Connected Panelolu2 the wrong way

Hi

I accidentally connected the Panelolu (Panelolu2) cable the wrong way (one end wrong way and the other right way) and fried something. The Panelolu display shows some garbage and the computer can't connect Sanguinololu. It doesn't matter if I leave Panelolu unplugged, I still can't connect the printer. It does show up as /dev/ttyUSB0 so I would guess that FTDI chip is working. The Atmega1284P gets quite hot after a while so I'd guess it's broken. When I broke it, I could clearly smell something smoking, but I can't really say what it was.

Does anyone know what happens if Panelolu cable is connected the wrong way? Do I need to replace something other than Atmega or is it enough? How likely is it that I break the Atmega again if I only replace it and connect the Panelolu the right way this time? Also, can I test if the FTDI chip is really working by connecting TX and RX pins together and then writing and reading it on a computer?

Thank you for your answers.

Panelolu2 (pinouts etc.): [blog.think3dprint3d.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2014 04:38PM by Tomin.

Hi Tomin

To answer your first question last, you can check the FTDI by brindging between TX and RX and confirming that anything sent is echoed on your terminal emulator.

Generally it only damages the sanguinololu if 12V are connected in the wrong place, connecting the P2 cable back to front does not normally have this effect however it clearly did in your case. If its 12V in the wrong place (for example with the P2 header put on incorrectly and then the P2 cable plugged in) then more than the ATMEGA could be damaged, its hard to say. I would try with the ATMEGA first and see how you get on.

Regards

Tony

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DuetWifi.: advanced 3d printing electronics

Well it's possible that I actually connected the panelolu adapter wrong but I also connected the panelolu cable the wrong way. I got a new Atmega and I can connect the printer but I can't move X and Y axels at all and Z axel moves only down (it moves down even if I try to move it up so soon I can't test it anymore). I guess I should get new stepsticks (or Pololu stepper drivers or something else compatible). I haven't tested the Panelolu but I'm quite certain it's compeletely broken, though I hope that the display would work but it probably won't.

If you have one axis that works you can test each stepstick on that acis to see if they are fried or not (ensure you power down between swapping them).

Also check your endstops (M119) if they are not working they could be inhibiting axis movement.

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DuetWifi.: advanced 3d printing electronics

Endstops work. M119 reports them correctly.

As X and Y axels don't move and Z moves always down I don't have any working axel. I haven't tested E yet as I would require to me to heat up the extruder but I'm trying that next. Anyway I swapped some of the stepsticks and now Y doesn't move and X moves always towards the endstop (to left). I didn't test Z as it almost crashes to the heatbed (only a few millimeters space to move down).

Edit: E also moves only one direction (it doesn't matter if I extrude or reverse). Also the Y axis moves only one way when I swapped X and Y axis stepsticks (and X doesn't move anymore, which is not surprising). I guess I should check if DIR pin is tied to GND or VCC.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2014 11:53AM by Tomin.

Hi

It's been a long time since I've played with my Reprap. I didn't quite get it working last time and I've bought new stepper drivers since then. The Atmega1284P is preprogrammed and it has worked. FTDI works just fine when I try to loop back test it and it doesn't get warm at all. The Atmega is programmed with 250000 baud rate.

Sometimes I just can't connect to Sanguinololu. Earlier it seemed to work often enough but now I can't do that at all. Pronterface just keeps connecting and nothing happens. It doesn't matter if I power the board from USB (only 5V) or from ATX PSU. Do you think the problem is with the FTDI chip? Should I try to replace it? I know I can manage that much SMD soldering. Or is there something else wrong with this Sanguinololu. Maybe I should just replace it...though it costs a fortune but that would save me a ton of trouble.

Also I noticed that after switching the PSU on, the fan connected to Panelolu Adapter board turns fully on. I don't think that is supposed to happen. I don't have (the broken) Panelolu connected, just the adapter board so that I can connect the fan. Then again if I connect it to the other fan connector it doesn't turn on so maybe it's some firmware thing.

I have tried to upload a new firmware to the Atmega but that didn't work. I downloaded 1.0.2 version of Marlin from Github, opened that in Arduino IDE 1.6.0 and changed Configure.h according to the old Configure.h file. It did compile but I could not upload it because the IDE gave me NullPointerException. I had chosen Sanguinololu and AtMega1284P at 16 MHz from the menu so that shouldn't cause the error.

I found out why the printer wasn't connecting. Some pins on the socket were bend an the Atmega didn't have a good connection. I still have one problem to solve. Even with these new stepper drivers Z-axis moves only down and it doesn't matter which way I command it to move. I guess I should check if there are more bend pins in the socket.

Edit: I was wrong. The Z-axis moves to both directions but they are swapped. Intreseting. I guess I should build and upload new firmware.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2015 10:23AM by Tomin.

Tomin

You can change axis directions in firmware or reverse the motor connector.

Cheers

Tony

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DuetWifi.: advanced 3d printing electronics

I uploaded a new firmware. It seems that the stock firmware the Atmega had had some things wrong. Z-axis works great now and the (PLA) fan doesn't spin up in the beginning so that's fixed too. Everything else seems to work fine now. I don't seem to need a new FTDI chip which is good.

That NullPointerException was a typo in boards.txt.