Printer Stuck on "Homing Axis" Step in MC

[paul_b]

Hello All,

I did my best to search the forums to see if anyone else has run into this, but I came up short. Here's the issue: a print had finished up while I was out, and when I got home I got everything set up for the next one. After everything got back up to temperature I clicked print and MatterControl did its normal routine which sends the "home all axes" command before the hot end goes down to the bed, only nothing on the machine actually moved. The "status" on the MC display just sat there saying "Homing Axis..." and the stopwatch was continually ticking up which lead me to believe the software didnt freeze/crash.

Since that point I've tried every incarnation of resetting things I could think of. I originally cancelled the print, disconnected/reconnected to the printer and tried again only to run into the same issue. I've closed out MC completely, power-cycled the printer, same issue. I even power-cycled my PC to see if that was the issue - nope, still stuck on "Homing Axis..." Then I thought it might be the file, so I tried a standard calibration cube - you guessed it - same problem.

Anyone happen to run into this problem before? I'm hoping this isnt indicative of my Rambo dying or something equally expensive.

I'm running Repetier 0.91 on a Rostock Max V2.

Thanks!

[Agisis]

I have not had this happen before, but may I ask a question? Did you try to home the axis using the printer itself and not using MatterControl to do it? Basically, unplugging it from the machine completely? If that works, but MatterControl does not, perhaps try a different COM port and resetting that?

[teoman]

When it says homing axis, are the motors firm??

It seems to me that the motors arent getting power. The printer tells them to go up untill they hit the switches but they do not move. So it just waits for that.


To test this theory you could click all 3 limits switches with your hand. (You may need to double click them, i think they go up fast , move down a little and the move back up again slowly).
The software should get unstuck...
HAVE YOUR HAND ON THE POWER SWITCH!

If this works then you have to check the fuses. I do not know the function by heart, but one nanofuse that controls the motors could be blown. (Or a mouse ate your motor cables).

This is how i would do it anyway. Or you could directly check the fuses ofcourse.

[paul_b]

Went back for round two of troubleshooting based on your guys' comments (thank you for the input btw!). Here's what I found:

I tried using the "home axis" command directly from the printer interface on the LCD, and it looks like that froze the entire machine. It didnt move any of the motors and after that point I was unable to get it to even move the cursor on the LCD. I tried tripping each of the limit switches to see if that would unfreeze it, but no luck. I had to power cycle before it would become responsive again.

The motors all definitely have power to them as I was unable to move the arms by hand.

I also began to notice additional odd behavior when I was playing around in MatterControl. I tried to move the axes independently and X & Y were fine, but after a few clicks on Z- it would stop moving. I could use the prebuilt macro to home all axes and that worked fine, but the Z- would only still go down a few clicks before stopping. Whats weird is that the number of times I could click it was variable. After a disconnect/reconnect I was able to get it to make ~5 steps rather than the initial 2. Then after that the extruder button started exhibiting the same inconsistent behavior.

The inconsistent nature of this is what's got me really scratching my head. I would imagine a blown fuse wouldn't allow it to work sometimes and not others. Any additional thoughts/help would be greatly appreciated.

[teoman]

If it were the fuse the motors would not have any power and they would be loose.

[geneb]

Disconnect the printer from the computer and turn it on - then try Home All(or something like that) from the LCD. Did that work?

If so, hook it back up to your computer and go back through the end stop operation tests via the M119 command as shown in the manual.

g.

[paul_b]

Tried disconnecting it and turning it on, the local controls all seemed to be behaving fine. I could home all the axes with no issue. I proceeded to plug it into my computer and tested each of the limit switches via the M119 command and didnt find any issues there either. I held down each one and it properly reported "H" when being depressed.

Just for fun I left the terminal open while I played around with moving the extruder via the MC buttons. Same old story, would let me click down on the Z- button a couple of times before it just locked up. Tried the extruder by telling it to back out some filament and the whole thing locked up. After a reset of everything, it would give me a little more movement and I tried moving it in each direction then clicking the individual homing macros for each X,Y,Z. Y and Z seemed fine, but X would move very slowly at first, then start to speed up before stopping short of its limit switch.

I am still baffled by this inconsistent behavior. Would a clean install of all the arduino drivers and the such be worth it? I'm assuming I'll have to go through all the calibration steps again if I go that route correct?

Grasping at straws here.

[teoman]

Not if yoy take screenshots of your eeprom and write them back.

[geneb]

Paul, the calibration is "living" on the printer, so no matter what you do to your computer, it won't change the calibration.

I wonder if you've managed to accidentally mangle your z-height. Go through setting the z-height and then see if you still have problems. Don't mess with the extruder feed buttons on MC - I don't know what the issue is, but they've been problematic for some time.

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Have you tried using a different USB cable, preferably one that is shielded?