Oh this is going to get confusing... Are you actually a dentist, or just a fan of ZBS production's Ruby series (or both)?
First, and very important: NEVER plug motors into or unplug motors from the controller board while it is powered up. The power must ALWAYS be off when you connect or disconnect a motor. If you forget, it will probably cost you a motor driver. Buy some spare motor driver modules. You'll probably go through a few of them pretty quickly. When you are going to start testing, it is usually safe to set the tiny pots on the motor driver modules to about the middle of their range. I suggest you do that before plugging them into the controller board (assuming your board uses plug-in modules). Be very careful (you're a dentist, so you're always careful, right?) because the pots are very easy to break. Make sure the jumpers that determine microstepping are in place and set for 16:1 microstepping for all axes and extruder motor drivers. You'll have to adjust the pots for the correct current later.
Before you can start printing you will probably have to edit the firmware for the machine. You have to tell it things like maximum speed, acceleration, jerk, the type of end-stops, steps/mm, in each axis, etc. How you do that will depend on the type of controller board that's in the machine. The defaults will usually get things running but the exact values will have to be tweaked when you calibrate.
I would suggested a phased power-up. By that I mean disconnect everything from the controller board except power and a USB cable to a computer running host software like pronterface. Power up and see if you can communicate with the controller. If that works, test the end stops by plugging them into the controller board then sending the M119 command via the host software. Now manually push one of the end stop switches and hold it while sending M119 again. If the status of that end stop changed go to the next axis and do the same test. Make sure you test all three (6?) endstop switches and get them working right before moving on.
Now plug in the thermistors for the bed and extruder. Do the temperatures show up on the host software screen (you may have to reset the controller and reconnect)?
Next, test X and Y axis motors. Power down, move the extruder carriage and the bed to the centers of their respective axes. Now plug the X axis motor and its driver module into the controller board, then power up again (in that order!), and using the host software, try moving only that axis just a little. If it does what it is supposed to, tell it to move 20 mm and see that it moves about that much
in the right direction. If it looks about right, power down, plug in the Y axis motor and driver, test again. Once X and Y motors are plugged in and working, try using the home XY button in the host software and see that the two axes move to their endstops and then stop.
Power off again. For the Z axis, you want to set it up so that the nozzle can't crash into the bed if something goes wrong. There should be a screw that sets the Z=0 position by pushing a switch that looks like one of the endstop switches. Find that screw and adjust it so that the switch closes before the nozzle touches the bed. Once that looks about right, move the Z axis to about the middle of its range of motion. Plug the two motors and driver (s) into the controller board, then power up again. Use the host software to move the motors a little. If both motors moved in the right direction, tell it to move about 10mm and make sure it looks like about 10mm and in the right direction. If that works right, hit the Z home button in the host software- the Z axis screws should turn until the Z=0 endstop is hit, then stop.
Finally, power off again, plug in the heaters and the extruder motor, and then power up and reconnect with the host software. See if you can get the heaters going by setting the temperatures to about 50C at first and watch their behavior on the host software- they should get to about 50C and then stay there or bounce up and down a little around that temperature. If that works, set the extruder heater to 215C and wait for it to reach that temperature. If it does reach 215C, try extruding filament- watch the motor and make sure it turns in the right direction.
Once all that works, you'll need to calibrate the machine. I suggest [
reprap.org]
You're going to have to set motor currents, adjust the X axis so it is level and orthogonal to Y and Z, level the bed, and set the Z=0 switch before you'll be able to print anything. You will also need to figure out how to edit the firmware to set thing like acceleration limits, steps/mm in each axis and the extruder, etc., which usually involves installing the Arduino IDE on your computer and getting it to talk to the controller board.
It's a lot of stuff to do but most of it doesn't take long. If you run into problems, just ask. It is always a good idea to post photos if they help illustrate the problems you're having.
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [
drmrehorst.blogspot.com]