1 Topic by terennnash

  • terennnash
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  • Registered: 2013-10-30
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Topic: SD3 connected, heating, but not responding otherwise

Hello All!

I am in need of help with my solidoodle 3.
I have had it for ~3 months now and have been printing happily without issue.

2 days ago, my printer stopped mid print for no apparent reason(middle of the afternoon, no PC issues).
I discovered that the heatsink i had on the X axis stepper driver chip had fallen down and was in contact with the ground(i think, the L shaped metal) from the power jack, and the heatsink on the back of the adjacent mosfet for the heated bed(assuming heated bed is on the left, extruder heater on the right).

I am guessing that this caused some kind of momentary short that stopped the printing. When removing the dislodged heatsink, it touched something else, definately causing a short that caused the still connected by USB only PC to reset(yes, stupid me for not unplugging EVERYTHING first). As a precaution against further problems, i removed the heat sinks from the other 3 stepper driver chips, while the printer was disconnected from any and all power.

Now my XYZ & Extruder steppers wont respond to commands. The extruder still heats correctly and to the set temperature, as does the bed, so i am having trouble figuring out the issue.

Not sure if this is relevant, but i had installed an updated version of repetier host the same day(before these issues), and it was able to connect and control the heat just fine, but it couldn't control the steppers either.

Please help!

2 Reply by 3d-oodler

  • 3d-oodler
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  • Registered: 2013-02-06
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Re: SD3 connected, heating, but not responding otherwise

I assume you're checking the stepper motors via manual control in RH (the version that was last working)?  Does RH report any errors or warnings?  What if you home?

Have you tried pronterface?

You might check your VREF on the steppers to ensure they are getting proper power.  See this post:
http://www.printrbottalk.com/forum/view … amp;t=1975

3 Reply by terennnash (edited by terennnash 2013-11-20 01:47:20)

  • terennnash
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Re: SD3 connected, heating, but not responding otherwise

I have tried moving the motors manually in RH - nothing happens.
Even when hitting the home button, nothing happens.

Not familiar with pronterface at all.


I did find my old analog multimeter to check the PSU - pulling ~13v at 9A

seems lows, PSU says it should output 12V at 12.5A

Also, hooked up the printer to a different computer - same issue. Extruder & bed heat just fine, but no motor control at all. No errors showing up either.
2 different USB cables tried as well.

4 Reply by ronsii

  • ronsii
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  • Registered: 2012-10-28
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Re: SD3 connected, heating, but not responding otherwise

I think we can pretty much be assured you blew something... SO, how are you at soldering? I guess the first thing is to figure out what is blown... can you move the motors by hand when the power(12V) is on to the printer? first things first, which mainboard do you have?

5 Reply by terennnash

  • terennnash
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Re: SD3 connected, heating, but not responding otherwise

Not terrible at soldering. Surface mount soldering is a significant challenge for me, but standard component sizes i have no issues with.

The motors will move freely when power is on, this is normal though, even before this happened. The motors would not hold position until i used RH to move them - then i would have hit to the stop motor button to move them freely again.

I am using the stock SD3 board, and i placed my order in august 2013.

Looking at the attached picture:

the heatsink bridged the metal offshoot coming up from the 12v power jack, and touched on the back of the silver MOSFET to the right. When i was taking it out, it may have bridged from the power jack to one of the capacitors to the left, but i cant be sure.

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