Not printing after control board change

[DennisFBailey]

Hi,
I have an I3 M201 ... due to inadvertant driver installation, I had to replace the motherboard. I received the motherboard and installed (very carefully this time!) and I was able to move the X,Y and Z axis manually via the control panel knob and also via Repetier-host manual control but when I attempt to print, the bed and nozzle heaters start and it reaches the correct temperature and then ... nothing. I have tried to auto home the X,Y and Z axis using auto home from the control panel and this does nothing OTHER than to stop the move axis command from working ... I have to press the restore button under the control dial to restore this function. HELP!
Dennis Bailey

[Mark]

what's the firmware version of your printer? how about reinstall it?

[DennisFBailey]

I have version 1.0.5 installed but I was getting the same result with 1.0.4 which was installed on the board when I received it. I will try to reinstall the .5 version again but I am not hopeful

[DennisFBailey]

Hi Mark,

I have reloaded version 1.0.5 and I am having exactly the same response - reached the bed and injector temperature and then just stops. The Z motor seems to have a mind of its own when I am controlling this via the command knob .. I move it up by 10mm and then back down but it appears to move sporadically and does not return to the same position. Auto Home via the control panel does nothing but does prevent the movement of the X,Y and Z axis via the control knob until I press the reset button. All stepper motors seem to move and I have swapped them around to ensure that they are working correctly (by moving the cables rather than moving the physical motors)

Dennis bailey

[Mark]

Then seems like a hardware problem. Are all your driver boards working properly? I mean the driver voltages, are they all correct?
You can check out this link for more details:
http://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopic ... 17&t=17038
Also are your driver boards 4988 or 8825? Can not use 8825 on the GTM32 board cause the homing function is not working, but you can control it with manual control, will fix it later.

[DennisFBailey]

Hi Mark,

I have checked the voltages on the driver boards and they are all about 1.0V. I have cycled all driver boards (I now have 15 of the damn things!) and have found 5 that are able to drive the X Y Z albeit they appear to be driving at 1/2 the distance (i.e I move (say) the X axis by 10mm and it moves only 5mm - this appears to be happening on all axis). I have doubled the settings in the control to be able to get full coverage of the bed and I can move these backwards and forwards using the control panel .. but still no luck in printing - bed and extruder reach temperature and then NO movement on any of the axis. Could this be that the control board is faulty (I bought it new from Geetronics) ... If so, I will need to order yet another one from them .. is there any tests that I can run on the board to see if it is functioning correctly??

This printer has never worked correctly since the day I bought it and it just goes from bad to worse .. is there a techical authority in Geetronics that I can query this with as each board takes a month to arrive and just seems than none of them work.

[DennisFBailey]

Hi Mark,

I have just noticed that the driver boards that appear to work on the board have a large chip rather than the small chip that I observered when looking to purchase yet another set of driver boards ..the boards I currently have are equipped with both small and large chips so it appears I have a compbination of the two types. The ones I have installed at the moment are the large chip ones - small chiip ones don't seem to have any drive movement, when installed. How can I tell if the board is a4988 or or an a8825?

Dennis

[Admin]

Hi Mark,

I have checked the voltages on the driver boards and they are all about 1.0V. I have cycled all driver boards (I now have 15 of the damn things!) and have found 5 that are able to drive the X Y Z albeit they appear to be driving at 1/2 the distance (i.e I move (say) the X axis by 10mm and it moves only 5mm - this appears to be happening on all axis). I have doubled the settings in the control to be able to get full coverage of the bed and I can move these backwards and forwards using the control panel .. but still no luck in printing - bed and extruder reach temperature and then NO movement on any of the axis. Could this be that the control board is faulty (I bought it new from Geetronics) ... If so, I will need to order yet another one from them .. is there any tests that I can run on the board to see if it is functioning correctly??

This printer has never worked correctly since the day I bought it and it just goes from bad to worse .. is there a techical authority in Geetronics that I can query this with as each board takes a month to arrive and just seems than none of them work.

Is there a blok on the hotend? did you check that?
Also please check the two ptfe tube, can you pull them out and see how deep they are plugged into the hotend.

[DennisFBailey]

The problem is with the movement of the X, Y and Z axis not the Hot End (which is working fine!). I have replaced the Control Board and I can move the X,Y and Z axis using the control panel (and also by repetier host) albeit by only half of the requested movement (e.g. I dial in 10mm movement and the axis only moves by 5mm) but when I try to print, the motors do not move (and YES I have checked and adjusted the voltages on the driver boards). Mark believes that there is a hardware problem but I am trying to pin down whether it is the control board or the driver chips that are not functioning correctly. I have a mixture of driver boards (some of which do not drive the motors at all) and I need to understand how I can identify the type of driver boards that I have that should work - looks like the only difference is the size of the chip on the board itself. I would be happy to order yet another control board if this is at fault BUT this is costing me £50 every time I do this and I lose a month whilst I await the delivery and I don't know if this is the problem or not

[dandantas]

Then seems like a hardware problem. Are all your driver boards working properly? I mean the driver voltages, are they all correct?
You can check out this link for more details:
http://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopic ... 17&t=17038
Also are your driver boards 4988 or 8825? Can not use 8825 on the GTM32 board cause the homing function is not working, but you can control it with manual control, will fix it later.

But we can not use 8825 at all, or just can use on 1/16 to be possible to homing, insted of 1/32?

The fix'll be avaiable when?


thanks