Troubleshooting of ramps1.4 and mega, another Newbie

Hi All,

So I started to make my own 3d printer. I wanted to start with something easy at first - so I designed a regular x-y-z cnc table with parts I had access to and ordered most of the electronics from Robotdigg.
I wanted to put the electronics together to see if its working and I was disappointed.
So I had a:
Arduino Mega
Ramps 1.4 + LCD
steper drives
4pcs nema17, (1extruder, 3 axis)
350W PC psu

I did my best to put them together and to load the latest marlin on it(minimum changes on config.h). I haven't had any error massages on the arduino ide but when I powered up the board I have no response from it. The LCD lights up but no text. The pronterface app can't connect.

Arduino log after marlin upload:
"Sketch uses 51680 bytes (20%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 2728 bytes (33%) of dynamic memory, leaving 5464 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes."

I attached some pictures from my "setup".

Can you help me? What did I do wrong? What can I do to find the error?
(Windows has a driver for my arduino mega, it is a known device)

Thanks,

RichardRahl

Are you sure you hit upload, the output looks only show it compiled, didnt just verify the code?

electronics looks setup ok

baud rate in pronterface must must match what you set in configuration.h, and of course com port assigned by windows must match pronterface

motherboard type must be correct in configuration.h ramps something (depends what you want the mosfets to do)
ie one of these
BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB // RAMPS 1.4 (Power outputs: Hotend, Fan, Bed)
BOARD_RAMPS_14_EEB // RAMPS 1.4 (Power outputs: Hotend0, Hotend1, Bed)
BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFF // RAMPS 1.4 (Power outputs: Hotend, Fan0, Fan1)
BOARD_RAMPS_14_EEF // RAMPS 1.4 (Power outputs: Hotend0, Hotend1, Fan)
BOARD_RAMPS_14_SF // RAMPS 1.4 (Power outputs: Spindle, Controller Fan)

you also need to enable the lcd in your configuration.h

how about you upload your configuration.h to pastebin and link to it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2017 10:04PM by Dust.

Dust,

You are right. The hole thing acts like I haven't uploaded the Marlin fw except that I did.

I made some trobleshooting on my own. I uploaded a builtin led blink program to the mega and it worked - so I'd say the mega look okay.

The configuration.h file: marlin 1.1.x configuration.h

The mega is on com3 and I set pronterface to com3@250000.

Maybe the ramps board malfunctioning - how can I check that?

thanks,

RichardRahl

The fact that you can upload shows serial is working ok.

found the issue in configuration.h

#define SERIAL_PORT 3

this is the serial port on the mega, it needs to be 0 to use the standard usb/serial

You only change this if your bypassing usb, eg using bluetooth

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2017 02:46AM by Dust.

Okay,

I made the modification and now I could connect with pronterface to the ramps/mega. The LCD still shows nothing, only lit up.


Another problem, probably comes from the fact that I don't know what I am doing. On the pronterface I tried to move x an y motors and they gave out a sound and tried to do something but the shaft didn't turn.

Thanks for the assistance you gave me.

RichardRahl

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2017 03:05AM by RichardRahl.

for LCD in configuration.h


find //#define REPRAP_DISCOUNT_SMART_CONTROLLER

change to

#define REPRAP_DISCOUNT_SMART_CONTROLLER

fairly sure the lcd you have is a clone of this...

re non moving steppers

there are lots of possible causes

firstly hardware. stepper motor wiring... nearly everyone gets this wrong as they follow some silly wiring diagram based on color coded wiring. Wich is not a standard

Basics. Steppers are basically two coils, you need to identify the endpoints of the coils.

The ramps stepper connections are simply pins 1 and 2 are endpoints of coil A and pins 3 and 4 are endpoints of coil B (A and B are interchangeable)

micro stepping. Under each stepper driver is 3 jumpers. All 3 should be on for 1/16th micro stepping

current. On each stepper driver is a variable resistor, this sets the current limit on the devices, needs tuned to the steppers. NB be very careful with this shorting the
variable resistor will kill the stepper driver. Google vref, is also different for each type of stepper driver.

Update:

The LCD started to work, not 100%. The screen is okay but I can not access its menu but it not important right now.

The motors: I hadn't put any jumpers under the stepper drive. After your post I tried to set it to 1/16 but it seem not to work, or it was rotating but very slowly on one direction.

After that I put the jumper on the other side, probably 1/2 step and now the stepper rotates quite fast but still only one direction, positive direction. (I am not sure which is 1/2 and 1/16)

If I try to rotate the motor to negative direction I get an error message like this:
echo:endstops hit: Y:19.99
or
echo:endstops hit: Y:119.97
or
echo:endstops hit: X:9.99

I do not have endstops installed yet. And I think I bought the wrong kind. I will have to reseach it a bit more. I don't want to short circuit it.

One more info, it only let's me to rotate the motor to value 200 both x and y axis. I haven't installed z now.

Setting the variable resistor will be tricky I guess. I haven't deared touching it jet.

Thank you

RichardRahl

With most firmware when an endstop is disconnected it is triggered, and you cant move in that direction