not sure if this is the problem, but it's a problem no matter what. I'm not a genius, but pretty sure a melted RAMPS board is a bad sign? LOL I feel like I'm a carpenter that's trying to fix a cheap-ass hammer from China, and wasting my time. Perhaps I should cut my losses and buy a new fricken 'out-of-the-box' printer. But, since parts are cheap for these kits, for now I'll just buy a new RAby PixelPusher - General
THank you for the feedback guys. fyi: (I know nothing about code or elec engineering. I'm just a 3d artist). I have EEPROM disabled so is your suggestion still valid? to reset EEPROM will typing "M500" do the trick? Does resetting EEPROM erase all of my settings in config h? Cuz that was a total headache getting all those settings working correctly.by PixelPusher - General
Extruder heats as normal, then struggles around 215c (normally reaches 230 no problem)... forcing me to shut everything down. Bed won't even heat up either. The only difference is I've changed my heat bed to 0 (trying new method of printing onto cotton/denim). **note: tried to go back to default bed temp of 90c to go back to "normal" and now I can't get anything working. (got an error of 'heaterby PixelPusher - General
Thanks for the tips. Origamib- i too now believe its a hardware issue. At least, I feel that is the best place to start looking. I re-organized my wires, re-inserted most of them... basic cleanup of my reprap and components. I have done about 10 prints now without problem.. although I feel this could creep up again. I'll research what "mosfet" is too. Like your idea of running a dry print, difby PixelPusher - General
Tinchus- Just did some tests, one brim was okay (simple object) but complex objects brim didn't help at all. Tabs worked great on the complex object. I'm glad I posted because I forgot about brim, I'll use those on basic pieces. Appreciate the feedback Tinchus!by PixelPusher - Printing
Thank you!!! I honestly forgot all about brim... lol. I used it when I first started but still got warping and assumed it was a useless function (never saw any tutorial videos of people using it). My assumption was that it was only 1 layer high and not enough of a "hold". Although, it's been a while since I used brim and I've learned so much (better heating numbers and other adjustments) I probaby PixelPusher - Printing
Hey guys, warping probably will never be completely solved with RepRaps, but I did find a solution that has helped me tremendously. I added "tabs" to corners and ends of my model. The "tabs" (see pic) act as a sort of anchor and more surface area to keep model attached to heat bed. The bigger the tabs you make, the better chances of it sticking. Keeping the thickness to at least 2mm seems to worby PixelPusher - Printing
Also, Installed new E3D Lite6 Extruder kit. But that was 5 months ago and has been working great up until now.by PixelPusher - General
Hey guys, did a little poking around, seen similar situations but I'm concerned with messing with temp variables too much (don't wanna start a fire!) Prusai3 kit Arduino 1.6.8 Repetier 1.6.1 Have been printing for months without any problems regarding temperature. Heats up quickly and stays hot (bad and ext), until recently. I updated to latest firmware versions but no luck. I still get same errby PixelPusher - General
James- your solution works great... can't beat a $5 fix. I used your dbl-yel wire idea, seems fine. Thank you! and thanks to others' who helped me too.by PixelPusher - General
beautiful. Yea, just a single yel wire (had 4 ATX wires connected to PCB via connector plug). Think i'll check out NAPA Auto Parts down the road, they might have the in-line fuse, if not I'll go online. Thank you so much, James. I'll let you know how it turns out!by PixelPusher - General
Awesome. So, that made sense up until you mentioned "use two yellow wires..." Does that mean I should just 'cut' an unused yel wire from the PSU, then take those two yel wires and attach to the single red Heated Bed wire? (and the blk to blk, of course)by PixelPusher - General
QuoteJamesK The simplest solution is to avoid taking the +V line for the heat bed through the ramps. It's only there to go through the poly fuse and to my mind the benefits don't merit the heating issues. I'd recommend getting an inline fuse (for example) and running a power line directly from the power supply, via the fuse, to the heatbed. Switching remains on the -V line on the ramps. Keep theby PixelPusher - General
Thanks James, that does seem like a simple solution, although I don't know what the "poly fuse" is... but if this method results in a cooler running board, I'm all for it. I'm very new to electronics, so I'm taking a bit of a chance I suppose, but I like the fact that there's a fuse on these so I'll give it a shot. MrBaz- I'm not sure what size of the wire, but it came with the bed, and it's 3.by PixelPusher - General
yes, it's a general mk2 pcb 200x200mmby PixelPusher - General
Thanks jinx, I'll order a new RAMPS and start learning multimeter basics. Will also research PID since I've never paid attention to that. Here's a screenshot of my firmware settings for heated bed. Couldn't find the line to enable/turn off PID, lemme know if you see anything crazy here, i think it's all default except maxtemp. Much appreciated, Richiby PixelPusher - General
Hey guys, Fairly new to printing (6 months) but have been able to print very nice stuff, learning a lot. My Prusa i3 kit has had me on my toes, especially this problem. Second time this has happened: the Red (positive) wire from my print bed has melted my RAMPS board where it inserts into receptacle (see picture). Both of the boards I melted were cheap ones from China, although now same problem tby PixelPusher - General
sorry, didn't realize i made two posts of the same thing. I solved the problem with the help of a couple people on this forum. I put jumpers in place to make my steppers 1/16th, then adjusted firmware and now it's running great. I had no idea about jumpers underneath the stepper drivers. Thanks again for your help, Richiby PixelPusher - General
I followed your advice and I got my printer running back to normal. Used the Prusa calculator which helped a lot. Did a couple test prints, UF logo and part of a Slave One ship I built. Little more tweaking and I'll have it down. Thanks again, Richiby PixelPusher - General
Success! (almost) Dust, that was it... added jumpers and got it to a decent speed. Guess it was just trying to move way too fast. Seems like "quarter step" is about the speed I want it (or close to what i had before), although the distance it travels is about 4x... I assume I can just adjust all that in firmware and re-calibrate each axis. - richiby PixelPusher - General
Thanks B&D, didn't work but that's good idea, will remember that tip. Dust, that totally makes sense now... I do have some of those jumpers, understand what they're for now... I see the exposed pins underneath the steppers. I'll throw 3 jumpers on X and see what happens... then go from there. Much appreciated guys, thanks for taking time to help a dumb artist out. - Richiby PixelPusher - General
Thanks Dust, so since I'm not familiar with micro stepping, i don't know what a 'pcp track' or 'jumpers' are... wouldn't know how to "close jumpers"... it's obvious to me now I'm in over my head. I'll purchase another RAMPS and maybe an ATMEGA board too and hope for the best. Appreciate all the help guys.by PixelPusher - General
hoping to avoid adjusting voltage, I'm not familiar enough with that... but will research that. I'm not sure how I could loose microstepping if I uploaded the exact same firmware I used earlier that day... which was working perfectly for the last 6 months. I guess I will do some research on that too. thank you for your help, obviously I'm new to this.. so it's very much appreciated. -Richiby PixelPusher - General
I don't remember installing motor drivers... isn't that all part of the firmware? It's all the same hardware if that's what you mean.by PixelPusher - General
Hi, I replaced my RAMPS board with a brand new one (saw a little melting, overheating on a wire connection). Uploaded same firmware and connected via Repetier. X&Y motors make a grinding sound and barely moves... Z axis is the same but also includes a wining sound, like an alarm. Obviously something is very wrong... machine was running just fine (6 months no problems), before I switched RAMPby PixelPusher - General
Hello, I had a wire connection overheat a bit so I replaced my RAMPS board. Everything was printing fine before... but with the new RAMPS board (same exact firmware), motors sound like they "grind" when I try to manually move the bed or extruder via Repetier. Never had this problem when building my reprap... could it be I just have a bad RAMPS board? How can you tell? Thanks for any advice, Ricby PixelPusher - General
great idea BNagel. i would like to hear if there are any better options. In a more perfect world I would like to see the user be able to draw/position the seam where they feel is best. I'll do some research, perhaps there's a way to "force" Slic3r to put seams where you want when building model in 3d program. thanksby PixelPusher - Slic3r
After many tries I still cannot get my X and Y moving in the correct direction. The config below is what I'm using now, I know it's wrong (backwards) but at least it's working and I'm able to get some really cool prints going! Unfortunately, I have to reverse my object in 3ds Max which will be a problem in the future. I'm sorry, I've tried changing these values, and moving X pin to the "Max" slotby PixelPusher - General
Thanks Olaf, I will record your notes and look to them if I ever re-enable my EEPROM (i disabled it because it was only way I could get this darn thing working... like i said, i'm very new to this). I'm scared to touch EEPROM because I got this thing printing pretty good right now, but I know i'll have to that sooner or later if I want a better printing experience. My problem was much simpler toby PixelPusher - Reprappers
Hey guys, I started having an odd error recently, my z-steps seem to get shorter as I print. Notice in the image the small lip, that was caused by the extruder nozzle "pushing" into the layer below...smooshing it. As you can see the print starts out fine, but ends up smooshing my layers (i killed the print when I noticed this happening as it just gets worse the longer it prints). I re-calibratedby PixelPusher - Reprappers