Help on sanguinolulu v1.3

Hi, I just got my first 3d printer with sanguinolulu by geeetech, wired everything according to the official sanguinolulu and geeetech wiki, when i turned it on, it just emits red light, no display on the lcd.

My first time turning it on, for about 1 minute it produced smoke (should be around the big capacity near to the big long black controller). I also tried disconnecting the z motor because I combined both z motor wire as a single port, even then there is no display.

I just tried the display port by plugging it properly and turned it on, it lights up, and nothing displayed, the board still shows solid red. As time goes by, the display light goes dim and eventually no more light, but the board produced a burnt smell. I quickly turn off the power to prevent further damage to the board. Even the previous tests were turned off immediately. Can a motor that hard to turn produce this problem as well? because the x axis motors are quite hard to turn because there were frictions between the looped and straight belt on the carriage

Anyone can help me with my problem here?

Another note: I didn't take out the y axis jumper, would that produce a problem as well?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2015 05:51PM by sarf2k4.

What type of printer do you have? Which firmware are you using? What LCD? ...

Can you post photos of your setup and wiring?

The red led on this board is just wired to power. as long as it has power the led is on.

Smoke is a really bad sign...
I presuming you mean c16 (it willbe labled on the pcb picture here [reprap.org] ) if so thats really weirds as its just between the 5v and gnd lines... or are you meaning c12 also just between the 12v and gnd...

The display would not work unless the firmware was configured to use it.. but the smoke is a much bigger concern!


First thing i would do is forget about the lcd for now, get the basic board working first.

While off remove all pololu drivers. and unplug all steppers, and endstops and remove power.

Plug it into your computer via usb. does the computer notice the new serail port? yes? thats good. no the serial chip is dead..
If its can see the serial port try talking to the chip with pronterface. can you get it to talk (sending basic command like m119) does it talk? yes good, no.. there is something wrong with the main controller chip, dead or no firmware.
Assuming its not dead. Work out how upload firmware, as you need to reconfigure the controller for the LCD you have.
once firmware is correct for LCD, while off plug the LCD back in. turn on and check it still talking. Still no display? check contrast and brighness on the lcd.

Slowly re connect things. I sudjest thermisters first, then endstops then main power, steppers and pololus and finaly hot end a bed. Checking everything works at each stage.

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2015 11:51PM by Dust.

I removed everything includng the stepper drivers, when connected, it shows as ft232r usb uart, I installed the driver then it stated as usb converter. after some time it has its own serial port, com7, but when I tried to connect that com7 using pronterface, it shows 'connecting....' only, no other messages came even for 5 minutes. I'm going to try restarting my pc a while and see how it goes with the pronterface and the board

update: even after I restarted my pc, still unable to connect to the board and tried 'm119' command, pronterface shows 'printer is not online' error

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2015 12:55AM by sarf2k4.

You either have a dead controller chip, or a blank one that needs a firmware or your tring to talk to the board at the wrong baud rate

Try a few baud rates, will normally be either 250000 or 115200. Nb some machines will just will not talk at 250000...

failing that its time try to work out how to compile the code and upload new firmware... (im presuming the chip is ok, and has a boot rom but otherwise is empty....)

get the arduno IDE and the firmware you want to run, add in the sanguino extentions
Some help here [www.geeetech.com]

When you can compile the code ok its time to upload to the chip (make sure you have the auto reset jumper in place)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2015 01:20AM by Dust.

Should I take out the auto reset jumper when I wanna use the board or just leave it there?

It gave me this message when following the geeetech tutorial, the one on uploading the firmwares
In file included from /Marlin.h:23,
from BlinkM.cpp:5:
/pins.h:1273:3: error: #error Oops! Make sure you have 'Arduino Mega' selected from the 'Tools -> Boards' menu.

Should I use the normal arduino mega supplied by the ide?

When I used the ardiono mega (atmega1280), verification succeeded, when I tried to upload, it gives me this message in the ide
Binary sketch size: 52,696 bytes (of a 126,976 byte maximum)
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00

I just noticed one of my stepper driver got fried, I don't think it can be used anymore

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2015 03:26AM by sarf2k4.

you cant compile for a mega2560 and expect it to work on a mega1284p ...

the second eg is what you want, that error is saying It compiled fine but it cant talk to the boot loader. Either the 1284p chip is dead or doesnt have a boot loader, or the autoreset jumper is off.

just leave the auto reset jumper on for now...

The jumper is attached the whole time, I never took it out. Is there a way to fix the bootloader or is it considered dead? I'm still new to this, please bear with me =(

You need aditional hardware to install a boot loader an avr programmer (alsos called a ISP) (or a second mega running the isp firmware)

At this stage I would just buy a new 1284p chip with boot loader, eg from [www.emakershop.com] as a isp is going to cost you $20 anyways (unless you have such things already) and your chip is probaly is dead anyways so a ISP may not help...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2015 05:40AM by Dust.

Can lack of bootloader fry my stepstick?

no, you can actuly run without a bootloader. but it means you have to use a ISP every time you update the firmware.

boot loader is only a small firmware on the chip that lets you esily upload the main firmware over serial (in this case serial over usb).

Driver chips die most comonly from having stepper motors unplugged or plugged in while on. Or plugging the module in backwards our out by one pin. Or setting vref with a metal screwdriver while on and shorting something.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2015 02:56AM by Dust.

Oh, I thought lack of bootloader can fry my stepstick. But, in this case, one of my stepstick has fried, the X-axis stepstick, is it possible that the whole board itself is faulty?

Here is the back of the board



One thing, can any arduino hooked into the board's isp port?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2015 08:24PM by sarf2k4.

You cant tell much from looking. Other than that the soldereing is not very good!

Basicaly its quite modular..

The large black chip is the controller and is replaceable

The pololus are all indepent... they are replaceable

If the MOSFET's are dead you have to unsolder them, but they are replaceable...

I would only consider the board dead if the serial chip dies, as its a pain to replace, or a track burns out.

But ultimatly its up to you when you want to call it dead.

Here is the stepstick that got fried when I first turn on the printer after 1 minute



I think I will declare that the main board isn't good.
Do you know any good source for either sanguinololu 1.3a or ramps 1.4 complete set for cheap but with quality assurance?

Somehow I preferred to have ramps 1.4 sets over sanguinololu board