Upgrade Advice

[chris850]

I have a 3d printer I got off ebay (A600 Prusa I3 reprap). I have upgraded the extruder to a wades and I must have screwed up the stepper motor cause it no longer will move when trying to control it with Repetier host. I have swapped connections with known working motors and still nothing. The control board is a all in one board, while I'm ordering a new motor I was thinking of ordering a new controller while I'm at it (I like to have a replacement of each part on hand for these types of issues). Can anyone recommend something other than what came with it? I was to still be able to use repetier host and the current motors. Looking for one that is good but not the most expensive out of course. Just need someone to point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for all the help

[RobH2]

What board did it come with?

Do you know how to test a stepper motor to make sure the motor actually died? It's easy. Just connect two of the leads to a standard led and spin the motor. The led will light up if the motor is good. Keep changing the lead until you get two that light it up. Then test the other two. If both sets work, the motor is ok. If you can't get any combination to work, then the motor is bad. Make sure the motors are actually bad before you replace that entire board. It's uncommon but I've seen two components in a row go bad and it makes you think that something else is wrong when it was really those two initial parts by terrible fate, that both went bad at the same time.

[chris850]

I just tested the motor a different way and actually the motor is fine. Im wondering why its not moving when hooked to the printer and trying to move it with the software manually, could it be the board? I didnt start having this issue until I changed the extruder, hooked everything back up, now it wont spin. Is it common for a board to just go bad? especially the printer only being less than a month old? this is the board

[RobH2]

No, I don't think that it's common for a new board to go bad but there are things that can kill a brand new board 5-seconds out of the bag. Stray electrical discharges or shorts can ruin any electrical circuit especially one that doesn't have robust safeguards built in. That's not a feature or specification you'll find listed but sometimes more expensive electronics will have better safeguards against accidental surges or static charges. It's possible to short a board without knowing it if you have power supplied to it while changing things around. Changing an extruder should not kill your board so unless something odd happened, I'm still thinking it's something simple that is being overlooked.

Ok, the motor is good so the issue is somewhere else.

Have you tested the continuity of the wires that connect to the board and then to the motor? I assume your motor wires are not long enough to reach the board and if not, you'll certainly have another set of wires to extend that length. If those are all good and none shorted (make sure you wiggle connectors as you test) then we can eliminate wires.

If the wires and the motor are ok, it starts to lead to the board.
1. Did you change anything in the firmware that could have disabled the connections on the board?
2. Are all of the stepper connectors dead or just one of them? If just one of them is dead can you move the wires from it and have that motor now work from a different connector?
3. Don't be insulted as I'm just diagnosing with you, but, when you've been making connections, was the power off to the board? Did you touch the board and at any time get a static discharge or shock? I'm trying to see if you board could have been damaged by stray electrical events.

I'm not an electrical engineer so I'm not sure what the stepper motors output. I'm not sure if it's continuous current or pulses. If you can figure that out with a Google search and you have a multimeter you should be able to set the printer to do a print that and then measure what's going on at each stepper connection. If you find that they all work except the one that seems dead, and you are sure nothing in the firmware was changed that could have disabled it, I'd say the board has a fault.

Does the board have a 'reset' button. Some do (mine does). Try that while it's powered on. Also, you can disconnect all power leads to the board and hit the reset button? I've found that it will open a circuit that will drain any residual electrons out of the circuits. Then, hook up the wires and see if the board works. I've reset a few things that way. I had a motherboard that would get a headache and not boot or turn on. If I disconnected the power connector and then hit the 'reset' button I would get an instantaneous blip of power that would make the power leds come on for an instant and then go out. That would drain the board. Then I could put the power connector back and it would boot. It was an intermittent thing and frustrating but it worked.

Again, I'm just trying help diagnose. You have to eliminate everything you can before you toss the board, jsut to make sure you aren't throwing out a good board by accident.

I'm not sure if I helped much here but maybe I gave you a few more things to try before you give up and order a board.

Finally, many of use RAMPS boards on an Arduino Mega. It's a robust board and not too expensive. You might be able to migrate to one. My firmware is Marlin and it runs well on it. I'm not sure if other firmwares work well with RAMPS but maybe someone else here will know that.

[chris850]

Im going to try all those tests to make double sure its not something small like you suggested. And dont worry about offending me, I need help and it would be very hard to offend me when your offering help. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this! Ive been looking at the RAMPS 1.4 to replace the board if it is bad, but will I still be able to use repetier host to control the printer with that board? Sorry for the newb questions but everyone has to start somewhere lol

[chris850]

Just checked all the wires and there good from the plus on the motor to connection to the board. I never changed anything with the firmware or anything, Tried the tiny reset button and still nothing. When I power on all the motors are free until I move around one of the axis, once I do that it locks the motor. tested with a led while hooked to the motor and powered on and every single combo (2 leads) powers the led

[RobH2]

I hope I'm able to help. Maybe someone else will weigh in too and see something I'm not thinking about or have a fix they've found successful.

I used Repetier a few times with my RAMPS 1.4 board so I know it's compatible with Marlin at least. If you ever want to upgrade to a really, really nice slicer that's blazing fast, has great supports and a beautiful preview, look at Simpify3D. It's about $160 but it's worth every penny. Some of the guys here turned me onto it and I didn't want to spend the money. Man am I glad I did. For over a year I used Cura, Kisslicer (one of the cleanest slicers I've ever used), Slic3r, Pronterface, Skeinforge (hard as hell but powerful like no other), Repetier and a couple of others. I tended to wander back to Cura mostly. Kisslicer is clean but won't connect to the printer directly. You have to use an SD card with it. Of course all of those are free. There is something, well lots of things, nice to say about Open-Source software. But sometimes a team of developers who create things for profit have the resources to create something truly outstanding. I feel that Simplify3D is one of those. And no, I have no affiliation with them...lol... I just like telling people how much I like it.

Let me know how the tests go.

[chris850]

Okay I just had someone tell me that because I went from Direct Drive to Wades I have to change the steps per mm in the firmware. How do I get to the firmware???? lol

[chris850]

Simplify will control the printer? Like repetier?

[RobH2]

Yes, Simplify3D will control the printer and be like Repetier on steroids. Unfortunately they do not have a trial version but the guys are really nice. If you try it and don't have success, they'll work with you to sort it out. If that fails I bet they'd be willing to work something out with you. They are good guys.

Ah Ha, that could be it. The board could be working but turning the stepper so slowly you can't see it happen making you think the board is dead. See, that's what's good about forums, right?

So, when you got your printer did you have any instructions about setup or installation? If so, what that was most likely was how to get your printer connected to the firmware and flash the board with the commands. Do you know what firmware you use? Since you asked the question, probably not. Do you have a setup or installation document that you could attach for me to read? It might help me determine what you have.