Problem solved: A ferrite torus was enough to stop my computer to get USB disconnects caused by EMI. misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
You shouldcheck the outtput of dmesg command on a terminal window to see whether the USB port was disconnected or not when the printer stops working. Mine complains about EMI (interference). Have you got any error when uploading code to your arduino board? Cheers, misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
I've bought an SD card for my RAMPS, it still is not the answer, as it stops randomly too. I am adding D1 and removing USB while printing. misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
You're not using a Kingston card, right? The wiki mentions it is not supported as it lacks of SPI interface. I do not know if any other brand might be at fault here too. misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
OK, 32 bit. I have not tested 10.10 version, only 10.4. My problem was that some Ok responses were missing and print stopped because of this. Printing without power to the RAMPS board did not change the situation. dmesg command showed no new connecton/disconnection of USB port. Data was only lost on receive channel and not very often but after lots of tests and no ideas, I bought a Mega 2560 becaby misan - RAMPS Electronics
I was having trouble with ftdi_sio driver in 64 bit lInux only. Is your version 64 bits too? I reckon it is a driver problem as I have several systems running 32 bit 10.4 Ubuntu talking to FTDI-based arduinos without a problem. misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
Can you try with Windows (even if it is within a Virtual Machine with vmplayer)? misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
Is it possible that you were using microstepping with your old setup and not with the new one? Just a thought, misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
Similar problem here Daniel. Have you tried dmesg command to see whether the USB port has been disconnected from the system while printing? I do get some message about port being disconnected due to EMI with Mega 2560. Problems of missing bytes with FTDI-based Mega 1280 (may be only happening with 64bits ubuntu). misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
I'm having some trouble with my Mega 2560 (that replaced a 1280 that was giving me another problem) when I use it with my desktop: USB port gets disconnected as soon as the printer starts moving some steppers (port is disconnected due to EMI interference). All works nicely when used from my notebook. Can you try the same: printing from a battery powered laptop to see if it works? misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
You can use the code in the preflight test of RAMPS: Just make sure you wire it to the right pins (for example change the values below and connect these pins to the corresponding pins of your stepstick). #define X_STEP_PIN 7 #define X_DIR_PIN 8 #define X_ENABLE_PIN 9 Please remember stepstick needs another voltage for the motors (from an external power supply, 12v is oby misan - Reprappers
I think this is the case with RAMPS. You flip the connection and you invert the motor direction. Maybe other electronics have a different pinout with a different result. misanby misan - Reprappers
Are you sure your steppers are connected right? If so, are you sure the Pololu driving it is not faulty? (You can exchange it for the one driving other axis that are known to work ok). I have had one defective Stepstick that exhibit an erratic behaviour. It just didn't work ok, but it made the motor kind of rattle and move but not smoothly. misanby misan - Reprappers
It sounds as if your z-axis is missing steps. Can you give it a bit more current by turning the pololu/stepstick potentiomenter 90 degres clockwise? Is that helping? Regarding your second question: Are pronterface home buttons working as expected on each axis? misanby misan - Reprappers
Hi bdcannon, I am using the latest LTS which is the 10.4 aka Lucid Lynx version of Ubuntu, 64bits version. I can see the Mega 2560 is only available with 8U2 instead of FTDI usbserial adapter. Lucky you! Thanks, misanby misan - General
I have been searching for an answer for a couple of weeks with no luck. I am running my Prusa with Sprinter firmware and Pronterface. When I use OSX on a Mac everything goes ok. Same with windows. But when I try to use my office computer that has Ubuntu 10.4 64bits my prints stop at random times. After giving it some thought, I realized that uploading firmware from Arduino 022 in that machine aby misan - General
My Prusa is using two Epson stepper for X and Y axis savaged from two old printers. Not only the motors but the belts and pulleys are useful. They are working nicely and saved me more than fifty bucks. misanby misan - General
There are several problems to put all this in a PCI card format. 1) Power (you need more power than you can get from the bus) 2) Are your old computers so new the have PCIe? 3) The glue logic for handling the bus plus the PCB you need to create are more than $100. 4) The timing of a modern computer is not as predictable as a small microcontroller (you may end up having trouble even if you succeby misan - General
I have given a try to electrical tape and it is working now ok even for large prints. I am not sure for how long though. misanby misan - General
Exactly! Same problem here. I set the three "Extra Shells" options to 0 and it is now printing the bar clamp solid. Thanks, misanby misan - Skeinforge
I'm afraid vinyl duct tape is not the answer for large prints. I'm also having adhesion problems with large printsby misan - General
Hi guys, I've been suffering this problem when I've just started trying to calibrate my Prusa Mendel (mega 1280 + ramps 1.4). I've gone through a sequence of steps and now I think I've identified the problem I am suffering. Maybe some of you may have a similar one. Prints were interrupted after a while, not clear cause nor a fixed command in the print First guess it was en EMI problem, but thenby misan - Firmware - mainstream and related support
Por fin en marcha y calibrando. He probado Sprinter y Marlin, pero el segundo se me queda colgado a veces mientras imprimo, aunque no estoy seguro si es un problema del firmware o de mi Mega. Empecé con RepSnapper pero ahora estoy usando Pronterface con Skeinforge que parece bastante más elaborado (y más engorroso de calibrar) y con mejor resultado de impresión. Francamente entretenido y desesperby misan - RepRap en Español
Won't it be easier to print a plastic part and they put it inside a sand/glue mix to make a mold? So molten metal can later be poured into that mold. I know it is a two parts process but it sounds to me like it can give you the desired result. Molten metal will evaporate the original plastic part inside the mold (be careful with the gases). misanby misan - General
I'm using duct temp on my aluminium (non-heated) bed (It was the tape I had at hand). My blue PLA is sticking to it very well (though my prints till now are not very tall and not longer than five minutes of print time). misanby misan - General
Hace unos días he subido un código para testear RAMPS a la wiki que me pasó Bart Meijer de RepRapWorld.by misan - RepRap en Español
USB won't power your Prusa. It only can power the Arduino board (but not the steppers).by misan - RAMPS Electronics
Bart Meijer from RepRapWorld sent me his Arduino sketch for testing my RAMPS 1.4 board. I found it very useful and I have added to the wiki. You may want to check this out after building your RAMPS board. Please note it will switch on and off your heated-bed and extruder hot-end too besides moving all the motors and flashing the leds. Disconnect them if you do not want any heating while testing.by misan - RAMPS Electronics
Almost fixed. Two defective StepSticks made me think nothing was working. Once I diagnosed them all the rest seem to be working nicely. misanby misan - RAMPS Electronics
I've finished soldering my RAMPS 1.4 board and now I'm trying to test everything is ok. I'm powering the 5A input with a 12V power supply and just trying with X-axis (with a jumper in the x-axis end-stop) and an stepper connected to the X-axis pololu. My first surprise was that power led is not lit in RAMPS board when powered up. Next I realized it is connected to Arduino's pin 13. If I run Blinby misan - RAMPS Electronics