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Community Favorite Taking the R1+ ramps and rewiring to make generic Ramps Work

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Geof, Apr 22, 2016.

  1. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Hello All,
    I have been a Robo R1+ owner for awhile now and just started having issues with the heat bed. This ended up being a Ramps issue (mosfet failure, bed heater connector fried) so I decided that I would wire the generic Ramps 1.4 kit to work. It may seem "why would you want to do this?". Well a few reasons, one reason is I had 2 of these generic Ramps on hand and the Ramps on my R1+ had a melt down for the heat bed, 2- these ramps boards are CHEAP! I'm a huge fan of stocking 2 or 3 of an item vs the cost of 1 proprietary board from the factory. Less down time more Print time :D

    A few things you will need to be ok with doing-
    Basic Wiring
    Stripping wires
    Reading a Volt Meter
    Following Along
    Post Testing to ensure all is correct


    This work would not have been completed without the constant help from @mark tomlinson

    Now to buisness:

    The R1+ Ramps looks like this
    [​IMG]

    It is a completely terminated with connectors Black board.
    The board I decided to use is a Rep Rap Guru standard Ramps 1.4

    http://www.amazon.com/REPRAPGURU-RA...UTF8&qid=1461386564&sr=8-3&keywords=Ramps+1.4

    [​IMG]

    so lets start the rep rap guru board- in the package if you bought the link I provided there are jumpers. These jumpers go under you stepper drivers. (pins under the driver) you will use 3 jumpers and jumper all 3
    After you have the jumpers in place (all 3 per stepper !) you can remove the stepper drivers from your R1+ black Ramps board and put them on in the same orientation you removed them. There are 5 stepper drivers. I installed all 5. Then you will remove the stepper driver cables from your R1+ ramps black board and put them on the rep rap guru (both the R1+ board and RepRapGuru board are labeled for your axis- x, y, z). Remove X stepper cable, install the the wiring the same way, repeat for Y. Now for Z, The robo board used seperate Steppers. You will not be doing this. You will take Z1 and Z0 from the R1+ board and install one on each pin set for the Z on the Rep Rap Guru Board. This is how the original R1 did it and it will cause you no issues other than having a spare Stepper Driver.
    Important Note!: These wires can be reversed and if they are your stepper motor will run backwards, to correct this flip the connector around on the ramps board.
    [​IMG]

    Your board will look something like this with your stepper cards and stepper cables installed.

    Important part to switch over is located on Q3 on the Robo+ Ramps board. This chip (MOSFET) has a heatsink on it, this needs to be moved to Q3 on the Rep Rap Guru board (same chip in the same location). Hold the nut and use a phillips screw driver to remove. Put on the Rep Rap Board.
    If you do not move the heatsink from the Robo+ ramps to the Rep Rap Guru Rmaps you will likely ruin the MOSFET prematurely.


    With that done we can work on the hot end (D9 on the Robo+ board), bed heater (D8 on the Robo+ board), and parts Fan (F0 on Robo+ board).

    These items will attach as follows:
    D9(hotend from Robo+ board goes to the RepRapGuru D10. The + goes to the + of the Rep Rap Guru board.
    D8(Bed Heater) will go to the Rep Rap Guru D8. the + goes to the + of the Rep Rap Guru board.

    F0 (partsFan) will go to D9 + goes to +. In order to move this from the Robo+ black ramps to the Rep Rap guru board you will have to cut the Robo plug off, strip the wires, and then install into the rep rap Guru D9. I did this as close to the connector as I can to avoid losing wire length.

    next will be the power supply wires to the power supply connector on the Rep Rap Guru. This actually works out well as you can unplug the connector from the Robo Ramps and place thethe connector in the Rep Rap Guru board. Ensure your + goes to the + side. Polarity is IMPORTANT. Now if you want to, since the Rep Rap comes with a connector you CAN simply unscrew the hold and remove the wires from the connector, install the new connector and push into the rep rap guru connector. I did not as it was apples to apples.
    At this point you connections at the top of the board will look like this on the rep rap guru Board.
    [​IMG]

    This all seems like alot but you are almost all the way there! hang in there!

    Now we can move the end stop and thermistor wires from the Robo+ ramps board to the Rep Rap Guru Board. This actually is very easy as you can (if your careful) use the original connectors on all these on the RepRapGuru board.

    You will notice for the end stop wiring on the R1+ board ther eis a space between each connector. On the Rep Rap Guru there are 3 lines of pins. You will use S1 for the red wire, the black wire will go on the pin next to it and the 3rd pin is not used for us. Then skip a row, then install the Y end stop. Then skip a row and install the Z. You should end up with something like this
    [​IMG]

    For the Thermistor wires you use the same connectors and move T0 from the Robo+ board to the RepRag Guru T0. This will be a tight fit but do the same with T1. It does fit I promise just be careful so you dont bend the pins. This isn't a great picture but you can see the black wires for the thermistor behind the Z Stepper cables. As long as you move T0 to T0 and T1 to T1 life is good.
    [​IMG]

    Now all that is left is wiring your Ramps fan, LED strips and hotend fan to the 12V input connection. I know it seems like alot of things going to this input connection but 12V is 12V :D. It will look a little cramped but it will work. Remember Polarity! + to +. What I did was put the fan, 1 LED strip to 1 side and the other LED strip to the other. It made connecting everything much easier.
    A fun note! My R1+ LEDS use to flicker alot, after moving them from the connector the to 12V input connector on the Rep Rap Guru Ramps I have not noticed the flickering and they seem brighter!

    Now I believe this is everything! Mate the RepRap Guru board you just wired to the Arduino Board! Mount to the printer body (mind you keep the plastic washers on the screws to avoid damaging the new Ramps board. Then test with USB connection all your movements. Your Thermistors should both read normal "room" temp. The hotend and Ramps fan should run all the time. If everything is ok heat the bed. If its ok Heat the extruder. If all is good home all axis. If it homes ok run a test print!

    Hope this is helpful and covers the differences between the R1+ board and generic ramps boards and how to hook up the RepRap Guru Board (generic Ramps) in the R1+. If you have questions, comments, concerns etc please feel free to leave a response and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

    @mark tomlinson Thank you again for helping the entire way through this project!
     

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    #1 Geof, Apr 22, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2016
    AE7HD, dlively, Tom Finzel and 6 others like this.
  2. WZ9V

    WZ9V Active Member

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    So does the stock R1+ board connect step/dir for Z to both the Z and E driver?

    I've been wondering if the Z steppers run independent of each other or if they are slaved together using the same step/dir signals.
     
  3. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Yes the r1+ has 2 seperate drivers for the z motors.
     
  4. WZ9V

    WZ9V Active Member

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    Got it, but did they slave the step/dir of an extruder channel to Z or are they doing something in the firmware config?

    In other words does the firmware tweak one side of the Z separate from the other during ABL or are they always slaved to each other. Along those lines are both the z switches independent or part of the same circuit?
     
  5. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I'm not sure what their doing in the firmware, never checked as switching to the board I had (the reprap) required no firmware change as both z now use the one stepper driver.
     
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Given that the standard Marlin firmware can be tweaked to work with the R1+ I suspect that they did not do anything in the firmware and it is all hardware. They are not big on software changes.
     
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  7. WZ9V

    WZ9V Active Member

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    Thanks. Would be great if they published a wiring diagram or schematic for the R1+
     
  8. NotoriousBDG

    NotoriousBDG New Member

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    I found this wiring diagram for the R1+ somewhere on the forums, but I can't find the source to link to. It might make the transition easier to by knowing what the source looked like.

    Robo3D R1 +Plus Board.jpg
     
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  9. WZ9V

    WZ9V Active Member

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    Very nice, thanks.

    Any chance you have a picture of the stock USB setup? I'm trying to decide how I'm going to connect the USB over to my rPi 3 internal to the base. I have a 5V 3A supply and the rPi 3 already. Just need to get daring an open things up.
     
  10. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    @NotoriousBDG that one is even different from mine lol

    They like to mix it up it seems
     
  11. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    The usb is directly on the arduino board
     
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  12. NotoriousBDG

    NotoriousBDG New Member

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    I noticed there were a few differences on mine too, but that diagram was good enough at the time I had my R1+ opened up. I didn't feel like disconnecting everything to document the RAMPS variant in my R1+.
     
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  13. WZ9V

    WZ9V Active Member

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    Between the picture and the Marlin source I think I have figured out that they took a hardware approach to something that could have easily be done in firmware. In configuration_adv.h Marlin has a setting allowing you to use the second extruder driver as a second Z instead. They also allow each Z switch to be independent which in theory could allow for automatically leveling the X axis. Never tried it that way so not sure if it is more pain than it is worth.
     
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, they omitted some pins and connectors on the custom one which saved a bit'o Cash I am sure.
    Not a lot, but I guess enough.
     
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  15. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    1penny over 20,000 units is a nice chunk :)
     
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  16. Joe Smith

    Joe Smith New Member

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    @Geof , Thanks for this walkthrough! I killed my RAMPS board, and I'm replacing it with a slightly different generic RAMPS board from yours. This is a big help, as I was getting lost as to where to wire the fans, LEDs, etc. Anyways, I think I found a conflict between your instructions and photo. Your instructions:
    In the photo of your generic RAMPS board, you have the Bed Heater connecting to D8 and the hotend connecting to D10, which is the traditional connection for RAMPS. Can you verify the quoted text is incorrect, and the photo is correct? Thanks!
     
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  17. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Your are right ! Doh! The picture is the correct hookup. I typed the locations in backwards. Very sorry about the mix up! Its corrected now.

    Thank you for pointing that out !
     
  18. Joe Smith

    Joe Smith New Member

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    My pleasure. I was also hoping you could clarify this section:
    This is the part of my conversion that confused me and led me here in the first place. Which 12V input am I supposed to be using, D10? 5A input? Either way, this doesn't seem to be the safest method to wire these up. o_O Is there an alternative method?
     
  19. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I wired mine to the 12v connector the power supply goes to (leds and fan ) the little green guy. You have 2 powers and 2 grounds on that connector. I put the leds togather on one power and one ground and the fan on the other set.
     
  20. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    You want to have the fans and leds hooked to 12v when power is on. If you wanted to i suppose you could run them direct to the power supply to get your 12v all the time power is on but i perferred the idea of using the connector. You do have to tighten them down then tug to ensure they are tight but if its a tight connection in either location you wont have an issue.
     
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