I screwed up. I have a Starter 2 printer x,y,z cartesian, need help PLEASE

I screwed up. I have a Starter 2 printer x,y,z cartesian, need help PLEASE. I haven't used this printer in years. I decider to rebuild it using aluminum instead of printed pla. I decided to upgrade my firmware to the latest version. This is where I screwed up. I did not copy the configuration.h file from the old firmware. My up load failed and now I have a printer with no firmware it. I am new to this and do not know the values to use in the configuration.h file. Does anyone out there have a configuration that is complete that I can try? That will make my printer work? I have tried Repetier firmware, Repetier firmware-master, Sprinter-master, Marlin-reprappro-Mendel-june-2012, and RepRapFirmware-master and none will get the printer to work.

The same printer when I power it up does not display, the display and the heated bed turns on by its self and does not exhibit any control over the temperature.

first thing: would be helpful if you provide a photo of your controller board including cabling and your printer.
then we might be able to help.

Sorry for only one photo. It seems that my Nikon makes the file too large. The Arduino is 2560 mega. the controller is a RAMPS V 1.4 I hope this helps you some.

Jim

I have never heard of a "Starter 2" printer. Is that a "thing" or just what you have gotten used to calling it?

Without your prior configuration.h file you issues are legion. See if you can get that, otherwise you will be "guess hacking", counting teeth on stepper sprockets and looking up z-axis screw pitches and stepper settings. You have a "stock" looking MEGA2560 and RAMPS board, so that will be well covered in the typical configuration settings.
Your next step depends upon what firmware you decide to use (Repetier, Marlin, etc.).

DLC

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Kits: Folgertech Kossel 2020 upgraded E3Dv6, Anet A8 upgraded E3Dv6, Tevo Tarantula enhanced parts and dual-head, TronXY X5SA Pro(E3DHemera).
Scratch: Large bed Cartesian, exchangeable heads, Linear slide Delta, Maker-Beam XL Micro Delta, 220x220CoreXY.

First of all thank you for replying to my cry for help. To answer your questions Starter 2 is the name of the printer. It was built in California. I paid 500.00 for it in 2014. I bought it off ebay. I did see a post from another person that bought one. I have not been able to find the post or do I remember the name or the forum it was posted on. I am still trying to find that person. I did have some interaction with the makers of the printer in 2014. I asked them for the printer files of the hardware because my printer the printed hardware was separating. They did send me the files and I now have only two of them for the X and Y bearing blocks. The post that the other person posted asked for the printer hardware files because he loved the printer. I assume he had the same problem with the hardware failing. The printer came with WisePrintek V 1.0.5 software and there is a file with the documentation. The software will not install on my windows 10 and can not get it compatible with win 10. I can not post them here because they are too large for this forum. The documentation shows pictures of the printer and tells how to set it up. If you can give me your email address I can email them to you.

Jim .

Quote
jimav76

First of all thank you for replying to my cry for help. To answer your questions Starter 2 is the name of the printer. It was built in California. I paid 500.00 for it in 2014. I bought it off ebay. I did see a post from another person that bought one. I have not been able to find the post or do I remember the name or the forum it was posted on. I am still trying to find that person. I did have some interaction with the makers of the printer in 2014. I asked them for the printer files of the hardware because my printer the printed hardware was separating. They did send me the files and I now have only two of them for the X and Y bearing blocks. The post that the other person posted asked for the printer hardware files because he loved the printer. I assume he had the same problem with the hardware failing. The printer came with WisePrintek V 1.0.5 software and there is a file with the documentation. The software will not install on my windows 10 and can not get it compatible with win 10. I can not post them here because they are too large for this forum. The documentation shows pictures of the printer and tells how to set it up. If you can give me your email address I can email them to you.

Jim .

WARNING: I am typing from memory in a stream-of-consciousness mode, so do these things below in an order that makes sense to you, not necessarily the order in which I write them! I mention "Pronterface" often. This is an open-source program that most of us use to troubleshoot and configure our DIY printers. It is worth the effort to get it.

Have you completely lost your old firmware because you did not have the source? If so, you will be looking up parts and experimenting.
Have heart! This is not really that hard, it is just a little bit tedious. To me it looks like you have a standard MEGA2560 controller with a RAMPS 1.3 or 1.4 board and REPRAP Discount smart controller. Your supply is a 12V system and you look like you have a Cartesian printer layout. This will be easier to bully through than a Delta printer.
You have all your wiring as before, so you know that your steppers are wired correctly and will work, maybe backwards at first, but that is easy to correct.

Your biggest issue is figuring out what the steps/mm need to be for all your axes and extruder. No big, for X and Y count the teeth. If all of your jumpers are installed under the stepper drivers on the RAMPS board, and your step-sticks are A4988's (green board, dirt common stepper driver) then your steps/mm will be figured thus:
STEPSperROTATION: for a standard 1.8 deg. stepper = 200 (if you have a .9 deg stepper that is 400)
MICROSTEPS: If all the jumpers are installed under the stepper driver boards then you are set to 16 microsteps, assuming they are A4988's, as I am guessing.
BELTPITCH for our small printers is typically GT2, so 2
PULLYTEETH This is your guess. The most common pulley is a 20 tooth, then 16 tooth, then something else. Try the 20 first and measure the movement. If way off, they are probably 16 tooth.

STEPSperROTATION * MICROSTEPS / BELTPITCH / PULLEYTEETH, assuming the above, we get:
200*16/2/20 = 80, if 16 tooth pulleys, we get 100. This is ONLY for the X and Y axes.

The Z is most likely either a lead screw, or if high-end, a ball screw. This number can be anything between 400 and 800 steps/mm, depending upon the configuration. Printers that move the Y axis by moving the bed (Prusa-style) tend to be 400 steps/mm. My home-built Cartesian printer is 760 steps/mm for Z, it just depends upon the lead screw thread pitch. Someone here can tell you how to calculate it, I have never had to, so I'd have to look it up myself.

The extruder is something different as well. If your extruder is a direct drive type (drives the filament right from the stepper), it can be between 40 and 100 steps/mm. If it has a large gear on it, then it is a geared extruder and may run as high as 500-700 steps/mm. Pick a number and guess, you can tweak it in with a ruler and Pronterface to extrude and retract and measure the filament movement.

Use Pronterface and g-code commands to find out how your endstops work. My guess is that because your printer looks like a Cartesian, all of the endstops will be "min" and mark the '0 spot' of travel. But they may go high or low at when activated, so use the g-code M119 to see what you have and edit your configuration.h file (Marlin) accordingly.

Now you need to figure your thermistor settings for your extruder hot end and heated bed (if you have one). Start out by picking '5' for each of them and see if their ambient temperatures agree with each other and your room thermometer. If way off, try '1' next. If that is off, then either buy some thermistors that you know what they are, or keep guessing until you find a thermistor number that comes reasonably close.

The Marlin printer github site has a pretty good tutorial on how to set up your configuration.h file and is a good place to start. There are a bazillion other sites "out there" that give their advice as well. Some of them might actually be pretty good.

To see something on your display, remember to set the graphics up in configuration.h. It looks like you have the reprap discount smart controller, so select that down near the bottom of the configuration.h file. If you have an SD card slot, enable it too.

Finally, pick your baud rate for the serial port. Most use 250000 bps, the rest use 115200 bps, as a rule.

Marlin 1.1.9 had some problems for me, so I stayed at 1.1.8. I am not brave enough to alpha or beta test the Marlin 2.0 code yet...

Good luck and have fun!
DLC

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2020 06:31PM by dlc60.

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Kits: Folgertech Kossel 2020 upgraded E3Dv6, Anet A8 upgraded E3Dv6, Tevo Tarantula enhanced parts and dual-head, TronXY X5SA Pro(E3DHemera).
Scratch: Large bed Cartesian, exchangeable heads, Linear slide Delta, Maker-Beam XL Micro Delta, 220x220CoreXY.

Thank you for your time and efforts to help me. I am going to start today using your instructions to hopefully get this printer working. Your information and expertise is terrific. More will be revealed.

Jim