Printer shuts itself down after any motor move

[whaleboy]

Just finished my v2 build. I was missing the LCD cables, so the LCD panel is not hooked up. Also the lower back acrylic peice looks to be cut a bit short, and keeps popping off, so its currently not attached.

I finally was ready to take the leap and turn on the power. As I did, fully expecting it to explode or something, the gentle hum of the PS and fan was heard. No explosions today. I then downloaded the various software as suggested by the manual, plugged in the USB, and installed the USB driver. All good. Ran and configured Arduino IDE and uploaded the firmware following the manual... all good still. Setup Repetier host as per manual, still all good. End stop switches? All good. Got to the step of sending the Home All command with my finger on the power switch in case an axis was reversed. Sent the command, all carriages move up, hit the end stops, stop, then move down a tiny bit. Perfect!. Then the printer shuts down, all goes silent. Confused... Did I hit the power button in a rush of excitement? I turn it back on, it comes up as before. I disconnect and reconnect the host software. I then try clicking on the down Z arrow in Manual control. Nothing. I try the down Y at 1mm. I get what looks like the proper thing, the head moves a hair to the front. Good. Then after about 3 seconds I get a shutdown again. Power back up, reconnect, same. Even tried the home all again, and all the carriages move up , bounce off the stops, move down a few mm, then stop. Then 3 sec later powerdown.

So it the motors are perfectly happy doing a major move, or a small move, but why would the machine shut down a few sec after a move?

Ideas?

Thanks

-David

[dtgriscom]

Just finished my v2 build. I was missing the LCD cables, so the LCD panel is not hooked up. Also the lower back acrylic peice looks to be cut a bit short, and keeps popping off, so its currently not attached.

Not your main question, but on my v2 the rear lower piece is 5/16" longer than the other two. Might you have them swapped?


Dan

[Eaglezsoar]

Does the power supply fan stop turning when the printer shuts down?

[Polygonhell]

If the PSU is turning off! it's either a wiring problem or more likely just a bad PSU.
Did you cut any wires when you installed the PSU?

There are a couple of shorted pins on the 25 pin connector that need to stay shorted.

[whaleboy]

Just finished my v2 build. I was missing the LCD cables, so the LCD panel is not hooked up. Also the lower back acrylic peice looks to be cut a bit short, and keeps popping off, so its currently not attached.

Not your main question, but on my v2 the rear lower piece is 5/16" longer than the other two. Might you have them swapped?


Dan

The panel marked with a B was only a mm longer than the panels maked L/R. The B panel I have is 8 15/32 inches long. Is that the correct size? When I had all 3 stacked like a deck of cards I could barely tell the difference between the three.

-David

[whaleboy]

I forgot a slightly important bit of info... I used an "upgraded" power supply. A coolmaster (not cooler master) single rail 500w computer supply. It's wiring was exactly as described in the Rostock manual.

When it shuts down it completely shuts down, the same as if I hit the power switch. To turn it back on I need to cycle the power switch on the front. It will stay on indefinitely until 3 seconds after a motor move. The fact that it will complete the command, either a short single motor move, or a long all motor move, and still wait until the move is complete, then 3 sec, then shutdown, almost feels like it's getting a command to do so, rather than reacting to something, like an overheating component or something, where I would expect it to do so as soon as the system feels over stressed.

I have not tried turning on the head or bed heat yet to see what effect that has.

For the wiring of the psu, I had just randomly picked wires of the appropriate color called out for in the manual. I left all the rest intact and folded them up and tucked them to the side.

-David

[whaleboy]

If the PSU is turning off! it's either a wiring problem or more likely just a bad PSU.
Did you cut any wires when you installed the PSU?

There are a couple of shorted pins on the 25 pin connector that need to stay shorted.

On the power supply atx connector? I used 3 black, 2 yellow, and the green from the main connector, and a pair each of yellow and black from two others. For a total of 6 yellow, 6 black, in addition to a black and green for the power.

-David

[Polygonhell]

You have to be careful "upgrading" the PSU, not all ATX PSU's just work as 12v PSU's.
Some require an additional load on the 5V line, and some require a really big load on the 5V line.
Better PSU's tend to be the ones that don't work without the load.

Without that load they either won't provide 12V at all or in some cases, will provide only minimal current on the 12V line. Yours sounds like it's doing the latter. You can try just connecting the original PSU, or you can add a 5 or 10 ohm resistor across the 5V line, you'll need a high current ceramic one and it will get hot enough to easily burn you. Another option to test this is to connect a CDROM drive to one of the unused connectors, that should be enough of a load.

[dtgriscom]

The panel marked with a B was only a mm longer than the panels maked L/R. The B panel I have is 8 15/32 inches long. Is that the correct size? When I had all 3 stacked like a deck of cards I could barely tell the difference between the three.

The two shorter panels are 8 15/32" long, and the longer one is 8 3/4" long (difference of 9/32"). All are 4 15/32" tall.


Dan

[whaleboy]

The panel marked with a B was only a mm longer than the panels maked L/R. The B panel I have is 8 15/32 inches long. Is that the correct size? When I had all 3 stacked like a deck of cards I could barely tell the difference between the three.

The two shorter panels are 8 15/32" long, and the longer one is 8 3/4" long (difference of 9/32"). All are 4 15/32" tall.


Dan

Thanks. I'll need to write for a replacement back panel as I don't have any that are that long.

-David

[whaleboy]

You have to be careful "upgrading" the PSU, not all ATX PSU's just work as 12v PSU's.
Some require an additional load on the 5V line, and some require a really big load on the 5V line.
Better PSU's tend to be the ones that don't work without the load.

Without that load they either won't provide 12V at all or in some cases, will provide only minimal current on the 12V line. Yours sounds like it's doing the latter. You can try just connecting the original PSU, or you can add a 5 or 10 ohm resistor across the 5V line, you'll need a high current ceramic one and it will get hot enough to easily burn you. Another option to test this is to connect a CDROM drive to one of the unused connectors, that should be enough of a load.

I connected a hard drive to the PSU, and sure enough, seems to work fine. The PSU I have is a bit longer than the stock unit, so I don't think I can get it out without taking apart the base... something I do not have the energy to deal with at the moment. I can leave the drive connected for now. I'll check into the resistor idea. That would just go between any red wire and a black? Or I can hook up the stock unit but leave it external for now, but that would be messy. Or, I have a standalone 13.8vdc 25 amp external power supply I can use ( http://www.radioshack.com/graphics/uc/r ... _PM_EN.pdf ). That can stay external, but not sure its suited to this task or not, but to be honest, might be my preferred option, as I already have a couple of these. Would that supply enough power? Is 13.8v within spec on the components? 25 amps enough?

Thoughts?

Thanks

-David

[Polygonhell]

If you go with the resistor, yes, it just goes between red and black, you'll want to epoxy it to something metal to act as a heat sink, it'll be dissipating a lot of power and they get very hot. What I have done previously is mount them to the inside of the PSU case, but you'd have to pull it out to do that.
You're going to need roughly 8A for the bed, 4A for the hot end and a couple of Amps for pretty much everything else, so I'd look at a PSU that would provide at least 20, 25 should be fine.
I've got a couple of 12V 20A supplies I've used on printers before now.

[geneb]

Unless the power supply is too wide, it should fall out the hole in the bottom of the base when you remove the four nylon mounting screws.

g.

[mvansomeren]

I'm glad I found this post. I am having the exact same issue and yes, I upgraded the power supply to a 700W Coolmax before I began my build. I can only get the stepper motor(s) to move for a second before it shuts down and I have to power down and back up as well as disconnect and reconnect (just as described by the OP).

So, I think my first step will be to attach a drive to one of the connectors and see if the printer responds properly. If that works, I'll decide what to do for a permanent fix later.

I will report back with the results.

Lots of good info in this forum!

[mvansomeren]

Well, the good news is that when I connected a Hard Drive to the PSU, I was able to move the stepper motors without issue. It no longer shut everything off. Testing of the Hot end went well. Temperature began to rise and I was still able to move the stepper motors as well.

However, when it came time to test the heated bed, as soon as I clicked on "SET" or hit Enter, everything shut off again. This is a 700W PSU so I find it hard to believe that the bed is drawing more current than it can handle. Putting a "load" on the 5V was only partially successful. Unless someone has any suggestions that I can try, I may try switching to the PSU that came with the kit. It's only 450W but my only other alternative would be to use a dedicated 12v power supply. I really don't want one that will have to be external.

hmmmm....

Suggestions welcome!

[Eaglezsoar]

Well, the good news is that when I connected a Hard Drive to the PSU, I was able to move the stepper motors without issue. It no longer shut everything off. Testing of the Hot end went well. Temperature began to rise and I was still able to move the stepper motors as well.

However, when it came time to test the heated bed, as soon as I clicked on "SET" or hit Enter, everything shut off again. This is a 700W PSU so I find it hard to believe that the bed is drawing more current than it can handle. Putting a "load" on the 5V was only partially successful. Unless someone has any suggestions that I can try, I may try switching to the PSU that came with the kit. It's only 450W but my only other alternative would be to use a dedicated 12v power supply. I really don't want one that will have to be external.

hmmmm....

Suggestions welcome!

Before working with the power supply, I would turn off the power to the printer and using a multimeter I would measure the resistance of the heatbed where it connects to the Rambo board.
If it shows 0 ohms something in the wiring to the heatbed is shorted. It should read 1.x ohms.

[mvansomeren]

Before working with the power supply, I would turn off the power to the printer and using a multimeter I would measure the resistance of the heatbed where it connects to the Rambo board.
If it shows 0 ohms something in the wiring to the heatbed is shorted. It should read 1.x ohms.

Well the wiring was fine, as was the multimeter reading on the heatbed (1.4 ohms). I connected a stand alone power supply to the heatbed and it worked fine. So, I ended up replacing the PSU with a Corsair RM750 and now it works fine. I guess the other PSU had some sort of safety built in that would shut it down if it suddenly received a high current load...at least that is my guess.

[Eaglezsoar]

Before working with the power supply, I would turn off the power to the printer and using a multimeter I would measure the resistance of the heatbed where it connects to the Rambo board.
If it shows 0 ohms something in the wiring to the heatbed is shorted. It should read 1.x ohms.

Well the wiring was fine, as was the multimeter reading on the heatbed (1.4 ohms). I connected a stand alone power supply to the heatbed and it worked fine. So, I ended up replacing the PSU with a Corsair RM750 and now it works fine. I guess the other PSU had some sort of safety built in that would shut it down if it suddenly received a high current load...at least that is my guess.

I am glad you found the solution, I have seen that RM750 being used by other users and all who have discussed it had excellent results.
Thanks for letting us know what the solution was.