Geeetech Prusa Mendel I3 Temperature

Hi all,
I'm a newby also trying to get into the 3D printing thing. I thought it wise to purchase one that I have to assemble to also learn as mush as possible at the same time, hence the Prusa Mendel I3 from Geeetech. Wel I'v build it! all working, did a dry run and it seemed to be going well. Then I added the plastic, PLA, and this is were I'm stuck now. I currently have no temperature control, If it's not the bed maxing out and the nozzle idling and then losing it's temperature it's the other way around. It doesn't matter if I use Repetier manual control, job run or the pre-heat via the LCD.

Can someone please help with some Ideas?
THX

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2015 05:37PM by CWLouw.

Did you connect the thermistors to the right ports? If the bed heats up, but its thermistor is in the wrong port, or if thermistor becomes broken and can't get temp data, the nozzle or bed (depending on which one broke) may skyrocket to a million degrees. There is an option in Marlin that will shut off bed/nozzle power if the temp suddenly goes low (thermistor broke or became disconnected, and so there is infinite resistance between the pins = 0 degrees) or if there is no temperature change in X number of seconds.
It may also help us if we know some more info on your setup. What temps did things break at? what hotend? What control board? thermistor type / resistance (if available)?

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Master Tinkerer

HI Montiey

the temperatures at which I press the reset button is 270 on the nozzle (if I use the pre-heat form the LCD it will temp error at 250) and 150 for the bed. I used the online diagram to wire the Sanguino. I tried the swapping of the wire thing but then nothing works. According to the online doc's I had to assemble the board too but it came with all jumpers etc pre-assembled (did check) and I hoped it wouldn't come to the programming.
I've tried Marlin-Marlin_v1 as suggested by the online documents, but if Arduino can't connect or find the board they end with a compile error, something about a upload file being missing. So yes it is probably were the issue is.
Could it be that I'm running windows 8.1?

You may want to take a look through your firmware settings and see if the correct thermistor is selected. If the wrong one is selected for the bed or nozzle, your temps would be registering 10 times to low or 10 times too high!
Have you modified a firmware file and uploaded it to the board at all since you got the kit? I know its confusing but the board must have came preloaded with some sort of firmware, because without it your printer wouldn't even be able to heat up. However, if you want to change the firmware, you need a copy of it on your computer. Uploading it to the board is a "one way" process, so in order to see if the thermistor selection was the problem, you will need to download and flash new firmware. once you have a copy on your computer and have flashed to your board, you can just edit the one on your computer and uploaded it via the arduino IDE at will to the board.
Did your printer come with any documentation about what type of thermistor was included for the nozzle or for the bed? without the data, its nearly impossible to get the firmware set right.
I hope this helps

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Master Tinkerer

Hi Montiey,
Yes the board was pre-loaded with some Geeetech software, but I broke it. Last night I tried to look at it and instead of opening a sketch I uploaded a different board I was looking at. So now the LCD only shows 3 lines of blocks. Maybe it's actually a better place to be, now I can start from scratch. Were can I find a step by step instructions for dummies?

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CWLouw
Hi Montiey,
Yes the board was pre-loaded with some Geeetech software, but I broke it. Last night I tried to look at it and instead of opening a sketch I uploaded a different board I was looking at. So now the LCD only shows 3 lines of blocks. Maybe it's actually a better place to be, now I can start from scratch. Were can I find a step by step instructions for dummies?

If you have the sketch for the Geeetech stuff, then you have it all. Simply upload that again, and you should at least be back where you started.

As far as Marlin, if you have the Geeetech sketch, just set the same values in the new version, read Configuration.h to understand and set the rest, and you should be very, very, close. I doubt it will fix anything, though, since it's pretty rare for as-shipped firmware to be this borked - it's usually an assembly/wiring error.

- Tim

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2015 12:37PM by tadawson.

Thomas Sanladerer is great: https://www.youtube.com/
He did a video on marlin: http://www.youtube.com/

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Master Tinkerer

Great thank you sir, I'll be sure in to visit the page. Geeetech....you sad..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2015 01:01AM by CWLouw.

Tim, Geeetech has supplied a packing list and it's content. Everything else was online. If you follow the online instructions they're talking about boot loaders and burners and other boards that does not apply. This stuff I only found out afterwards. About the save button, what save button, oh, that one...crap too late.
Thanks for your comments. Geeetech doesn't seem to have a download or support page if their stuff goes wrong, I tried their home page but got no response from their Technical department when I had issues with the assembly and had to modify things myself to make it fit. Now when the temp. sensor issue came up, no one had this before. I reversed the cables, swapped them but made no real progress. As GT did not provide any tools to actually work with the programming it should be out-of-the-box plug-and-play ready, I agree. But here it doesn't seem to be the case. Two weeks after the request for help I decided to start messing with the software and being a beginner novice broke it on the first try.

Use arduino ide v1.x.x, v1.5+ don't really work on adding custom sketch, also check the correct board selection in config.h

Guys, I'm still stuck.
The fans come on, the stepper motors go into idle, but that's it, the LCD only display's two lines of blocks.
I've used the setup as in Thomas Sanladerer's video and the software as prescribed by Geeetech on the Wiki page.

now the ports have gone.

I'm just about as stumped as you might be..
The blank characters on the LCD pretty much means that the board isn't doing anything, and therefore not communicating with the LCD to display stuff, or the connection between the LCD and the board isn't properly seated. I would check the connection, and then check that the correct board selected in the Arduino IDE (where you edit and upload firmware files). What do you mean by the steppers going into idle? Do they actively become hard to impossible to turn?

Also, what controller board does your i3 have? It didn't say anything on their website, or at least not anything that I could find.

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Master Tinkerer

Quote
Montiey
What do you mean by the steppers going into idle? Do they actively become hard to impossible to turn?

Also, what controller board does your i3 have? It didn't say anything on their website, or at least not anything that I could find.

Hi,
When starting up/ flipping the on switch you can hear the stepper noise winding down, and the same when connecting to the host program. the board is a Sanguinololu or Sanguino for short.
The first upload took very long. I then got a later version of Arduino and the Sanguino software and uploaded that. that only took about 30 seconds to upload.
I again contacted Geeetech to try and get their firmware, but had no response yet.

My i3v from Makerfarm makes a faintly audible squeal when connecting to host software as you described..
Anyway,
You should poke around HERE for some additional information; and I also found a link to THIS site.
The files there are the ones that you need to install on top of the Arduino IDE in order for the uploaded firmware to be in the "right language" (genuine Arduino boards will work out of the box with the IDE, but you will need to install third party packages in order for the clone boards like the Sanguino to work properly.).
I'm not actually sure if they are the correct files, but if you do some more poking you should be able to easily find a download link for the exact board you have.

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Master Tinkerer

thx Montiey, I'll get back to you

Hey Montiey it's on!!

It doesn't say Geeetech anymore but Mendel, but that the least of the problems, it's working again!
There is still quite a few of adjustments to be made like the Z now only moving in up and not coming down, and the the temp still running with no end in sight, but at least I have an idea on were to change/tweak it now. It will be a couple of days before there will be plastic in the nozzle, but I'll get there.

Thanks for all the comments/help guys! If I ever get the temperature issue solved (might probably only be the thermostat selection) I'll post it.
Strange that I still have not heard anything from Geeetech.

Aha! Glad I could help. If you want to change the idle message on the LCD to something else, I figured out that you can change

#define WELCOME_MSG MACHINE_NAME "whatever was here"

to anything you want in your language.h file. I was pretty confused with the firmware files in the beginning, so just wanted to point out that you should put your whole firmware folder (mine was named Marlin_RAMPS_EPCOS_i38) in your arduino sketches folder, and then from the IDE you can easily just open it from the open menu (a million tabs will pop up, but there should be a down arrow in the righthand side of the bar somewhere that will give you a scrollable list).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2015 09:06PM by Montiey.

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Master Tinkerer

thx Montiey

QQ, how do I pull the data from the printer, or do I have to change the file I have saved every time and re-upload it? Can't I just edit the printer setting files on the printer and reboot it?

Lets say that you set SPEED_ONE to 10 and SPEED_TWO to 5. Once you upload that file to the board the IDE converts it to a .hex format that would be similar to X=10 and Y=5. Therefor, there is no way for the IDE to tell what the previous content of the file was, but now only the bare bones values. So yes, it is a one way process and you will need a copy of the firmware you are using on your computer at all times in order to be able to simply modify settings at will.

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Master Tinkerer