Mac Connection Issues

Hi,

I received my ABS Robo two weeks ago. I had no problems with the initial connection and we were printing right away. We had problems with ABS sticking to the glass bed, and we're still working out that problem.

After the first half dozen print attempts over several days, we started having terrible issues with the computer not connecting up with the printer. We have a 2012 Mac Mini running OSX 10.8.3. We have not been successful in getting a connection between the printer and the computer now for about a week.

I've tried starting the computer and printer and Repetier in various orders and no joy. When the printer is turned on we hear the steppers hum for a couple of seconds. When we launch Repetier and press Connect, I can hear the motors humming for 2-5 seconds, and get a message under the "Print Panel" Tab saying " 5 Commands Waiting". I also see messages at the bottom of the screen saying" tTtempting to connect to printer" and "Connection opened".

I've even tried pressing the "reset" button on the Arduino controller board on the underside of the printer. Pressing the "reset" button causes the motors to hum for a short while, but doesn't get the connection established.

Any ideas why I am having this problem now, but was initially successful in connecting the Mac and printer? Do I need to download some sort of Mac drivers?

Thanks!

Titaniumboy

 

Hi Titaniumboy

You will find that themessage you get "X commands waiting" indicates that you are connecting to the printer but not communicating. I had exactly this problem and spent some time going through everything with Jeff (Tesseract) on the forum.

The eventual conclusion was that the USB port was putting out insufficient power to communicate with the Ramps board and the solution was to run a powered USB hub on the USB line between your computer and the printer. This appeared to then give the required power to communicate with the Ramps board.

 

ps Don't connect anything else to the USB hub because this has apparently caused drops in communication also.

 

THIS WORKS! Thanks David Mortlock... You might want to update the thread you started with Tesseract, because it seems to be the same issue.

 

I ended up buying a USB port hub to address this. Even with all other devices disconnected from My macbook pro, the connection to the computer through repetier was unreliable. With the USB port, I now am able to connect on the first try, which saves on the frustration involved.