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Solved At my wits end. Need help w/ firmware

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Scifideity, Sep 30, 2021.

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  1. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    Success!

    3DBenchy-TestPrint-1.jpg

    It's not pretty but it completed. PETG is some picky stuff. Now the task is to play around with the settings and get it printing better but this thread can be considered Solved. If I didn't need to get some stuff printed soon I would have done a more controlled 'organ' replacement to figure out exactly which part was the culprit. That and since the entire kit cost $30 it wasn't worth the time it would take.

    Thanks again Mark! I really appreciate all your assistance.

    -Shawn
     
    #21 Scifideity, Oct 8, 2021
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Ecellent! I knew mine were on the pins as in the pictures and while some of hte RAMPS boards vary in the connections slightly since that was a RAMPS 1.4 it should have been the same.

    Go print stuff!
     
    #22 mark tomlinson, Oct 8, 2021
  3. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    Whelp. It was good while it lasted.
    I got 2.5 test prints out of it then it threw another temp error. The only thing not replaced earlier were the PSU and LCD. Swapped out the PSU and of course the replacement is about 1mm thicker than the OEM so it won't slid into the holders. Easy fix to sand them down a bit so no worries but now troubleshooting why it won't heat up and hold. It started out getting up to temp and hanging out there find then after a few min temps start dropping and it throws another temp error once the temps drop enough to trigger that condition. On top of that, now the bed heater isn't heating up. The thermistor reads the ambient temp fine but telling it to heat up does nothing. Tried a second bed and have the same problem so I'm suspecting the replacement RAMPS board right now. Gonna swap that out later and see how things go.

    Pretty sure this damn thing is cursed. :eek:

    Is there any chance the slicer could have caused an issue?
    I can't think of one but the two successful test prints I got were both via MatterControl 2.21.10.11160. They didn't look so good so I decided to try Cura 4.11.0 and that's when the problems started. Probably a coincidence but a strangely timed one at that. Until it failed about half way through 3DBenchy the print quality was noticeably better coming out of Cura.
     
    #23 Scifideity, Oct 11, 2021
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Good news and BAD news.

    The good news is that the failure to heat the bed is a frequent problem and there is a fix.
    The bad news is that it usualy means the RAMPS output MOSFET that drives the bed heater is toast.

    The way forward to avoid this is to add a relay that the RAMPS drives on the bed heater output and then have that relay apply the bed heater directly to the 12v power supply. The bed heater will work fine and the current for it does not go through the RAMPS. There are a few threads on this.


    http://community.robo3d.com/index.p...nstalling-ssr-pid-control-instructions.17512/
     
    #24 mark tomlinson, Oct 11, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2021
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The reason this happens is two-fold.
    The MOSFET channel that drives the bed is rated at 11 amps. The bed heater as it ages can pull more than 11 amps.
     
    #25 mark tomlinson, Oct 11, 2021
  6. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    I did move over the MOSFET heatsink per the instructions on that other thread about hooking up the ramps but I guess it's either low-quality or incredibly touchy /LOL

    I'll check that bed heater thread out

    Thanks
     
    #26 Scifideity, Oct 11, 2021
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The RAMPS boards are all made in Asia and they are so bloody cheap that nobody makes really excellent ones.
    I keep a few as spares because getting a working one is literally almost a coincidence.
     
    #27 mark tomlinson, Oct 11, 2021
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Last time I did buy a new one I bought 3 from different sellers and got one that actually worked.
     
    #28 mark tomlinson, Oct 11, 2021
  9. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    Yup, I saw you mention that in another thread so ordered two when I got the replacement parts just in case one was a dud. ;)
     
    #29 Scifideity, Oct 11, 2021
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  10. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    SSR arrived today so I went to work it into the system and noticed this.

    YIKES!!

    Had to cut two of the PSU wires to get the RAMPS out of the printer.

    IMG_8061.jpg IMG_8062.jpg IMG_8063.jpg

    Becoming more and more convinced this thing is cursed :eek:
     
    #30 Scifideity, Oct 13, 2021
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, sadly not uncommon. The RAMPS handles a farir amount of current (hotend + 11 amps for the bed heater).
    What tends to happen is that the bed heeater can start to draw more current as it ages, eventually this causes the wires to look melty and often can kill the D3 MOSFET (in your pictures that is the only one with a heatsink) that drives the channel to the bed heater. This is specific to the RAMPS board, not really Robo. RAMPS board just have this as a failure type.

    In your case it looks like the bad coonection was on the power supply connector to the RAMPS, but... it happens. I would suggest two things to avoid this in the future.
    1) Tin the wires where they go into the connector
    2) Make sure the connectors are tight.

    Something important to note: DO NOT USE LEAD SOLDER (melting point is 220°C)
    Use Silver Solder -- (618 to 899ºC) In fact some guide will tell you not to tin the wires for that very reason ... they could get hot enough to melt it.

    You don't have to tin them you just need to make sure that the end of the wires that land on the terminals are tightly twisted together with no loose strands and that the terminals are tight and snug on the wire so that you can't pull it out with a good pull/tug.
     
    #31 mark tomlinson, Oct 13, 2021
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    One brilliant way to sort it is to use an SSR between the RAMPS and the bed heater. RAMPS turns SSR on/off and that has the wiring for the heater directly to the power supply output. The RAMPS simply turns the SSR on and off, very minimal current draw on the boards .. milliamps.

    (SSR = Solid State Relay)
     
    #32 mark tomlinson, Oct 13, 2021
  13. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    I just went through the SSR thread and got one installed.

    IMG_8068.jpg

    I had ordered another kit "just in case" so I swapped out everything again in case the drivers or arduino got damaged when the RAMPS decided to melt.

    Hooked everything up per this thread http://community.robo3d.com/index.p...nstalling-ssr-pid-control-instructions.17512/ and installed firmware ROBO3DR1PLUSV2 but the LCD is doing weird things you can see here



    It's not easy to see but it's all garbled and areas change back and forth. I've swapped out the LCD and arduino again and still have the same issue. Gonna mess with it more tomorrow but if you have any ideas or suggestions I'd appreciate it. :)
     
    #33 Scifideity, Oct 13, 2021
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you disconnected the LCD when adding the SSR make sure you have landed the two ribbon cables correctly. Easy to get them mixed up and that will stop the LCD from working. Make sure the LCD is defined correctly in that firmware. Stock versions always had the REPRAP Discount (2 line) LCD enabled, but not the FULL GRAPHICS one. Not sure from that picture which you have, sort-of looks like the FG one to me.
     
    #34 mark tomlinson, Oct 15, 2021
  15. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    I have the cables labeled so I don't get them mixed up but flipped them to make sure the positions didn't change with this non-Robo RAMPS board. No luck there. Swapping the cables gives a blank screen.

    Firmware is set to #define REPRAP_DISCOUNT_FULL_GRAPHIC_SMART_CONTROLLER with the default line commented out //#define REPRAP_DISCOUNT_SMART_CONTROLLER

    Tried reapplying the firmware but no luck there either. Amazon was supposed to deliver another RAMPS today but looks like it won't be here til tomorrow so I'll pick back up when it arrives and see if that does the trick.
     
    #35 Scifideity, Oct 15, 2021
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, just had to check :)

    Think I found your problem.
    This is the REPRAP_DISCOUNT_SMART_CONTROLLER:
    190px-SmartAdapter.jpg

    This is the REPRAP_DISCOUNT_FULL_GRAPHIC_SMART_CONTROLLER:

    190px-RRD_FULL_GRAPHIC_SMART_CONTROLER_INFO.jpg

    I think yours is correct.
     
    #36 mark tomlinson, Oct 16, 2021
  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #37 mark tomlinson, Oct 16, 2021
  18. Scifideity

    Scifideity Member

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    Yup, I have the second one and double checked my firmware just to be sure.

    Screen Shot 2021-10-16 at 2.26.22 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2021-10-16 at 2.36.09 PM.png

    This is the same firmware file I used previously when it got back to workin again prior to the RAMPS meltdown issue.
    I've swapped out the Arduino with no change so hopefully Amazon will get the RAMPS card here today and I'll swap that out and see how that goes.

    I read some other threads where the RAMPS was the issue so I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic but this printer is inching closer and closer to a drop kick out the window if it doesn't start behaving soon. ;)
     
    #38 Scifideity, Oct 16, 2021
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, the RAMPS is the interface to all of the electrical bits and usually if something dies it is RAMPS related (the card itself or the stepper drivers). The Arduino is less of a problem. make sure the Library is included in the Arduino IDE. That line tells the source to use it (the #include of the header) but you still need the binary library included in the build of the firmware -- the compiler handles that.
     
    #39 mark tomlinson, Oct 16, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2021
  20. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Here is where you can see it refferenced

    Untitled.png
     
    #40 mark tomlinson, Oct 16, 2021
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