I can't connect to my printer after an event.

Alright, some information: I've been following RepRap for two years, and finally saved up enough money to actually buy a kit. Yup, that's right, I'm new. So a month ago, I ordered, all the parts for a Prusa came in two weeks ago. I started assembling that very first day. The frame gave me no trouble at all. Motor installation, easy. then we came to the wiring. Alright, that means that I need a crimper.

A2A Printer's isntructions never mentioned this, I couldn't have found anything on the wiki, I had to find this out on the IRC. No big deal, I spend a week scavenging the connector ends from old machines and soldering them to the wires.

Then, having done all that, I got my Arduino Mega 2560 set up, got my RAMPs 1.4 board attached to it, soldered up my pololu shields, and installed the firmware (Sprinter default rom Ultimaker), It worked, amazing, I was moving motors through pronterface.

But a motor was clicking. So I took out the pololu shield (after everything was very turned off at multiple stages) and adjusted the dial to lower it. I plug it back in. It doesn't seem to move. I then realize, the program didn't connect. I check devices, trying to connect my printer to my laptop again. And guess what? The serial bus on my laptop has completely died. As in, USB ports do not work any longer

Here's where we get silly. I have one other computer that works. A 15 year old desktop running XP on 3/8th a gig of ram and carrying a 250 gig hard drives. It is very derpy. But, using my wits and the breif intermittance of function on my usb drives, I get my files off of the laptop and onto the desktop. Install the driver, set up pronterface, and it works.

It works, holy cow, I did not expect it to. So back to work: I unplug the USB again, and take out another shield and put it in the same place. Nothing happens. Then I put the first one back in the place of the second one, and try again. But before I go to turn on pronterface, I realize, oh I turned off the power supply in addition to unplugging it.

I plug it in, turn on pronterface, and try to run those two motors. Still nothing. And then I realize the following.

I installed those two shields backwards.

So RIP pololu shield. That's right, only one seems to have died. I don't understand why the other one's still ok. .

Delightful.

The board lights up, unless this particular shieldis in place anywhere on it, so I'm getting a replacement. Now the trouble is, Pronterface no longer has the com port that the printer used to connect to. I've reset it a bunch, both the printer and the computer, no luck. What the heck happened, what should I do?

I don't think I am following...does it work/not working on the old XP or laptop? Is your laptop's USB ok? like does it work with an USB mouse?

It stopped working on my laptop at all, then I used it on the desktop where it did work. After popping a pololu shield, it stopped reading on the desktop, losing one of the COMs in the process. So I'm fairly lost as to how to diagnose the problem. My laptop USB ports kind of work, sporadically. I think it's shorting somewhere.

It might have damaged the FTDI chip and / or the USB port on your desktop.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

How would I be able to test or confirm this, and if it is the problem, what should I do about it?

Test the USB port on your PC with another device. If it broken use another port or get a new motherboard.

Check you have 5V on the 5V rail. Remove the RAMPS board, If you still don't get a com port appearing when you plug it in I think the FTDI chip on the MEGA has gone. Probably time for a new MEGA if that is the case unless you are into surface mount rework.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]