Trouble with new board

[ckp343]

First - I would stick with your sainsmart board at all times. It's just a better, more common controller board. Spend the time getting that to work before ordering anything else. That's my opinion at least.

I know it sucks that you lose all settings during a re-flash, but like I say, you'll need to know them eventually if you're serious about 3D printing. At some point you're going to need to reflash your firmware.

A LOT of people have reported issues with marlin when it's compiled with any Arduino IDE later than 1.0.5. You MUST use this 1.0.5 to compile if you want to use Marlin: http://arduino.googlecode.com/files/...r2-windows.exe. There's a good chance some of your issues are just from garbled code somewhere because you used latest. Also, I highly recommend you wipe the EEPROM before uploading any new firmware versions. There is already a script for this in "File->Examples->EEPROM" in the Arduino IDE program.

Lastly, if you establish a decent understanding of your firmware settings then I highly recommend you check out Repetier. It's free, and is less outdated than Marlin. Plus, it has a great little configuration tool that makes it easy to set up: http://www.repetier.com/firmware/v092/. Aaaaaaand you can use the latest Arduino IDE to compile/upload it.

Thanks! I'll give it a go tonight and I'll let you know!

[ckp343]

5x StepStick DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver Module for 3D Printer Reprap RP A4988

does it matter that i am using these stepper motor drivers? I feel like there is something else wrong here, no matter how many settings i put in the motors just don't ever work. buzz and jump is all they do..... i can get them to start to move a little but they just won't run. really frustrated on this one

[Mjolinor]

It does not matter except that for the various driver boards that are available there are some differences that you need to check.

The various driver boards will either do 32 microstepping or 16 microstepping maximum. Make sure that you have the jumper settings set correctly for your driver board otherwise it will move too far / not far enough and may not move at all if you have it set incorrectly. You need to download the chip datasheets and check the jumper settings.

The current and reference voltage have a different relationship between the 8825 and the 4988.

https://www.pololu.com/product/2132

Towards the bottom of the page there is a good explanation of the differences.

[ckp343]

Ok so I have the RAMPS board wired up and programmed, there are two power inputs, a 5 amp and an 11 amp, my power supply states that it puts out 20 amp. When I plug power into the 11 amp nothing happens, the board does not come to life. When i plug power into the 5 amp the board comes to life and everything works!!! I can move all the axis and everything seems stable I checked all the voltages... NOW MY NEXT PROBLEM, when I chose to print, nothing happens, it doesn't heat anything up... so I tell it to preheat the PLA, it starts to preheat the Nozzle and the BED and it starts to get things heated up and then the screen goes dim and the temp drops and thats it. time after time. I tried jumping the 11 amp and the 5 amp from the same power supply but it doesnt help its like the 11 amp doesnt work on the board...