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I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!

Posted by Draytology 
I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!
January 10, 2017 12:33PM
I am using a DIY printer with a mega and Ramps controller. First my smart controller stopped working. So I unhooked it. I wasn't to concerned about it. Now my printer is malfucntioning bad! I didnt change anything to cause this. It stutters really bad and there is some kind of really bad interference. I noticed it is following the rhythm of my led indicatiing the heater is on. At first I thought the laptop charger or the buck convertor I am using to power everything was to blame. But I tried a mucnh beefier PSU and same problem. It connects to pronterface no problem. I can control each axis with no problem. I have tested the mega and it still connects and I uploaded blink and it worked fine. I used a multimeter to test the 5 and 3.3v coming out of the Mega and they are working fine. I cannot figure out what is going on and I was just getting started printing for the first time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Re: I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!
January 10, 2017 12:54PM
Just tested my Mega with 2 servo sketches and it worked flawless. Could it be the crappy fuses? It has to be something on the Ramp board I think.
Re: I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!
January 10, 2017 02:43PM
What is your wire gauge from PSU to the heated bed? It seems you have severe voltage drop across the wires/connectors/ fuse a.s.o.
Read the voltage on the green connector and the heat bed itself, while it is ON.
Re: I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!
January 10, 2017 04:10PM
To anyone who encounters this problem, I was lucky to remember a video on YouTube where the fuses on the board were mentioned. If you are, like me, powering everything together through the one set of plugs, a tiny 5a resettable fuse is inline that will be a problem. It is tricky to diagnose since it doenst just blow like a normal fuse. You will get strange intermittent problems. I solved this by simply swapping it with the bigger 11a fuse on the board. And to be safe I removed Diode 1 since my is powered via USB 24/7. Hope this helps someone.
Re: I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!
January 10, 2017 04:11PM
Thank You O Lampe you were def on the right track.
Re: I cannot figure out what is wrong with my printer!
January 10, 2017 09:09PM
It seems everytime I try to make a correction it might work very well for a bit then go back to the same issues. I think O Lampe is right, hopefully, I am going to upgrade my tiny jumper wires. I have been chasing this problem for a full 24 hours, I really want to get back to printing.
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