PC Can't Connect to Printer - Mac can

[HumanLiberty]

Hi all,

I usually run my Max v2 from a Mac.

I'm trying to run OpenDACT, so borrowed a friend's Win10 machine.
I've got OpenDACT, Arduino and Matter Control installed on it. I did not re-upload the Arduino firmware from within the Win10 environment, as I'm told that would not be needed.

The Problem: Neither MC nor ODACT can connect with the printer from the windows machine. MC says "unknown reason"
ODACT says
"COM1
The parameter is incorrect."

There are 3 USB ports on this machine and I tried all software/USB configurations, but none could find the printer.

Also, my LCD screen just started displaying all black rectangles, and the RAMBo LEDs are all off except the green one in the upper left corner.
Changing the RAMBo fuses didn't help.

But my mac still connects and controls the printer just fine, so I'm sure that's got to be unrelated.

Any ideas...?

[geneb]

If your Mac still works, you've changed the baud rate on the RAMBo to 115200 - you'll need to tell OpenDACT about that new baud rate.

g.

[HumanLiberty]

Thanks Gene - it connected!
But get this: 1st try it connected immediately upon switching baud.
Second time it said "COM1 access denied" but worked on COM3 - nothing had changed I just had close and opened ODACT accidentally.
But in both cases, although it did connect, hitting "Calibrate" didn't do anything.

Also weird (to me, anyway) is that when I had previously checked baud rate in the EEPROM via my mac, it was 250000.

Long story short, what I'm asking now is, how do I get this thing to perform the calibration?
Could that failure relate to Matter Control's continued inability to connect?

[geneb]

Try connecting with Repetier Host (PC) to see if it's able to connect.

Also, what ports are appearing in Device Manager?

g.

[HumanLiberty]

COM1 and 3 both appear in Device manager and are reported to be functioning properly.
Repetier Host can't connect with either of them - it just searches/attempts indefinitely.

[Captain Starfish]

The access denied may well be because it thinks the port is already taken by another app. The app that "owns" it is quite possibly an earlier run that didn't shut down properly. Restarting the computer may free it up and let you have another go.

[terabyte]

Hey HumanLiberty,
When switching from OpenDACT I have to either terminate it and also powercycle the printer. If a USB/COM port is not released on your Win10 computer, you will get access denied, and you'll have to reboot it. On my Win7 laptop, I've noticed that OpenDACT does not quit cleanly, and has to be terminated in order to release the port. Calibrate button is also hit and miss because it does not work all the time; I've been using OpenDACT for a few days and it seems that everyday it does something differently. So, don't be surprised.
On the other hand, I had good results manually tweaking parameters in EEPROM and using digital indicator for height measurement, and it was probably faster than OpenDACT:)

[HumanLiberty]

@Captain Starfish/Patrick - thanks power cycling actually did help Repetier connect, thought is still wouldn't actually do anything.
@terabyte - thanks for the heads up on those OpenDACT idiosyncrasies. I had OK results with manual tweaks too, but not good enough to print
the 4" tall part I need all the way out at the edge of the bed. I was hoping OpenDACT would give that higher level of precision.
I will keep playing around with it bearing in mind what you mentioned above. Have you made RollieRowland aware of those issues?
What do you do when you encounter them - just keep re-launching the software and restarting the computer and/or printer until "Calibrate" works?

[terabyte]

I see that you have still have not been able to get OpenDACT working. I assume that Mattercontrol works fine, right?

[mhackney]

You need to install the RAMBo drivers on windows. http://reprap.org/wiki/Rambo#USB_Driver" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you haven't installed it, that is likely your problem.

[HumanLiberty]

Thanks everyone. Drivers were up to date, and Mattercontol would not connect to the printer from Windows.

I posted this issue on the Arduino Forum.
The solution ended up being to install IDE v1.0.6, rather than the most recent 1.6.7. I then aligned it and the RAMBo onto COM1 - Solved!