first startup problems

Over the last few months I've been building a Prusa i3,, and last night got to power it up for the first time.

Connected to PC via USB first, seemed OK lights flashing on atmega etc, however when powering from mains, the heated bed and hotend started heating and the extruder stepper motor starts stepping). However the PC software(Pronterface) doesnt seem to be able to connect to the printer. I think the issue is comms between the pc and the arduino, any suggestions as to how this could be checked out?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

First of all, welcome!

You should look around on the forum and see if you can find your info there. There is a lot to find about the issue you are describing and I'm sure the answer is in there!

My guess is that you should set the correct port to connect to your printer and especially set it at the correct baud rate. I prefer to use 250.000 but this is usually not standard on new boards.
In pronterface you can easily set the baud rate and choose different ones to see when it will finally connect when you have the correct one.

Good luck so far!

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

Hi ohmarinas, thanks for your reply.
I'm not convinced it is a port selection issue, as every time pronterface tries to connect the arduino seems to reset, or at least the lights stop flashing, so something seems to be getting through. But then it just sits there. Does any software need to be downloaded to the arduino before attempting to communicate with it by pronterface?

Cheers

hillybilly52

Have you uploaded the firmware to the Arduino?

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_______________________________________
Waitaki 3D Printer

No, I want sure if anythingneeded to be. what do I need to upload.?

Quote
hillybilly52
No, I want sure if anythingneeded to be. what do I need to upload.?

You will need Marlin or similar firmware.
See my Instructable (link in my signature) or start here:
[www.instructables.com]

Steve

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My updated Instructable on our Prusa i3 Build
[www.instructables.com]

Hi Steve,

thanks for your suggestion, found you build instructions really useful, thanks. I've downloaded the marlin software, however when I try to compile in the arduino ide get the following error messages:

In file included from BlinkM.cpp:5:
/Marlin.h:30:22: error: Arduino.h: No such file or directory
/Marlin.h:50:21: error: WString.h: No such file or directory
In file included from /Marlin.h:41,
from BlinkM.cpp:5:
MarlinSerial.h:150: error: expected ',' or '...' before '&' token
MarlinSerial.h:150: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'String' with no type
MarlinSerial.h:169: error: expected ',' or '...' before '&' token
MarlinSerial.h:169: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'String' with no type
/MarlinSerial.h: In member function 'void MarlinSerial::print(int)':
MarlinSerial.h:152: error: 's' was not declared in this scope

Any suggestions to get around this.

Thanks
hillybilly52

Looks like you don't have all of the files, and you don't need blink. Where did you get the printer from? You should go to their website and download all of the files for marlin. Make sure they are in the same folder and you may have to rename the folder to the same name as the .ino file. Go into your arduino dashboard and open the .ino file. Make sure all of the files that you downloaded are tabbed across the top, then edit the configuration.h file to make sure it is set up for your printer. Then upload that file set to the arduino just like you did the blink program. Then you should be able to link to it with pronterface.

Not sure what's causing the errors.
I have ver 1.05 of the Arduino IDE and downloaded Marlin from the github site.
You just need to open the Marlin.ino file in the IDE - that will open the others in the IDE, you will see them in the tabs.
Try a test compile (not upload) with the stock Configuration.h file by clicking the check-mark of the IDE.
If that compiles OK then change the Configuration.h and try again

Steve

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jrcaster
Looks like you don't have all of the files, and you don't need blink. Where did you get the printer from? You should go to their website and download all of the files for marlin. Make sure they are in the same folder and you may have to rename the folder to the same name as the .ino file. Go into your arduino dashboard and open the .ino file. Make sure all of the files that you downloaded are tabbed across the top, then edit the configuration.h file to make sure it is set up for your printer. Then upload that file set to the arduino just like you did the blink program. Then you should be able to link to it with pronterface.

I got the printer through ebay from someone that had given up building it, however on the website he got it from there (gadgets3d.com) there do not appear to be any links to drivers only pdfs for the build, which dont refer to the software side of things at all.

Quote
SteveRoy
Not sure what's causing the errors.
I have ver 1.05 of the Arduino IDE and downloaded Marlin from the github site.
You just need to open the Marlin.ino file in the IDE - that will open the others in the IDE, you will see them in the tabs.
Try a test compile (not upload) with the stock Configuration.h file by clicking the check-mark of the IDE.
If that compiles OK then change the Configuration.h and try again.

I'm using the same version of the Arduino IDE and downloading Marlin directly from github, when test compiling I consistently get the same errors I mentioned in my previous post. How do i stop it from trying to include blink. there seems to be a lot of pages loaded, too many to actually display all the tabs across the top of the IDE.

Finally after 6 weeks of frustration, several PC rebuilds, several cables and boards, I have finally managed to communicate with my Prusa i3. Not sure what exactly resolved the problem in the end, but the printer came very close to being advertised on Ebay!!

Using printerface, I can control the extruder head and flat bed temps, seems to be accurate as I have confirmed the temperatures with an IR thermometer. The extruder appears to be driving properly (although it hasn't seen any plastic yet). So far so good, however when I try to move in any of the 3 axis, nothing is happening, well nothing is moving, the motors sound like they are trying to drive but I assume they are just stalling.
Any suggestions? my system consists of a mega2560 with RAMPS 1.4 and a bulldoglite extruder head.

Any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated after all this time I feel I'm actually getting close to owning a working printer.

Cheers

hillybilly52

Quote
hillybilly52
Over the last few months I've been building a Prusa i3,, and last night got to power it up for the first time.

Connected to PC via USB first, seemed OK lights flashing on atmega etc, however when powering from mains, the heated bed and hotend started heating and the extruder stepper motor starts stepping). However the PC software(Pronterface) doesnt seem to be able to connect to the printer. I think the issue is comms between the pc and the arduino, any suggestions as to how this could be checked out?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

make sure your com port is set to the same data size as the program you are using to talk to your printer. I had to change mine in the device manager from 9600 on com 7 to 115200 that the firmware of the arduino was using.

Quote
hillybilly52
Finally after 6 weeks of frustration, several PC rebuilds, several cables and boards, I have finally managed to communicate with my Prusa i3. Not sure what exactly resolved the problem in the end, but the printer came very close to being advertised on Ebay!!

Using printerface, I can control the extruder head and flat bed temps, seems to be accurate as I have confirmed the temperatures with an IR thermometer. The extruder appears to be driving properly (although it hasn't seen any plastic yet). So far so good, however when I try to move in any of the 3 axis, nothing is happening, well nothing is moving, the motors sound like they are trying to drive but I assume they are just stalling.
Any suggestions? my system consists of a mega2560 with RAMPS 1.4 and a bulldoglite extruder head.

Any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated after all this time I feel I'm actually getting close to owning a working printer.

Cheers

hillybilly52

could be your motors aren't aligned, the belts are tight enough or overly tight, or your stepper calculations could be wrong in the firmware to program communication. I.E your program is sending the wrong amount of motor steps to the printer to move your axis.

It's Alive!

Movement at last, all 3 axis working (unfortunately though both Y and Z appear to move in the wrong direction, and the Y and Z endstops do not appear to be working, is this related?). The previous problem was due to the ramps trimpots only being set to 0.2 volts, setting these to 1.4v brought it to life.

A few more questions though.

1.Now there is a reasonable current passing through the drivers, they will need cooling, how do I turn the fans on.
2.How do I change direction of Y and Z axis.

As usual any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hillybilly52

1. Which fans? You don't necessarily need fabs to cool the drivers, only if you have the current turned up high.

2. Reverse the 4-way stepper loom connectors on the RAMPS board.

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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].

You can also change the direction your motors run in Marlin:

#define INVERT_X_DIR false // for Mendel set to false, for Orca set to true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false // for Mendel set to true, for Orca set to false
#define INVERT_Z_DIR false // for Mendel set to false, for Orca set to true
#define INVERT_E0_DIR true // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false
#define INVERT_E1_DIR false // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false
#define INVERT_E2_DIR false // for direct drive extruder v9 set to true, for geared extruder set to false

Try swapping those around if you're having direction issues.

In terms of cooling, your drivers shouldn't need external fans provided they have those little tiny heat-sinks on them (little finned hunks of aluminum you stick on). Even without the heat-sinks, passive cooling (assuming that you haven't got an enclosure around the drivers) should be adequate.