I have just about had it with this board. From the beginning it has been a struggle to get this thing to work and when it does work it locks up after a few hours of printing. Now I can no longer get an IP to display on my GLCD and keep getting a halt state when trying to heat the bed and the panel temperatures are now always 0 even though I have them set in the config to be 230 and 90.
Tried re-flashing the firmware
reformat the SD card
tried a new SD card
still noting.
I have just about had it with this board. From the beginning it has been a struggle to get this thing to work
Very sorry to hear that. What kind of problems did you run into ?
and when it does work it locks up after a few hours of printing.
This sounds like either a ground loop issue, or you are using S3D. Both problems can be resolved. Can you tell me more ?
Now I can no longer get an IP to display on my GLCD and keep getting a halt state when trying to heat the bed and the panel temperatures are now always 0 even though I have them set in the config to be 230 and 90.
What do the LEDs on the board do ?
Can you try starting from a fresh configuration file, and modifying only the minimum you absolutely need to get network to work ?
It started working again, although I have not done anything to it other than what I did above.
Yes, I am using Simplify3D but am loading the file to the sd card and running it from there. I was not having any luck running it over the USB due to disconnects, but I knew that could be an issue going in. Is there some setting that I should know about for using S3D?
The LEDs are currently working like they should I think with 2 & 3 flashing rapidly when setting idle. I will have to write down what they do if I get the same issues again.
I really like the board and setup and I think the problems are probably just me being a new to all this and trying to dive in head first not knowing much about electronics and such. Sorry if I sounded hateful in the post above, was just frustrated at the time. Anyway, I am not giving up on it yet
Sometimes you just need to walk away from the printer. I completely understand what you are going through having been there. I went for many long walks thinking i jumped in too deep. It can’t be this hard.
Arthur and the others here are very helpful and I have found just reading old posts and re-reading the documents on the site very helpful.
Things that I have found to make thing easier.
I have stopped using USB. Just hard code your boards IP address and save it in your browser.
Make sure you do not have the card mounted to your computer OS when printing or homing.
I use Slicr3, if you use Simplify3D beware of some of its issues with many very small moves causing board issues. There are numerous posts about this.
Very large files take awhile to copy. I have time so i wait, I hate pulling the card to transfer files from my laptop.
Verify your config file and copy it to another computer ( i now have a copy of it elsewhere after having fubared my card)
Verify and re-verify your wiring (Once it works, tighten them every so often)
Start with the simple prints until you can print them accurately every time.
Printer calibration is the key, I skipped way too many steps and wasted a lot plastic trying to print a damn frog.
Currently 98% of my issues are mechanical in nature. I have an industrial controls background so it is always a mechanical issue. When I started I always thought i had a setting wrong but nope something loosened up on my printer…
After a year and a half I finally have it under control and I am in the process of building my second printer and I am sticking with this board.
That’s most likely the source of your “print stops” problems.
S3D has a bug in which it generates insane ( much higher than the definition of the printer ) levels of detail in it’s gcode, resulting in a gcode density higher than can be executed at normal speeds, or that the firmwares were designed to handle.
This is only a problem with S3D, other more mature slicers like Slic3r and Cura fixed that problem a long time ago.
There are solutions to this problem : https://groups.google.com/d/msg/smoothieware-support/2r0JLV3G5i8/Zu634sE2BwAJ
There are even scripts and online tools to fix gcode produced by S3D, though I can’t find them right now, maybe somebody else can give you the info.
I was not having any luck running it over the USB due to disconnects,
First off : Ethernet does not have those problems, if you have USB problems fastest/easiest way to fix them is to just use Ethernet.
If you need to stick with USB, a few things :
Make sure your USB cable is as short as possible ( 30cm ideal )
Make sure it is shielded
Make sure it has ferrite beads ( ideally at both ends )
Make sure the printer and the computer are plugged into the same power strip, and all power cables are as short as possible
Make sure there are no fridges, large CFL bulbs, neon lights, motor-based equipment, anything that can produce EMI, in the room
If your printer is unusually large, that is likely a big part of the problem, if that’s your case, tell us, there are additional measures to take
OK, problem is back again. Only now the GLCD is blank and all the LEDs are solid.
What I did prior to this.
Needed to edit the config file so I turned everything off, plugged in the USB and…. nothing. USB could not be found by windows when only a few hours before it was.
Figured fine, I will remove the SD and put it into my reader. Turned every thing off removed SD and plugged into reader and edited the config. Put it back into smoothieboard and GLCD is blank. Pushed reset button, GLCD is blank. Turned off and on, GLCD is blank. Turned off and removed SD and put it back into the reader again and now it says that the SD must be formatted before it can be used. Reformatted, put a fresh copy of config and firmware.bin on SD. Remounted it to the Smoothieboard and GLCD is blank.
Every time I remove from windows I make sure to safely remove devise first hand.
Also, before that I was trying to only use the network connection to upload the files to print and it would get to about 42% and would say upload failed. Thought that maybe it was because these were S3D files so I uses Slic3r instead and then they get to 2-4% and fail.
This is the third SD card that I have used with this board also.
Another note I am using all shielded cables for this printer for every wire coming from the board to the printer. Computer and printer plugged into the same APC. No large appliances near by that may cause EMI. Printer is An ORD Bot with a 200x200 heated bed. Not overly large and is in an enclosure and separated from the Smoothieboard.
My USB cable is crazy long though but had no problems with it up until recently.
There obviously is something very wrong with the setup here. Uploads should never fail, and SD cards should never get corrupted.
Long USB cables essentially form an antenna ( called a ground loop ) with the power cables, which will make the system much more sensitive to EMI, even if you are in a clean environment. It may also cause a ground differential, which would make matters even worse. You really need to reduce the USB cable’s length.
You ideally want to get rid of it completely ( not plugged in at all ), use only Ethernet, and provide 5V to the board either via the 5V power input, or by soldering a voltage regulator to the board.
Please do this, work only via Ethernet, use a fresh SD card, and tell us if you still have trouble. The less possible causes there are, the easiest it’ll be to figure out what exactly is going wrong here.
I do have the 5v supply plugged in so that even without the USB it gets power. I have however always had the USB cable plugged into the smoothieboard if not plugged into the computer.
Another strange thing is that it never remembers the home position for X axis anymore. Usually will move about an inch from its current location and stop and then do the bounce. I have checked the endstops and all are working fine, I have even replaced it just to be sure. I thought maybe it was S3D causing this so I tried Slic3er but same issue. Although with Slic3er I cannot get it to run the extruder for some reason. I have to play more with that software as I am not familiar with it.
I will get another SD card, remove the USB cable and see what happens.
Thanks for all your help by the way, really appreciate it.
Ok, well here it is. Got another sd card, no sub cable plugged in, no Ethernet cable plugged in, was working for a while until I got tired of unmounting the SD card every time I wanted to update the config. I decided to give the usb cable a try again and again nothing, but now like before I am getting all solid lights on the LED. I have tried everything, even getting ANOTHER (#5) SD card and trying that. No luck. There has got to be something wrong with this board.
Just before this last crap out the Z & X axis home would keep moving up about 3mm and to the left about 5mm. Even after I set Z0 and set home when I would pick home all axis on the LCD Y would go home and Z & X would not. Before it was just the X axis now its two of them.
Yes, it was working until I plugged in the USB. I cannot get Ethernet to work for more than a few minutes and when uploading it always says upload failed after about 20-40%. I have been using the SD on the GLCD to save prints to and was working until the USB thing.
Endstop issue. Here is what it does.
I press “Home all Axis” on the GLCD
2.Y homes fine, Z homes but then goes back up about 3mm and stops there, X moves in the positive direction about 5-10mm sometimes more.
If I don’t home the axis first and just start the print it does the same thing but then runs the print fine so I know that the axis is not reversed.
At the end of a print i have it set so that the Z axis moves up 1mm and then the X is supposed to home, and it used to work but now Z moves and X does nothing.
If I get it running again I will record a video of it doing it and post it to YouTube or something. I am going to work on it again tonight and see if I can get it going again.
Worked on it again last night and started fresh again with the Firmware.bin and copied a new config with the same options and a new SD card. Now everything is working perfect. All axis home correctly and I am able to use the network. I compared my old config line for line and they are the same save for some commented parts.
The only thing that does not work right is that when I first turn the power on I have to hit the reset button otherwise all the LEDs stay solid. Once I do that the LEDs 2 & 3 start to flash and I am able to use the board.
I have ran quite a few prints and to tell you the truth it has not run better. *Crossing fingers* LOL
All your previous problems, and now the “reset after power on” thing hint at some sort of problem, somewhere, but it’s insanely difficult to figure out without being in front of the setup, unfortunately
