Video of problem. Can anyone help?

I posted this in the Smartrap forum but I am trying again here as Arduino/Ramp guru's may know where the fault is.

Had my Smartrap for a year, been printing away quite happily, no problems no fuss.
Today I printed one part, removed it from the bed.
Set it to print the same part again, and the head goes through the self-levelling as normal, then moves to centre, as if to start printing, but then moves to x=0?
I am not getting any messages on the lcd, I have no loose wires, it has simply started doing this, and despite repeated attempts, power off, restart etc, I cannot get the printer to function again.
It's not the Gcode, I have tried other files that previously printed ok with the same result.

I replaced the thermistor, that is all working fine.
I completely re-flashed the Arduino.
It wouldn't work from the SD card. Even though it was ok before, I reformatted it and only have one gcode file on there.
I then downloaded Pronterface and got that running.
Hooked it up via USB, so the SDCard is not being used.
Pronterface talks to the printer, everything seems ok. I hit print and it does exactly the same, but Pronterface simply shut down when it did it.

It seems as if there is a problem at the moment the boards are starting to read the gcode for the actual print, as the bed levelling moves the stepper motors fine up until that point.

Would the problem be easy to trace, and if not, does anyone know if I need a new 2560, or a new ramps board?

Here is a quick video to show what it is doing, if anyone can tell me what the problem could be I would be very grateful, I am stumped.

Smartrap freezing

Many thanks

Rob

I still have no idea what the problem was, but I pulled every plug on the boards, rerouted the cables while I was doing it, plugged it all back in again...and the problem has gone. No idea why one contact somewhere should suddenly decide it isn't going to play nicely anymore, but it obviously did.

Phew....

Hi,

NIce set up, BTW. Never saw Smartrap before watching yours and a few other videos.

Does it home all axis properly? I don't seeing it trying during the set-up procedure. I've seen something similar when a printer can't home on one axis. Are you running off the SD or running software? If software, try homing each axis manually. if it can't and everything is connected, then you have a bad home switch or sensor. Entirely possible after a year of use.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the self-leveling feature (wish I was...) so this is a SWAG. You might want to try to measure the corner height of the bed (off the head or off the table) in case there is an outside limit that it can self level.

I can tell you with almost absolute certainty that this is not a controller or G-code issue but a mechanical or switch issue.


Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 11:50AM by Hodgepodgerama.

It's definitely a dodgy plug somewhere. I just printed a part and the quality was way better than anything I have printed for months. I was amazed. I got all excited and clicked to print another identical one, and ran into endstop messages and prints hanging, just as they did before.

I have now ordered a complete Ramps wiring kit with pre-assembled plugs and will replace all of them when they arrive. That will hopefully solve the problems once and for all. I can only assume that over the months heat has caused an issue somewhere, and it's only just started to manifest itself.

I have to say that it is a great printer, but like anything else, it has to be set up properly or quality is the first casualty. I built it from a kit, and have modified a few minor things along the way, but I am more than happy with it, especially when I see the results that some people get on theirs that cost several times what mine did.

The two pics attached show the difference in print quality.

Try some freeze-spray (or duster spray, upside down) on different section of the wiring and board, and see what triggers it.

I replaced every plug, but after the next print it expired, on Christmas Day of all days. A search on Google, and a quick multimeter test and the culprit was found. The voltage regulator on the Arduino board had gone AWOL. I sent an email to Arduino (yes, its a genuine one - 10 months old) to see what the solution was but haven't heard back. I have therefore ordered another one, plus a Ramps board and will replace both.

If Arduino won't repair it, then I will have to do so myself. The VR is only 28p, and is an easy soldering job. That way I will always have a spare in case lightning strikes twice.

My guess is that you are running either a graphic LCD or a servo from the 5V rail. Either will cause the 5V regulator on the Arduino to overheat. This is an extremely common problem, a design flaw in the Arduino/RAMPS combination. Either provide external 5V power, or buy better electronics.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Interesting info, I wondered what would have caused the failure. I have a text lcd, and a servo/light sensor for the bed levelling. I wasn't aware of how frequently the VR fails on the 2650 until mine did and I started reading up on it. I could theoretically bypass the lcd by running the printer via usb to my pc, but I wouldn't have a clue about where to power the servo from. It needs the signal from the board, same as an Radio Controlled model would do, to control the live feed?

The 2850 can't run full graphics LCD ? I'm glad I only have the basic LCD.

Well I heard back from Arduino today, they looked at the pics that I sent them and told me it wasn't a genuine one. This was a bit of a surprise to me as it has Made in Italy on the back, a gold chip, and looks identical to the genuine one in their 'genuine vs fake' webpage.

Just as well that I ordered a 100% genuine one. That arrived yesterday, I plugged it in, flashed it, and the printer was working perfectly again. I may get hold of a voltage regulator and replace the blown one on the fake board. If it works ok I could build another printer as I will already have a 2560 and a new ramps board sat here. Now that I understand 3D printers I would feel pretty confident about building one, and sourcing the parts myself. A bigger print area would be top of my list.