there's no need for Sanguinolu. And RAMPS can be run on up to 35V with a little modification, D1 needs to be removed if you use much higher than 12V.

This from the wiki site in my last post...

Powering Sanguinololu

Your chosen power solution will determine what kind of power requirements will be in play:

Screw terminal: Connect your power supply with at least 7V and at most 30V to the screw terminal. The negative lead is the one closest to the screw hole.

ATX Power Connector: Connect the ATX-4 pin connector. The ATX power supply must also be rigged to turn on when plugged in & the switch is on. This is done by shorting the !PWR_ENABLE pin to ground on the main ATX-20 pin connector. This is usually the green wire shorted to a black wire. I use a staple crammed in the socket, and use the switch on the power supply case to control system power.

The mod you mentioned is correct but I am assuming Frantz's board is standard and needs 12v and total is stated at 30v not 35v. Before someone picks me up on this, I know voltage regulators can handle up to 35v.

I am aware the ramps and arduino are the complete electronics but I have seen different boards holding these parts so just trying to get a full picture to help Frantz, not to argue with others also trying to help. See list of electronics below.

[reprap.org].

Andrew, I am here to help Frantz, not pick others advice and I am certainly not here to compete against others with more experience than me.

Just trying to help.

Hi Greg, hi Andrew, hi everyone

First of all I want to thank you greg for that very reassuring message on not worrying about asking stuff. I did feel a bit foolish to ask things that probably seem obvious to most of you long time reprappers. The thing is I know nothing about electronics and just learned how to use a multimeter. sic.
I will learn and I will start this damn thing because I want to see it print.

Second of all, no fighting please.

I bought a multimeter yesterday but the batteries weren't included ;( so when I got home, I was kind of bummed out.
I will use it tonight.
I tried to increase the voltage on the stepper drivers, but I didn't have the right tool. That screw is tiny, so I will also try again tonight with the right tool. Perhaps Ultimachine has these tuned to zero when they ship them. I hope that's it.
Man I can't wait to hear that sound. Printing seems still way down the road, but starting those motors will definitely motivate.
I still thing that I should have saved some more money and bought a plug and play one like the makerbot. But is it really plug and play?

Thanks again, and I will definitely keep asking questions until "Trudie" gets up and running. Yes I just decided to call her Trudie. One day perhaps I will change her name to Xtrudie.

Frantz

Hi there

OK, still nothing. I did a few things though. Here is where I am at.
I turned up the current on the pololu drivers. (no improvement)
I tested that my endstops worked. (they do)
I tested the voltage coming out of my power supply (20.1 V)
And when checking wiring out, I noticed something. I didn't do the wiring, but the friend that did does that all the time.
Anyway On the motors (Kysan 1124090), the wire color codes are: Blue Yellow Green Red
On the RAMPS 1.4, it is Red Blue Green Black
The way my motors are wired on the RAMPS is: Red Green Yellow Blue.
I have included 3 pictures. One I took and the other 2 from the Kysan website and the reprap.org.
Could someone tell me if there is something wrong here. I mean that could be it.

Thanks for checking this out

Frantz with a glimpse

Hi Frantz,

The wiring colors don't matter as much as the order they are in.

By this I mean left to right on your circuit board matches left to right on your stepper motors.

My motors came with 6 wires and the 2 outer wires on either side were switched on the small wiring harness they came with.

I only use the four inner wires. We will call these left to right, 1, 2, 3, 4. These connect in the same order to my board. If you have them completely reversed, they will still work but in reverse. These can then be changed physically or in the settings in sprinter. If you have them crossed as in left to right 1, 3, 2, 4, they will not work.

Can you show a pic showing the wires at the motor end.

The wiring sequence is correct according to the datasheet you linked. If you want to be really sure, disconnect the motor and use a meter to confirm that red/green and yellow/blue are ends of the same coil. If they aren't, then you can fix it by swapping the center two pins.

A possible point of confusion from earlier on the thread - you were playing with the motor enable button that sends M38. The default setting is enabled so if you're still hitting that button, don't.

Can you turn the motors by hand while powered? If they are turning freely, they aren't getting power.

Confirm that you have defined motherboard = 33 or 34 in configuration.h . 33 is the normal setup, 34 sacrifices fan control for dual extruder control, either will work for now.

Have you ever disconnected the motors while powered? That's a really good way to destroy stepper drivers. The newer pololus use a newer chip which is better protected against the reverse voltage produced this way, but you should still avoid disconnecting while powered.

Do you have access to an oscilloscope at all? Meters are of limited value when measuring pulsed outputs, but an oscilloscope will tell you what's going on.

Hi

As Andrew mentionned, I adjusted the number for the motherboard in the configuration.h. It was on 7 and when I put it to 33, O MIRACLE. My motors moved (4 out of 5 did)
So I tried to understand why the extruder one didn't work. I figured that perhaps one of my pololu was shot, so I took another one that I know works, but no luck.
I then plugged the extruder motor on the X-axis pololu, and the motor works. So the pololu works and the motor works. (could it be that end of the RAMPS that doesn't work or is it some other configuration.h issue. I hope for the latter.

Apart from that, the motors only go one way. When I try going negative it says echo:endstops hit: X:7.96. I checked the polarity of the wiring and it's good. I tested the endswitches and they work. The motors are all in mid position, so very far away from the endstops.

Now I have another problem. I must have done something uncool. When I plug in the USB, it says:
A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The hub to which it is attached to will be deactivated.
It happens when I put the Z-axis pololu in. I used another pololu and I get the same result. Is it bad doctor?

Anymore brilliant ideas ?

I'm all excited now, this is coming along, slowly but surely. I just hope that between an hour ago and later, I will not fry my RAMPS or any other part of Trudie.

Thanks everyone for all that constructive feedback

Frantz

OK the extruder motor is working now. It's not turning, but it gets power as I can't turn it when it's on. I click on extrude 5mm or reverse, but it doesn't move.

Frantz

Try inverting the endstop logic in configuration.h.

Have you connected the thermistor yet? If so, then you're probably triggering Marlin's safeties, it wont extrude unless the extruder is above 170.

Not sure on your USB power problem. The Z socket shouldn't be any different than any other except for the dual motor connectors. I'd start by checking for shorts on the socket. Examine the underside, look for any place two pins are directly connected by solder.