1 Topic by jerry7171

  • jerry7171
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Topic: Can't home Z axis to get the bed leveled

I'm a newbie and purchased a used da Vinci 1.0 for $200 last weekend. It worked great and even came with a full cartridge of ABS! The LED stated that I had a da Vinci 1.0 with firmware 1.1.1. The board had the J37 spots instead of the J1.

I had a wicked time getting the bed to level but never succeeded. I had intended to flash repetier on it anyway. It took me quite a few hours to wrap my mind around how to use Arduino to create the correct Repetier firmware to flash onto my da Vinci, but I did it.

The first couple of times I tried it, I'd get to 98% finished uploading and then it would stall for hours without finishing. I've had hit or miss success with connecting to the da Vinci via USB from my Mac Pro. I'm slowly working through each issue as I come upon it.

This latest issue has me flummoxed. I go to the Repetier menu on the da Vinci and click through to home the Z axis so I can get to work making sure the print head is just the right distance and the bed is perfectly level. When I push the button to confirm that I want to home the bed on the Z axis, the motor makes a gawdawful racket and the bed never moves. I suspect there are a lot of variables that I probably didn't include, but could anyone point me towards a likely solution?

Just curious also, is the da Vinci supposed to beep occasionally when it is turned on but idle?

2 Reply by carl_m1968

  • carl_m1968
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Re: Can't home Z axis to get the bed leveled

Sounds like your Z axis is running backwards.  Did you use a pre-configured firmware or just a generic version?

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

3 Reply by jerry7171

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Re: Can't home Z axis to get the bed leveled

Hi! I am pretty new at all this so I think I used the preconfigured firmware. The only things I tweaked was choosing "1" for da Vinci 1.0 and "0" for the model of board my printer came with.

Since then, I thought I made a mistake choosing "0" as my board didn't have the J1 jumper but the J37 jumper. I erased the Repetier firmware on the printer and tried compiling and pushing the firmware to it again. The only thing I changed was choosing "1" for my printer's board.

For whatever reason, Arduino could see the printer but couldn't push the firmware to it. I shut down the printer, restarted my Mac and ever since then, no matter what I think of, Arduino can't see the USB link to the printer. I can find it via my Network panel in System Preferences though.

I'm stumped.

But, getting back to the Z-axis issue, I assume I'd have to hunt down a line of code to change to get the motor running the right way?

4 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Can't home Z axis to get the bed leveled

jerry7171 wrote:

Hi! I am pretty new at all this so I think I used the preconfigured firmware. The only things I tweaked was choosing "1" for da Vinci 1.0 and "0" for the model of board my printer came with.

Since then, I thought I made a mistake choosing "0" as my board didn't have the J1 jumper but the J37 jumper. I erased the Repetier firmware on the printer and tried compiling and pushing the firmware to it again. The only thing I changed was choosing "1" for my printer's board.

For whatever reason, Arduino could see the printer but couldn't push the firmware to it. I shut down the printer, restarted my Mac and ever since then, no matter what I think of, Arduino can't see the USB link to the printer. I can find it via my Network panel in System Preferences though.

I'm stumped.

But, getting back to the Z-axis issue, I assume I'd have to hunt down a line of code to change to get the motor running the right way?


If you used the jumper and erased the the firmware it will no longer show up to arduino nor will it show as an arduino device on the PC/MAC. It is now in bootstrap mode and you have to use the other program from a command line called bossac and put a precompiled bin version of firmware on it. Then you can use arduino to put the correct version on it. You don't have to erase it to reflash once you have firmware on it. Each time you flash with arduino the existing firmware is completely written over. Note I said written over not erased.. The issue you have is you used the jumper as I understand it which removes/erases the firmware completely and only leaves a bootloader that allows you to upload a bin file using bossac.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

5 Reply by jerry7171 (edited by jerry7171 2016-10-08 06:16:20)

  • jerry7171
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Re: Can't home Z axis to get the bed leveled

Thanks for the heads up.

I've downloaded Bossa, I have a precompiled bin version of the firmware ready to go, but after starting up Bossa and pointing it to the bin firmware, I still can't find the USB connection. The only connection that shows up at all is an oddball bluetooth modem. I don't have such a beast, and even when I tried to use it as a last ditch effort, it didn't work. I'm so close to fixing this, but still not quite getting there.

I've noticed that another Mac user had the same odd bluetooth issue but there doesn't seem to have been any remedy. I installed Windows 10 but Bossa refuses to install. The install wizard suffers some kind of fatal error and shuts down. So I'm stuck on both Mac or Windows right now.

The last thing I just tried was a trick someone used to trick their da Vinci into resuming its USB connection. They messed up a downgrade and bricked their printer. Like me, they had just two black bars and it no longer responded to any commands and was invisible via USB. He told other da Vinci users to hold both the up and down buttons as they turned the power on. Supposedly the printer would suddenly say Bootloader Mode or something  to that effect and start the USB back up. Unfortunately, that trick doesn't work for me either.

--P.S.--

After typing all this out, I started reading your earlier post and began realizing I misunderstood it. After a long bit of further research (thank God for Google and this community) I finally began to vaguely understand.

As I type this out now, I'm thrilled to tell you that I've successfully brought my da Vinci back to life! I really and truly thought I'd bricked it for good. I'm not the brightest bulb if you know what I mean.

Thank you for giving me advice and undoubtedly being patient with me!

Now, it's time to get started printing! *rubbing hands together gleefully*