extruder to extruding during printing and not in right place HELP plz

Hello,
To start off with I am new to 3d printing and just put together my first Geeetch i3 pro C printer. It went together great and everything seems to work (lcd, steppers, etc..) However, when I load a stl file and start it the z axis moves off the print bed and is not printing in the center nor is the extruder putting out any filament. I know the extruder works because in manual mode I can extrude the filament just fine. How do I fix these issues? also I have read a lot of these post where everyone is posting their configurations, where can I locate mine and change the settings? I have a GT2560 control board with ramps 1.4 and marlin firmware. I really am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have leveled the bed using the paper method, but not sure where to set my different axis steppers to home. IF any one can help me set up my printer to at least get a test print going that would be awesome.
thanks

The home position for your printer should be at the end stops. For an i3 this is usually Xmax, Ymin, Z min.

Was the firmware already loaded to the arduino, or did you load it. If you can provide the marlin version you have that would help, but most the settings are in configuration.h for the released versions. ( the dev version is another story)

If you have downloaded firmware from GitHub, then you will need to step through all the settings and make sure they match your hardware. Endstops, steps....

I thank you for the help, but now i cant get the printer to do anything. I think when i tried to download marlin firmware i somehow screwed that up cause the lcd screen on the printer is showing two black lines and i have zero control over the printer. Is there anyway to reformat the gt2560 board. And just so i am sure i do i load the firmware into it? This is where i may have messed things up. Im very new to all this so i have alot of questions. Oh and i have windows 7 64bit. Thanks

Do you have the Arduino IDE installed?
Did you set the port and processor model in the IDE? ( processor is Mega 2560 in your case )
Port number depends on your PC. Connect the GT2560 board with the USB of your PC.
It will recognize it and you can see in "Hardware Manager" which COM-port is assigned to the 2560 board.

Now open the " Clear Eprom" program, provided by ArduinoIDE. It is located in the "Examples" section.
Start uploading it and see, if that works.

Now open the Marlin Software you`ve downloaded somewhere and go through all the lines in the "configuration.h"-tab.
You´ll have to set many variables to match your Printer. ( Many of the informations you can find here already )
Then save the changed firmware on your PC with a different name, like "geetech-crap"

Now you can upload the new firmware and see, if it works again.
-Olaf

when you built the printer or assembled it did you just go in and try to print straight away? theres calibrations need to be done first

And a prusa i3 home position is front left corner and all endstops on min x should not be on the right side it should be on left side min

please refer to the original prusa i3 wiki for assistance

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2015 09:30PM by chris33.

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Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

up and running
[3dimetech.blogspot.co.uk]

Thanks to all of the help and info everyone has provided. I have figured out that somewhere along the line i fired the control board. So i have a new one coming. Can someone please give step by step info on what to do once i get the new board wired up. Meaning what gets loaded first firmware, etc.... Once again i dont mean to sound stupid but i am learning all of this. I have cleaned my pc of all previous software such arduino and marlin also the repieter host. So i will have redownload everything. I just want to make i do things right this time. It was a costly mistake on my part. Life and learn i guess

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2015 10:37PM by 1978bamf.

Quote
1978bamf
Thanks to all of the help and info everyone has provided. I have figured out that somewhere along the line i fired the control board. So i have a new one coming. Can someone please give step by step info on what to do once i get the new board wired up. Meaning what gets loaded first firmware, etc.... Once again i dont mean to sound stupid but i am learning all of this. I have cleaned my pc of all previous software such arduino and marlin also the repieter host. So i will have redownload everything. I just want to make i do things right this time. It was a costly mistake on my part. Life and learn i guess

I fried my board as well due to no bootloader, more like fried 2 of my stepstick. Lets get to the point

-Identify your board, change the board type in marlin, this is most important
-If you are using melzi/sangui board, try to connect using pronterface/repetier before wire everything up on the printer mechanical stuffs to avoid mechanical damages. Other boards also recommended to be checked through pronterface/repetier before wire up the mechanical stuffs
-Enable eeprom capability on marlin then flash to the board
-Put all of your axis at the center of their travel range this is to identify that the motor moves to the correct direction
-Calibrate your max travel range for all 3 axis then home offset for x or y or both axis. No need for z axis home offset, (my max is around 200 for all 3, only y has a -20 offset)
-Calibrate your steps per mm using prusa calculator
-Calibrate your extruder to ensure it pulls the correct amount of raw filament
-Save the setting in the eeprom, if you found the setting is good or found a perfect setting, copy the parameter to the firmware so that you can copy to other board if you are planning to change to other board but using the same machine
-One last thing, for a newbie better start with cura since cura adds some extra gcode command at the start and end of gcode file such as homing before print, lift the nozzle up a bit after print has ended while slic3r and repetier they don't add these extra little codes, from your first post I suspect you started printing without even heating up the nozzle first. I had that coming too last time when trying the repetier by geeetech, the motor grinding the filament

I also learned the hard way, now my lcd is dead and using geeetech i3b (I think). The machine is great, the structure and all but the electronics is somewhat lacking the quality checks and lacking of proper assembly instructions

Sarf2K4,
First thanks for the great info. Next when i download the marlin firmware how do i flash the board? And my extruders were working only when I manually used them on the repeaterHost program but if i tried to print they did nothing. And yeah i tried to print strait away with out uploading firmware as i was not aware i had to. I have arduino downloaded now and haven't done anything else yet. Im still waiting on my board to come in the mail. I will download marlin again. I have found some configurationsH files here. But my question is do i just type in what i want to change or do i have to do something special in order to change the configurationsH file? And last how do i enable the eeprom feature in marlin? Im learning this as i go and everyone here has been super awesome and helpful.
Thanks

The Geeetech forums explain how to upload the firmware.

But you shouldnt have to upload any firmware, they come pre uploaded

Quote
1978bamf
Sarf2K4,
First thanks for the great info. Next when i download the marlin firmware how do i flash the board? And my extruders were working only when I manually used them on the repeaterHost program but if i tried to print they did nothing. And yeah i tried to print strait away with out uploading firmware as i was not aware i had to. I have arduino downloaded now and haven't done anything else yet. Im still waiting on my board to come in the mail. I will download marlin again. I have found some configurationsH files here. But my question is do i just type in what i want to change or do i have to do something special in order to change the configurationsH file? And last how do i enable the eeprom feature in marlin? Im learning this as i go and everyone here has been super awesome and helpful.
Thanks

Try to read the commented lines, you don't have to change those pid settings unless you got everything up and working, then run pid autotune and change it again in the config.h. Repetier host is something for advanced user to be frank because I tried to print last time through repetier host, you have to set everything by yourself. My extruder also didn't extrude any plastic and turned out to be that the slicer in repetier host didn't set any temperature for bed and hot end before the print start. So it just start to print while the hot end is cold and grinding my filament

I used cura for slicing, pronterface to print using cura gcode. Because cura is beginner friendly, those start and end gcodes are good examples that has temperature set for both bed and hot end, auto home first then starts to print.

Try to use cura+pronterface, I would recommend these for beginners, slic3r however also good but too much settings that most beginners and advanced users find it somewhat cumbersome to set up and change the infill and those things including myself (correct me here).