Printer connected, heating but no motor movement - firmware crash?

[Rickit2004]

Help!

I have built my PI3 Pro B. It starts up, and from the LCD I can heat up the bed, the extruder and move in X, Y and Z planes. I have updated the firmware to I3proB_V1.0.05. I have downloaded and installed Geeetech Repetier Host. From this software I can connect to the printer and turn on and off the heaters and get status back.

The problem is that clicking the arrows on the movement panel fails to move the motors. When I check the LCD the position is recorded as changed - just not phyically. It seems like the firmware has crashed as the extruder starts to cool off even though the software thinks its still on. Eventually it all packs up and even a physcal reset doesn't help. I'm getting so frustrated, it's been a week and I havn't got to printing a test square.

Regards, Richard

[jonsag]

Can you move anything from the LCD panel?

/jon

[Rickit2004]

Hi, thanks for the reply. My response is slow as I have been experimenting with the fault.

It seems to be less complicated than I first thought. On powering on I can then move the carriage in all three planes. After a while it simply stops moving. The co-ordinates on the LCD move as instructed - so if I select home it shows x, y and z return to 0, but the carriage doesn't move.

I have to power off for a while for it to reset.

[jonsag]

Can't say i regognize this behaviour.
Also I don't have much experience with that firmware since the first thing I did when I got my i3 was to update to Marlin firmware.

Perhaps it could be due to some temperature problems?
Touch the stepper drivers to see if they feel hot. A good idea anyway is to attach some heatsinks on them, if you haven't already.
You could also check the Vref on the stepper drivers. I've got mine set to 1.0-1.1V.

Now I use Marlin-2.0.7.2 firmware.
I got that and some older versions on my github, https://github.com/jonsag/Marlin-3D-Printer-Firmware .

If you want to try one of them, check the configuration.h, according to the Readmes.
Especially you want to edit the lines concerning BLTouch, if you don't have one, and the Z-steps, if you still got the M8 screws.

/jon

[Rickit2004]

Cheers Jon. I will switch to the marlin firmware and see how it goes.

[Rickit2004]

Summary for the problem.

The printer would start up and work for a while, but then stop. The CPU/LCD would continue to work and "think" it was working correctly.

Resolution

I finally diagnosed this down to a faulty PSU. It provided enough power to start with but after a while it would fail. The CPU/LCD was powered from the USB so kept working.

[jonsag]

Tricky

Good work!

/jon