Prusa i2 Can't write/read to/from printer!!

Hey,

Just a heads up, I'm a noob at this so I might have missed something obvious or something I don't know about.

I recently got a Prusa i2 kit (RAMPS 1.4 with Sprinter firmware) and have been following these build instructions as closely as I can: [www.nextdayreprap.co.uk]. I didn't order my kit from them so there were some minor differences that I looked elsewhere to know what to do. I got all the hardware built and software installed, turned everything on and about to start testing. When I open pronterface and press "Connect" I get:

Connecting...
Can't write to printer (disconnected?).
Can't read from printer (disconnected?).

I've made sure the com port, baud rate and all that stuff is correct prior to testing. I also decided to look through the Python code to see what triggers those errors. Seems like it's a SerialException causing the issues. With my vastly limited knowledge I figured maybe I installed the softwares incorrectly. I uninstalled and reinstalled everything but I'm still getting the same issue.

Please let me know if you need any more information to help me get this working, I'm anxious to start printing!!

Thank you all in advance for your time and help with this!

Chris

I would start with configuring Marlin and loading that. Spinter is very old (in printer development time) and your issues are likely caused by something being out of date since it is not being developed anymore.

Okay so I tried using Marlin instead as you suggested.

I went into the configuration.h file and made the necessary changes to match my setup and started getting this error:

In file included from /Marlin.h:41,
from BlinkM.cpp:5:
/MarlinSerial.h: In member function 'int MarlinSerial::available()':
MarlinSerial.h:99: error: 'rx_buffer' was not declared in this scope
/MarlinSerial.h: In member function 'void MarlinSerial::write(uint8_t)':
MarlinSerial.h:104: error: 'UCSR8A' was not declared in this scope
MarlinSerial.h:104: error: 'UDRE8' was not declared in this scope
MarlinSerial.h:107: error: 'UDR8' was not declared in this scope
/MarlinSerial.h: In member function 'void MarlinSerial::checkRx()':
MarlinSerial.h:113: error: 'UCSR8A' was not declared in this scope
MarlinSerial.h:113: error: 'RXC8' was not declared in this scope
MarlinSerial.h:114: error: 'UDR8' was not declared in this scope
MarlinSerial.h:115: error: 'rx_buffer' was not declared in this scope

After some more searching I found another post where someone got the same errors. To get rid of them they left the SERIAL_PORT value at the default 0. So I tried that and I get no compilation errors and everything uploads correctly.

However I still get the same pronterface error from before. Since I set the serial_port to 0 in the configuration.h file I'm thinking that that could have something to do with it though I don't see any way of setting the arduino port or even the pronterface com port to 0 (just not possible?)

I'm going to keep looking around and hope I find something though I don't have any more ideas...

Thanks again for your help!

Can you load Repetier Host and try? I am not familiar with Pronterface errors.

that serial port is the Mega serial port to use...
unless you doing something weird it needs to be 0, the serial port that is attached to the usb to serial interface

What made you want to change it?

What os are you running?

Some machines just will not do 250000 baud, try the lower but more standard 115200

Can you post your configuration.h to pastebin and link to it?

How did you confirm your serial port was correct? (normal way is to watch your os device manager or /var/log/messages to see what device is added when you plug it in.

@Dust: Yea I wasn't sure exactly, the notes in the code said that the software will use 0 by default anyways for the Mega so I figured it wouldn't hurt. Apparently it did haha I'm running win7 and the baud rate is set to 115200. I confirmed the serial port was correct using device manager and I also tested a simple arduino example (LED blink) just to be absolutely certain. I'm going to recheck the things below before posting the config file so I'm sure I'm not wasting anyone's time.

@tjb1: I did as you suggested and tested out with Repetier instead. It works great! I can actually connect to the printer! I started testing if the motor controllers are functioning correctly and it looks like they aren't.

For the z-axis motors, nothing happens when I try to move them in any direction and any amount. So I tried the x- and y-axis motors. Neither of those are working very well either. I can move them 1 unit at a time but it's not consistent. Sometimes they move, sometimes they don't, sometimes they move slightly backwards from the direction I'm telling them to go. I can't move them more than 1 unit at a time, the 10 or 50 unit options just cause a loud buzzing noise. That is apparently an adjustment that needs to be made with the trimpots on the motor drivers.

Oh and the extruder motor seems entirely unresponsive, no movement, not even a buzzing noise.

So that is where I'm at now, just trying to debug this. I'm also going to carefully go over the config settings on both the firmware and Repetier so that I can determine if the issues are with the hardware and what parts.

Thanks so far for your help! If anyone has any warnings or tips regarding what I'm getting myself into that would be greatly appreciated.

Off to do debugging!

Quote
nsoul
@Dust: Yea I wasn't sure exactly, the notes in the code said that the software will use 0 by default anyways for the Mega so I figured it wouldn't hurt. Apparently it did haha I'm running win7 and the baud rate is set to 115200. I confirmed the serial port was correct using device manager and I also tested a simple arduino example (LED blink) just to be absolutely certain. I'm going to recheck the things below before posting the config file so I'm sure I'm not wasting anyone's time.

@tjb1: I did as you suggested and tested out with Repetier instead. It works great! I can actually connect to the printer! I started testing if the motor controllers are functioning correctly and it looks like they aren't.

For the z-axis motors, nothing happens when I try to move them in any direction and any amount. So I tried the x- and y-axis motors. Neither of those are working very well either. I can move them 1 unit at a time but it's not consistent. Sometimes they move, sometimes they don't, sometimes they move slightly backwards from the direction I'm telling them to go. I can't move them more than 1 unit at a time, the 10 or 50 unit options just cause a loud buzzing noise. That is apparently an adjustment that needs to be made with the trimpots on the motor drivers.

Oh and the extruder motor seems entirely unresponsive, no movement, not even a buzzing noise.

So that is where I'm at now, just trying to debug this. I'm also going to carefully go over the config settings on both the firmware and Repetier so that I can determine if the issues are with the hardware and what parts.

Thanks so far for your help! If anyone has any warnings or tips regarding what I'm getting myself into that would be greatly appreciated.

Off to do debugging!

Likely a temp error, errors will show in the log below if they are turned on. Extruder motor will not do anything unless at temp or you send the cold extrusion M code (M302). X, Y, and Z will only move one direction until they are homed, no movement at all leads me to believe you do not have thermistors connected or not configured correctly so it is locking the printer out.

@tjb1: Sorry for the late reply. I was able to get a response from the printers now but I'm still left with a buzzing noise and inconsistent movement by the motors. Either they turns as they should (rarely), turn partially then buzz till it's over (common) or just buzz the whole time (most common). I've attached a picture of the setup I'm using to test with.

With the attached setup I am able to get the motors to react, though inconsistently as I mentioned above...

Let me know what you think and if you have any advice, any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2014 07:31PM by nsoul.

Did you set the vref on the driver for those motors?

@tjb1: I looked into that and how to change it and along the way I found a mention of the jumpers. Similar to someone else's problem I didn't have the jumpers installed because it wasn't mentioned :/ Didn't know what to do with them. So after installing them everything is working great! Also verified the vref and everything is good there as well!

Thank you very very much for your help! Now I can get printing!!