Cape Town Build

[Jambler24]

Hi! Jon here, representing H4H down by the sea.

So, I have decided to get myself into gear and complete the morgan build that was started back in PTA.

And good news! The build is complete, and its alive!

I just need some help with the final setup calibration wise, and we’ll be away!

So at present, I have loaded the firmware, (Marlin from the repo) installed printrun, and when I hit G28, arms move, wiggle into place, platform shifts and everything seems to have found the endstops.

After this, nothing. This is what I get when sending M360:

>>>M360
SENDING:M360
Cal: Theta 0
Soft endstops disabled
Printer stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting)
No movement – Home first…
X:-35.00Y:-55.00Z:210.00E:0.00
SCARA Theta:116.32 Psi+Theta:242.83
SCARA Cal – Theta:116.32 Psi+Theta (90):36.51
SCARA step Cal – Theta:277.88 Psi+Theta:302.22
Disconnected.

Any suggestions?

[Quentin Harley]

Sounds like your thermistors are either not plugged in, or short circuit.

What does Pronterface report for the temperatures?
Otherwise, what is the output of M105?

Q

[Jambler24]

Spot on with the thermistors, the one on the heat bead was shorting.

Now, to the next step.

[Jambler24]

Right, so the next blockade has been hit. When entering M360, the nozzle moves away perpendicular to the centre pipe and keeps going so that I have to cut cut power to stop it. I have had a look at the forum and couldn’t find any probable cause. I also noticed that when Issuing the pronterface jog commands, the head moves, but only in one axis (x-axis) in one direction (away from the centre) no matter which axis I jog, even the z axis.

Here is the results from the M360 commands:

>>>M360
SENDING:M360
Cal: Theta 0
Soft endstops disabled
start
echo:Marlin 1.0.0
echo: Last Updated: Apr 30 2014 21:12:15 | Author: (qharley, Morgan SCARA armlevel)
Compiled: Apr 30 2014
echo: Free Memory: 3602 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Using Default settings:
echo:Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X215.00 Y215.00 Z100.00 E450.00
echo:Scaling factors:
echo: M365 X1.00 Y1.00 Z1.00
echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
echo: M203 X300.00 Y300.00 Z300.00 E45.00
echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
echo: M201 X400 Y400 Z400 E8000
echo:Acceleration: S=acceleration, T=retract acceleration
echo: M204 S9000.00 T3000.00
echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum xY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s)
echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X10.00 Z10.00 E5.00
echo:Home offset (mm):
echo: M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
echo:PID settings:
echo: M301 P22.20 I1.08 D114.00
echo:SD init fail

Sorry about the data dump, i’m just not sure where to start with this…

Cheers
Jon

[Quentin Harley]

Hi Jon.. actually helps a lot…

I see that your steps per angle are still the defaults.

What are your motor and stepper driver choices? You need to set up your initial step settings, and save it using M500.

Check out the shiny new calibration guide. A lot has changed there since we last saw each other…

Cheers,
Q

[Jambler24]

Ah fantastic,

I’m using the 400 step 0.9 for the X and Y, and the 200, 1.8 for the Z and extruder. The drivers are the cool steps 2.1 from black box, but having a look at them I see the solder spot to enable 1/32 step is not there, should I enable it on all drivers?

Thanks again for the help!

[Jambler24]

I have soldered the cool steps 2 to enable the 1/32 stepping, and everything seems ok up to any movement after homing. When I send M360, both wheels spin in opposed directions so the arm moves away from the centre and doesn’t stop. I have tried changing the steps as well as thing like the offset in the config file, but to no avail. This is what the output is looking like:

start
echo:Marlin 1.0.0
echo: Last Updated: May 6 2014 19:59:34 | Author: (qharley, Morgan SCARA armlevel)
Compiled: May 6 2014
echo: Free Memory: 3602 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Stored settings retreived:
echo:Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X430.00 Y430.00 Z100.00 E450.00
echo:Scaling factors:
echo: M365 X1.00 Y1.00 Z1.00
echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
echo: M203 X300.00 Y300.00 Z300.00 E45.00
echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
echo: M201 X400 Y400 Z400 E8000
echo:Acceleration: S=acceleration, T=retract acceleration
echo: M204 S9000.00 T3000.00
echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum xY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s)
echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X10.00 Z10.00 E5.00
echo:Home offset (mm):
echo: M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
echo:PID settings:
echo: M301 P22.20 I1.08 D114.00
echo:SD init fail
>>>M92 X430 Y430
SENDING:M92 X430 Y430
>>>M500
SENDING:M500
Soft endstops enabled
echo:Settings Stored
>>>M114
SENDING:M114
*** Home Pending ***
X:0.00Y:0.00Z:0.00E:0.00
SCARA Theta:0.00 Psi+Theta:0.00
SCARA Cal – Theta:0.00 Psi+Theta (90):-90.00
SCARA step Cal – Theta:0.00 Psi+Theta:0.00
X:35.00Y:-55.00Z:0.00E:0.00
SCARA Theta:115.84 Psi+Theta:270.15
SCARA Cal – Theta:115.84 Psi+Theta (90):64.30
SCARA step Cal – Theta:553.47 Psi+Theta:737.23
>>>M114
SENDING:M114
X:35.00Y:-55.00Z:0.00E:0.00
SCARA Theta:115.84 Psi+Theta:270.15
SCARA Cal – Theta:115.84 Psi+Theta (90):64.30
SCARA step Cal – Theta:553.47 Psi+Theta:737.23
>>>M500
SENDING:M500
Soft endstops enabled
echo:Settings Stored
>>>G28
SENDING:G28
>>>M500
SENDING:M500
Soft endstops enabled
echo:Settings Stored
>>>M360
SENDING:M360
Cal: Theta 0
Soft endstops disabled

[Jambler24]

I am starting to strongly suspect that I have changed/not changed something in the config file…

[Quentin Harley]

Right… lets start.

Does it keep values you program to it using M500? (it looks like it does)

Regarding M500, yo only need to issue it after changing something… G28 does not change anything, it just moves the head back home.

When it moves home. does it resemble the homing in my youtube video, in both speed and order?
1) both arms move together towards home until the first homing hall switch activates.
2) Theta (thin arms) home
3) Psi (Thick arms) home

The order is very important, since it can mess with you initial position and direction.

[Quentin Harley]

PS: RAMPS?

[RobertKuhlmann]

I had the same problems at first.
Having a similar setup to your Morgan, I’m using the following entries in Configuration.h at the moment:

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {211.18, 211.18, 2129.83, 100}
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE {5000, 5000, 11, 100}
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION {9000,9000,9000,500} // X, Y, Z, E maximum start speed for accelerated moves.

You may use the commands instead (extruder not calibrated yet):
M92 X211.18, Y211.18, 2129.83, 100
M203 X5000, Y5000, 11, 100

You have to take into account, that I’m using a trapezoid threaded rod as Z-axis, not Quentin’s “alpen-drill-solution”. So my Z-values will not work good with your build.
“211.18” is calibrated of course. You should begin with “215” for X and Y.

[Jambler24]

Yup, the order is as you describe, First both to home (moving from the outside in towards the centre shaft), then Theta adjusts, then Psi.

Im using the RAMPS 1.4, pretty much everything is from the BOM.

Robert, I gave the settings a try but to no avail. The homing position was slightly closer to the centre shaft but the outcome of M360 was the same.

In the config file, do I need to change the x here?
line 112

#define SCARA_offset_x 100 //mm
#define SCARA_offset_y -53 //mm

[Quentin Harley]

X remains 100. It simply says “Middle of the bed X” because the pipe is in the middle of the X direction right…

What happens if you issue this command right after homing:

G1 X0 Y0 Z150 F1000

[Jambler24]

Hmmm, ok I’m getting a feeling for whats happening here.

G1 X0 Y0 Z150 F1000

Sends the arms to a position on the far right when looking at the platform from the front -> (|

G1 X0 Y-10 Z150 F1000

Moves the arms diagonal, but closer to the platform, which seems right.

G1 X10 Y0 Z150 F1000

Moves the head to the right, I’d expect that it should be moving towards the platform for positive values. I think this is where things are getting mixed up, the X axis positions may be inverted. I’ll have a look and tweak some settings and see if it is the case.

[Jambler24]

HAHA! Ok The following changes seem to have done it.

#define INVERT_X_DIR true
#define INVERT_Y_DIR false

and

#define X_HOME_DIR 1
#define Y_HOME_DIR 1

So now it seems to be length calibrations i need to get right.

[Jambler24]

So, I made it up to the Z axis calibration, all was looking right and peachy, but the motors were running hot. So I decided to turn down the stepper drivers a tad. It worked for a while, but then the Psi arm motor stopped working. I’m not exactly sure how.

When I swap the driver to a different slot on the ramps, it works so the stepper is not blown. The motor runs when I swap the connection to the Y axis driver so its not the motor.

I think its either the ramps of the arduino that is not happy. I’m thinking of moving the x axis stepper driver to the empty space where the second extruder driver is meant to go, then just changing the pin assignment in the pins.h file. would this cause a problem? Also, any ideas for trouble shooting this?

Thanks!

[Quentin Harley]

If you have access to an occiloscope, probing the step and dir pins (and also /enable) should shed some light.

You may have bad solder joints somewhere (could be SMD components as well – remember), pin contact on the RAMPS board or just a cracked track.

Divide and conquer.

[Jambler24]

Hi Quentin, just got back from some troubles and getting back on the bench for another round here.

I tested every analog and digital pin on the arduino manually, so the problem seems to lie with the ramps board.

I don’t have access to a oscilloscope unfortunately, but just using a multimeter showed that there was voltage going to the stepper motor from the pins on the board. I’m really not sure what to make of it, getting close to just getting a new ramps board. The soldering on it looks perfect though…i’m going to try just go to town on the board looking for breaks, but if there is voltage going to the motors, doesn’t that mean that that is not the problem?

Thanks again, onward and upward!

[Jambler24]

Alrighty, so it looks like it was a blown capacitor on the ramps board. All fixed up now and ready.

I’m just worried that I may blow it again, so I just want to make sure I got the wiring correct.

I’m using a computer’s PSU to supply power, and sending commands to the arduino via the usb cable. So just a question about the D1 diode, if it is installed and I am powering the board by usb, are there any other changes I need to make?

The ramps page talks about the VCC and 12VIN but I’m not quite sure where these pins are or what exactly I am meant to do with them (If anything)

[Quentin Harley]

It should not be a problem. the RAMPS supplies 12v to the arduino, and it gives 5V back to the shield. USB power is only used when 12V is not available.

The D1 diode only attaches the RAMPS input voltage to the arduino. You remove it if your input voltage is significantly higher than 12V and the arduino would not cope with it…

All should be well

[Author]

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