Reprap users in Auckland?

Hello,


I'm Rui and I'm an architecture student living in Auckland.

I've recently assembled a reprappro Huxley built from the parts I bought from the reprappro website. I was pretty careful in following the instructions and double checking at each step. But I'm currently having a couple issues with the y motor going in the same direction, extruder motor whistling and not mOving, heat bed not responsive and hot end non responsive. I have no prior experience in electronics and have been following forums and tried several things with no luck. I am stumped!

Is there a reprap community in Auckland/ any users nearby with more experience I could take my machine get someone to have a look?

Would appreciate any help!

Rui

See reply [forums.reprap.org]

Yes I have 4 reprap in my lab in the engineer department at the university of Auckland. My lab is the mechatronics lab room 403.504 at the moment there is one of my repraps in the engineering library.

Logan

What electronics, and what firmware? I'm in Nelson though

---

__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

This was posted 3 months ago...

A SL, with a damaged CPU... see [forums.reprap.org]

I never heard any more... so hopefully he is working now..

Hi Logan,


Its good to hear that there are users in Auckland. Your Lab is not far, when do you think it would be a good time to drop in? I'm on inter-semester break so I'm flexible.


Thanks,
Rui

@Dust


Back.

Hey thank heaps for your insight. I installed a new micro-chip and now the Y motor is fixed (so it was a short) + the heatbed is also measuring the right temperature on Ponterface but no response still in terms of heating. I might have blown something there.

Currently the issues remains:

1. Extruder motor clicking and not moving regardless of extruder motor driver resistance tweaks. the more clockwise i turn the driver, the louder the and faster the clicks, which don't sound good.

2. no response in extruder head. no readings either, so I'm suspecting that I haven't installed the thermistor correctly.

3. heatbed not working either, it's measuring 19 degrees now rather than the sporadic numbers, but no response in terms of heating up!

and I believe that is all. Sorry for the cold turkey, had just finished a semester at uni and now on break - ready to give it another crack. I'm going to try getting in touch with Logan at engineering, but until then I'll try the steps you posted on the other page.

Will post progress/ hopefully a conclusion!


Grace and peace,
Rui

Hi Rui

1) on pronterface lower left is a "extrude" and "reverse" buttons. Next to reverse is a number, this is the speed of extrusion and reverse (myne says 300). Try lowering this to about 50. and see if it makes any difference

2) check your wiring to the thermistor, also check the resistance of the thermistor.
You can also swap the heated build platform thermistor plugs with the hot end thermistor plug and see if pronterface will starts showing a temp on the hot end. If it does, there has to be an issue with your thermistor and or cable. If not... well we will address that if it happens. Remember to switch the plugs back after testing.
Its the right most two connections on [www.reprap.org]

3) Do you have any LED's on your Heated build platform? do they turn on? If you have LED and they don't turn on, i'm suspecting you may have blown a FET (3 legged thing near the USB plug) If the LED does turn on it may be working and you just haven't given it enough time.. depending on how much insulation there is it can take 20 mins to get to 60degrees (mine takes this long.. one day ill add insulation. But mine is also bigger, standard prusa sized vs huxley)

NB in case your tempted, don't swap the heater and Hot build Plate wires, the heater will work on the HBP, but the HBP will draw to much current and probably damage your PCB.

Hello Dust,


I took the Machine to Logan's Lab yesterday and the diagnostic from Logan was that one of the hotend resistor wire had been plugged into the hot end thermistor plug, therefore shorted the CPU. Also the Resistor had been shorted (which is what you were saying in your last post) He rewired it and currently I get correct temperature readings from ponterface "T:19 @:0 B:16" from both the hot end and heat bed which is good.

1) In terms of reverse and extrude, lowering the reverse to 50 makes the motor click without movement. However while it is at 300, the motor moves very slightly before it gets stuck on clicking again. This was something that wasn't observed before. So i swapped the Extruder Motor driver with the working X motor driver and realised that the extruder motor was working while the X clicked = FAULT IN EXTRUDER MOTOR DRIVER. do you know where I could get a cheap replacement?

2) {I think addressed}

new 2) when I plugged it in the machine this time, the Z motor moves in the opposite direction of the control panel. click up moves down and clicking down moves up. This wasn't an issue before the new CPU. I swapped motor drivers with the working Y, and the same problem still exists, so do you think this is CPU firmware or the software that I'm using?

3)My LED on the head bed platform doesn't turn on. It used to when I first plugged it in. I'm getting correct temperature readings from Heatbed on ponterface, So I think I may have blown the FET you were talking about. Any suggestions?


Thanks for the walkthrough bro.

Rui

A quick reply since I should be asleep..

1) [www.trademe.co.nz] they aren't that cheap... you will have to solder the legs on.

2) turn you z motor cables around 180 degrees (or you can change the direction in firmware) but if the plugs let you, just turn them around. If they don't then you will need to re-flash your firmware. Either way its not a fault, just a setting.

3) get a new FET the part number is STP55NF06L a good electronics shop should have it... do you have a jaycar?

Full specs here [nz.mouser.com]

You can order it from mouser, but the shipping will be $15-$20 for a $3 part.

NB these things are static sensitive, ie touch it a little as possible ,and keep away from static ( no walking over carpet with it in your hands, unless its in those silver bags)

From the diagram it is the bottom FET between the power plug and the top FET on the left hand side [www.reprap.org]
Your going to have to remove the old one and put in the new one... Do not over heat the PCB or you will destroy it.

I would get someone who has soldered lots before to do these....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 09:30PM by Dust.

First up thanks "dust", your input has been incredibly. Valuable and I got all the parts.

@lstu012

Hello again Logan,


I was wondering if I could bring my reprappro Huxley into your mechatronics lab again to get it going? I have some delicate soldering to do on both a stepper motor driver and potentially soldering on a fet on the pcb, to which both I have no experience on doing. Is this something you could help get going fairly quickly?

I'll shout you a box of beers in return for your help!

Thanks Logan,
Rui