Portabee GO not connecting to Pronterface!

[LuketheDUKE902]

Note: (From the future!!! - sort of...)
So, I've fixed the connection problem, but now the extruder won't work. I've posted more in a reply below...

Hello!
I'm new to 3D printing. I ordered a Portabee GO (Link here, because apparently nobody else has heard of this printer - portabee3dprinter.com) back in December, and it finally arrived the other day. (I know, terrible shipping time. It had to go through 4+ countries to get to Canada which makes a very long shipping time, and a lot of customs fees. Also, the Portabee 3D people didn't actually ship it until after April) Anywho! I followed the quick start guide (set up and unfolded the printer, installed Pronterface). I've tried on both Windows and Ubuntu (Ubuntu is my preferred OS, but I don't really care as long as it works). I plug in the printer to the computer and the wall power outlet. I enter in the location of the printer (COM3 on windows, and /dev/ttyACM0 on Ubuntu), and set the baud rate to 250000, which is what the manual suggests. However, when I click connect, the status box on the right shows: "Connecting...", and the printer whirrs (I believe it's the extruder heating up), but nothing else happens. I've left it like this for about 1/2 an hour just to make sure I'm not being stupid and need to wait longer, but it still won't do anything. It just stays on "Connecting...". I know that not many people seem to know about this printer (The Portabee GO) in particular, but if anyone knew any similar printers (I believe it is a RepRap printer, and on windows it used a driver called RAMBo), or just how to fix this on 3D printers in general, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
- Luke

EDIT! I've now started looking closer at the printer, trying to find a solution, and I noticed that there are two red LEDs on the motherboard. One appears to be a power light, and turns on whenever the printer is plugged into the wall, but there is another that turns on solid after I've closed Pronterface after trying to connect, and having it not work. About a minute after closing Pronterface, it turns off. BUT! When I press the connect button in pronterface, it turns off, and occasionally flashes. After looking at it closer with a flashlight, I noticed that it is labeled USB. Not sure if this is useful info to anybody, just thought I'd add it on.

[winnylo]

Have you tried calling support? I wouldn't mess around with it too much if you just got it. Might void any kind of warranty you got with it. I'd call support and ask them what's wrong. They will probably have ideas, because I'm sure other people have had this same problem before. I'd hate to see you mess something up and not be able to get a refund if something really were wrong.

[old man emu]

I had a lot of trouble getting Pronterface until I loaded the Python files.

Have a read of the installation instructions here: http://www.nextdayreprap.co.uk/pront...omputer-setup/ and go download the Python files and install them.

Old Man Emu

[LuketheDUKE902]

Okay, so I've now figured out after reading the online manual (Which appears to be slightly different than the printed copy I had, and has links to different drivers) that if it isn't connecting, you can hit the Reset button if it doesn't connect, and for some reason, every time I plug my printer in, I have to press reset twice, but then it connects perfectly. Anyway, I covered the bed in Kapton tape and glue/water mixture, turned on the fan, and heated up the hotend to 220 degrees, and a few blobs of the test filament that was still in there came out. (Yay! Progress!) However, now when I tell it to extrude 50mm, and then hit extrude. The extruder gear (I think that's what it's called - the gear that pulls the filament through to the hotend) starts moving, but it turns a tiny amount, and then clicks back to where it was before, so it basically isn't turning anywhere. The manual said to try tightening or loosening the "Countersunk gear" - Not sure if that's a stardard term or not, but it's a gear on the top of the extruder that is supposed to make more or less of a gap for the filament to go through, but it doesn't change anything.

[zidlov]

Okay, so I've now figured out after reading the online manual (Which appears to be slightly different than the printed copy I had, and has links to different drivers) that if it isn't connecting, you can hit the Reset button if it doesn't connect, and for some reason, every time I plug my printer in, I have to press reset twice, but then it connects perfectly. Anyway, I covered the bed in Kapton tape and glue/water mixture, turned on the fan, and heated up the hotend to 220 degrees, and a few blobs of the test filament that was still in there came out. (Yay! Progress!) However, now when I tell it to extrude 50mm, and then hit extrude. The extruder gear (I think that's what it's called - the gear that pulls the filament through to the hotend) starts moving, but it turns a tiny amount, and then clicks back to where it was before, so it basically isn't turning anywhere. The manual said to try tightening or loosening the "Countersunk gear" - Not sure if that's a stardard term or not, but it's a gear on the top of the extruder that is supposed to make more or less of a gap for the filament to go through, but it doesn't change anything.

Having the exact same problem here! Just got my PBG two days ago and very happy I found this thread. Your tip about the reset button made it work for me with pronterface. Before I just couldn't get a connection to the printer and I wrongly interpreted the quick-start-guide and tried to press the software reset button that is in pronterface right besides the connect button. I finally discovered the hardware reset button on the board and just printed my first two pieces, although my extruder is still not setup correctly.
Interestingly I succeeded in printing out the octopus test piece from the manual when I uses repetier host insted of pronterface. Without the "reset trick" I only could get connection with repetier host, not with pronterface. But when I tried to print something else besides the octopus, the auto-calibration would start, hit or miss (^_^) and then the printer would just stop and drop the connection to repetier as well.
That first octopus I could successfully print (almost) had a pretty decent quality but the next two pieces hadn't so I suspect my extruder got somehow clogged and I should clean it, but haven't quite found out, how to do it without ruining anything.
Great that I found this forum and someone else also has this printer. Would be great to exchange some experiences to avoid further frustration or at least minimize it a bit...

[zidlov]

Now I found several issues with the Portabee Go. It's not to say it wasn't well worth the money and the wait (6 months), but there clearly are some things that show that it's still in beta/preproduction phase and that should in every case get addressed by romscraj if they don't want to run into a flood of complaints in the future.
Starting with the overall mechanical design (which is great) I can't help to notice that the outer shell (the part you actually print on) is just slid onto the inner part. There's no bulges, hinges, dents or whatever would make sure you actually have it slid in in the exact right position which is important because otherwise the auto-calibration just doesn't work because the hot-end hits the build-platform in the wrong place.
There should be two screws or a few indented points or at least a marking so you know when it's slid in to exactly the right position. As it is now, this is guesswork. (not too difficult to figure out, but not good for a mass-product)
Second issue is the auto-calibration and the end-stops. The x-endstop is a joke. I mean, it's just glued there with a giant blob of hot-glue. That's all the mechanical attachment the is. And it's glued to one of the stepper-motors which is metal, so needless to say mine fell of after about the second printjob. I only noticed because the auto-calibration wouldn't work because instead of stopping at the x-endpoint, the extruder just tried to continue which made a really bad noise so I immediately switched off the printer. Then I found out that the x-endstop just fell off. It just hang there on two wires and that big blob of hot-glue so I reglued it to it's place but clearly this won't work for long. There needs to be some kind of actual attachment, be it a tiny screw or whatever. Just hotglue won't work, as the extruder motor pressing against it has quite some torque.
And there should be another end-stop for the z-axis. When the auto-calibration doesn't work because there's no molten filament in the hot-end or you forgot to turn on the heat and the filament is still rigid, the auto-calibration will miss and then the z-arm will just try to continue grinding inside your build-platform which makes a very unpleasant noise, bends the arm and is surely NOT good.
If the auto-calibration works, it's great, but if it doesn't there should be an end-stop switch that prevents the arm from going too far.

Next thing I immediately missed is the manual. There is none. The "quick start guide" is helpful to a point, but only if everything works perfectly from the beginning and there are never any errors. But this won't happen. For example, the quick start manual says how to feed the filament, but it doesn't tell what to do if the filament is stuck or how to clean the hot-end etc.
Then it took me a few days to actually connect to the printer. It didn't work with pronterface, only after pressing the reset key on the pcb board, which is another bad design. A smd key on a pcb board is good to have for an exceptional situation when the board needs to get reset, but as it is now you have to press that key to actually connect to the board over serial port. And the key is hidden behind a big capacitor so if you're not careful, you'll either break something off the board or kill the board entirely because you happened to wear pvc slippers on a pvc floor and -oops- fried your board.
There should be some acrylic, metal or I-don't-care-what-kind-of front panel with the reset-key being attached on the outside so you don't have to touch the pcb with your bare hands. Actually, like it is now, you should always be grounded once you touch it. Also it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a strain-relief for the micro-usb and maybe the power socket, too.
The whole printer is incredibly robust, no problem carrying it around in a backpack; it's a pity that those few key elements are so fragile.

That would be all of my rant for now. All in all, I think it's a great printer, the few weak points are quite easily fixed and hopefully will be fixed from the manufacturer in later release versions.

[Duck]

I am really curious about this printer. Have you had any better experiences with it?

While I do like the concept for the design of it, one thing that really bothers me is the belt path of the cross axis. The tension will be higher at the extremities than at the centre as the belt clamp point on the carriage is not in line with the tangent of the pulleys. If they can't even get a simple belt drive designed right it makes me question the rest of the mechanics...

Straight.JPG