Should we use metal enclosures to protect the board? Should we use shielded and grounded wiring to the motors?
My current setup uses the +12v and +5v rails from a dedicated 850W computer power supply. This powers my Smoothieboard, 4 steppers, Fan loads, and a 40W extruder load.
My bed heater (500W Silicone encased heater) runs off 120V AC via SSR.
My electronics are directly below my heated bed with no shielding other than mylar backed insulation. I am not using shielded motor wiring.
The printer is currently driven by USB from a laptop, powered from the same AC receptacle.
I can connect via USB and issue simple commands, but prints fail after only a few moves with a communications timeout.
Next steps I plan to take are to replace the USB cable and then try dropping the baud rate from 115600, but I am also wondering if Smoothie might need additional shielding.
Imported from wikidot
Hey !
First off : changing USB speed changes nothing, it is ignored and the connection just goes as fast as it can.
Second : no an enclosure wouldn’t help.
You want to make sure your USB cable is shielded, has ferrite, and is as short as possible ( a foot ideally ).
You want to make sure the printer and computer are plugged into the same power strip.
If that doesn’t do it, make sure all your wires are twisted in pairs, add ferrites close to the Smoothieboard, and a large capacitor on the 5V line.
From the 500W bed I assume the printer is large. if so do what you can to make the wires as short as possible. Make sure you run signal and power lines as far from each other as you can.
Also try using Ethernet and see if the machine is more stable using that.
Cheers.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, it was the USB cable. I found that on Repetier setting "use ping-pong (send only after OK) seemed to help as well.
Thanks!