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Solved OK to use Stock Arduino Mega 2560 R3 in R1+?

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by LabMinion, Jun 21, 2019.

  1. LabMinion

    LabMinion Member

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    My stock Arduino mega that came with my R1+ no longer powers up/communicates. Looks like the USB driver chip is cooked on the board. Sadly, the source for new boards+RAMPs referred by R3D is out of stock.

    So, I would like to buy an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 and reuse the RAMPs to get things working. Googling leaves me wondering if a stock Mega R3 is appropriate or not as there was talk about pin rearranging, higher voltages, so on. Does anyone know for sure if a stock Mega will work with the stock RAMPs board?

    Thank you for your time and help.

    Jeff
     
  2. albert3d

    albert3d Member

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    Yes stock arduino mego will work. R1+ didn't change the arduino, but did change the standard ramps. You can use the standard ramps with slight modifications to wiring for future reference.
     
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  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Exactly - just remember to re-upload the firmware on the new board and you are fine.
     
  4. LabMinion

    LabMinion Member

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    Thank you so much for the fast response! Greatly appreciate the help getting things running.

    Jeff
     
  5. Paul Pangrazzi

    Paul Pangrazzi New Member

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    @mark tomlinson I've got a new Arduino Mega 2560 in hand to try and fix some temp issues (hotend won't heat more than 165C and bed reports 40C cold.)

    I've read posts on folks flashing the appropriate firmware, and have done so on my current board, but what is the procedure for an Arduino replacement?

    Do I simply disassemble existing board/printer setup, attach new board in the printer, turn the printer on, find the Pi on the network, and flash new firmware via Octoprint as usual?
     
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yes, disassmble and replace the faulty board -- reassemble.

    The easiest way is to load the firmware is to connect your computer (a PC I presume, although a Mac should be similar) directly to the printer USB port (where OctoPi is probably connected in your case) and run the Arduino IDE to load the firmware. There is a post on this in the FAQ with more details:
    http://community.robo3d.com/index.php?threads/faq-r1-r1-series-printers.19735/#post-119335

    I do not think OctoPi can load the firmware if there is none loaded (I am not SURE that it will not, but I do not know one way or another). Perhaps if you compiled the firmware to HEX format you could upload it with the OctoPi instance, but I have not done that.
     
  7. Paul Pangrazzi

    Paul Pangrazzi New Member

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    Thank you. Will do.
     
  8. Paul Pangrazzi

    Paul Pangrazzi New Member

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    I'm all in now... but a bit over my head.
    Since I'm going to need to source an additional RAMPS 1.4 board for my R2, I'm considering going with an all in one replacement + TMC2130 drivers. I checked the posts with some recommended setups, but a few of the links were 404s by now.

    Are the following recommended?

    Board: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B078SSNJZ7
    Stepper drivers::https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07RSX2W3V <- Which drivers should I choose from this selection?
     
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    That board is capable of the TMC2130 so you may want to consider that, You are also going to need to customize the Marlin firmware for that board and drivers I imagine. It claims to be a clone of the RAMPS/Arduino from Marlin's perspective:

    "Firmware can use open-source firmware Marlin, and its configuration is exactly the same as ramps1.4, which can directly replace Ramps1.4."

    Hopefully that is true since it makes it easier.

    However if you use the 2130 drivers there are some adjustments to make for those. There is some details about that here (look towards the bottom where it talks about Step 5: Setting Up the Software): https://www.instructables.com/id/Upgrading-RAMPS-14-With-TMC2130-Stepper-Drivers/

    Others here on the forum have made that swap as well so you should be able to get some assistance on that if you need. I am the old-skool type and still use the Pololu A4988 myself :)
     

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