Arduino USB Problems

Hi everybody,

I purchased a Sintron ebay Kit 2-3 months, built that one with a few mods and work fine. But the problem with that printer, was that it couldn't use the whole 220mm bed, just 170mm, because the fans were hitting the towers.

So i build another printer, 220mm bed, 200mm printable circle. I used 310mm horizontals, to give enough spacing to the towers. Built it, printed about 2 weeks, used about 2 spools of PLA. I wanted to print ABS, but the motors shut off after 30-40 min of printing, steppers would get to hot, about 55-60 degrees celsius, because the electronics are under the heated bed. The bed is insulated with aluminium tape and cardboard. The underside is much more cooler that the top. So i decided to put some fans on the electronics. I modified a existing arduino holder and added support for 2x 40mm fans (this one here).

Took the bed off, swapped the old support with the new one, put everything back. Printing fine after this. But now, when i connect the printer to USB, i doesn't even make a connection sound in windows. Nothing shows up in Device Manager.

I'm using Arduino + Ramps 1.4 + DRV8825 steppers configured at 1/32 + LCD with SD Card (BTW the LCD only works when powered by USB, and it does receive power when i connect it). Running Repetier on the machine.

I have tried 3 different computers and different cables, it's the same.

Has anybody run into these issue? Could i have damaged something on the electronics when i swapped the arduino holder?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2016 03:37PM by CrisCG.

I replaced the Arduino board. It was a clone, with red LED's (typical of cloners not to respect the color of the LED's, as the red ones are much popular and cheaper), not the ussual green and yellow. RAMPS board was the same.

Now i have USB connectivity. The LCD display works without connecting USB cable. And the LCD knob worked backwards, now works the right way.

I had the firmware saved and the EEPROM settings exported, so it was an easy swap. I wanted to try to save the electronics, as i am building a 310mm heated bed printer. So i won't be keeping the 220mm bed one.

I hope this helps someone out there.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2016 10:11AM by CrisCG.