1 Topic by Nnnn (edited by Nnnn 2014-12-20 04:28:44)

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Topic: Solidoodle no longer connecting on USB?

I just printed out a replacement for the acrylic cover that has the ability to mount fans on it.

I unplugged the power cable and the usb cable and then unscrewed the mounting screws. I placed the new cover on and reassembled it (screwed it all back onto the back of the solidoodle.

I reconnect the power and usb cables.

The board's green light is on and steady.

Now when i try to connect the solidoodle it errors when trying to connect saying it's not found.

I change COM to virtual printer and refresh the ports. Now Nothing but Virtual Printer is able to be selected.

How does this happen? I print something to hopefully increase the life of the board and now it just doesn't work?

Please help.

Got this printer 8 months ago so there's no chance of warranty. (not that they have one anyways).

There wasn't any smoke or sparks when swapping out the covers.

EDIT:

Possible causes:

- I unplugged the usb cable from the board without pressing "disconnect" in repetier, maybe the computer is confused? I closed and restarted repetier multiple times and it still can't find a connection.

- Somehow some residue electricity cause shorts when metal spaces fall and hit stuff (but that's why i unplugged all power sources).


Attempts to fix:

- Restarting computer. Hopefully it will work.


UPDATE: (some how works now?)

After computer restarted I plugged in a new usb cable. I also turned up the volume on laptop to check if it makes that "du-dew!" noise when usb is connected. It made that noise so the usb driver on the board should still be working.

Start up repetierhost and it still could not find it after clicking on refresh.

Closed repetierhost and started it up again (trying to brute force it?) go to config and I find that COM5 is there. Weird.

So glad that the board didn't fry. Now i'm questioning whether to put that cover plate on again or not test my luck.

UPDATE 2:

Extruder and Heat Bed won't heat up.

Extruder temp stays at 23 deg C, Heated Bed says it's at 315 deg C and Starts dropping when turned on (how does this make sense? I didn't unplug anything.

Lessons learned: Unscrewing 4 bolts and unplugging the usb cable and power cable puts a halt to 8 months of perfectly fine operation.

Solidoodle 3 that came with new extruder setup with extra fan that hits left side of machine reducing print area even more than originally falsely advertised.

Crappy new driver board that has soldered on driver chips and atmega so if anything fries the whole thing gets trashed instead replacing $5 driver chips or $3 atmega.

2 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Solidoodle no longer connecting on USB?

Slow down and don't get discouraged.  You are most likely just missing something obvious.  You probably just have a loose connection or something so recheck all the plugs.  Maybe post a picture of the board.

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3 Reply by Nnnn (edited by Nnnn 2014-12-20 05:34:36)

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Re: Solidoodle no longer connecting on USB?

UPDATE 3:

Restarted the computer again. Loaded up RepetierHost and it connected fine as well.

Temperatures measured were 20 deg C for both extruder and heat bed.

Turn on extruder and heat bed heaters and the temperatures began climbing as expected.

Spooky.

Looks like it's back up and running.

Solidoodle 3 that came with new extruder setup with extra fan that hits left side of machine reducing print area even more than originally falsely advertised.

Crappy new driver board that has soldered on driver chips and atmega so if anything fries the whole thing gets trashed instead replacing $5 driver chips or $3 atmega.

4 Reply by Nnnn (edited by Nnnn 2014-12-20 22:06:58)

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Re: Solidoodle no longer connecting on USB?

Tried to print today and the heater bed keeps reading a temperature value between 290 deg C and 350 deg C. It bounces around when moving the wires. All plugs have been checked

Removed the heater bed completely and peeled off the insulation. Adjusted the wires. plugged it in and it gave a correct temperature of 20 deg C and started heating up and temperature going up when turning on the heat bed in repetierhost.

Though that was the end of it so i put the heat bed back in the machine. Plugged everything in, and temperature read was back up at 350 deg C ... ಠ_ಠ

Used a multimeter on the thermistor connector. Get reading around 95Ohms.
Used multimeter on one thermistor connector port and angle iron of machine. It's shorting out because it says ~95Ohms too.

I assume that means I need to fix the insulation for the thermistor if it's going from the thermistor to the aluminum heatbed, down the leveling springs and bolts, through the bearings and Z axis rods to the angle iron frame.

I guess the temperature is being read wrong because the voltage drop is being affected by possible grounding from other electronics to the frame.

I have a spare thermistor i got as a backup a while ago. Maybe needs to be put to use now.

Other testing:

Plugged Heatbed (HB) thermistor into the extruder's port on the print board. It read proper 20 deg C. Plugged extruder thermistor into head bed port and it too read a proper 20 deg C. Since the extruder is insulated from the frame of the machine (plastic carraiges) it makes sense that the PC reads proper temperature because it isn't able to short out. This further gives evidence that the HB thermistor is shorting.

Solidoodle 3 that came with new extruder setup with extra fan that hits left side of machine reducing print area even more than originally falsely advertised.

Crappy new driver board that has soldered on driver chips and atmega so if anything fries the whole thing gets trashed instead replacing $5 driver chips or $3 atmega.

5 Reply by Nnnn (edited by Nnnn 2014-12-20 22:39:52)

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Re: Solidoodle no longer connecting on USB?

Removed the thermistor from the under the silicone heat pad. Tested with multimeter; reads 95 Ohms.

Update:

Plugged thermistor into print board. Started up repetierhost. Temperature read was 20 deg C. Held thermistor between fingers; temperature reading climbed to 30 deg and then to 34 deg C. Thermistor appears to be operating correctly.

Determining the cause of problems to be a short; relatively easy to remedy.

Other sources of information: "a shorted thermistor gives always a very high temperature readout." http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,158 … msg-158414

Solidoodle 3 that came with new extruder setup with extra fan that hits left side of machine reducing print area even more than originally falsely advertised.

Crappy new driver board that has soldered on driver chips and atmega so if anything fries the whole thing gets trashed instead replacing $5 driver chips or $3 atmega.