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Given that I had a short and melted the wires clear back to the RAMBO power connector, I purchased a new RAMBO board.

I flashed it with my existing firmware, plugged everything in and something really weird is happening.

I run reptier on mac. When I test X - by commanding it to move 10mm it was fine. When I test Y the same way - it moves all 3 motors exactly a Z is supposed to do. When I test Z, it just moves itself.

If I run G28 *only* the Z motor works and the hot end crashes into the Z axis.

So I downloaded the current firmware from SeemeCNC's link, reflashed the board and it does the same thing.

I switched the Y and Z motors to their opposite connectors on the board (Y motor to the Z board socket, and Z to the Y socket) and the *same* problem. The move Y command moves all 3 motors the way Z is supposed to. The move Z command just moves that motor and G28 crashes into whatever axis is connected to the Z motor socket.

It's not the wiring, it's not the firmware, it's not a power problem. Any ideas? I'm so frustrated, I purchased this printer last march, and I've yet, to get a working print from it. (additionally, I can't afford to not get it working, but I can't afford to replace the whole thing, either)

RESOLUTION: It was the RAMBO Board.

After many tribulations, I finally asked SeemeCNC to just replace the board with one they had tested. They are great, so of course they agreed. New board works perfectly! I still have a lot of calibration to do, but I was able to get a very decent print of the PEEK FAN holder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40845)

Thank you, everyone who's been helping me here on this forum, and thanks to John at SeemeCNC!

-sandy

That really seems like something in the software chain isn't set to a delta configuration....except for the moving X and Y worked correctly...

Actually, Y isn't working properly. Any commands to Y move all 3 motors. The Y socket behaves as though it were the Z socket.

I would have suspected this was a firmware issue, but I've now tried 3 different copies of the Repetier-Max firmware. 1. The original copy that came w/ my printer in March, 2. The edited copy that was on my previous - working perfectly -RAMBO board and 3. a brand new copy downloaded from SeemeCNC's downloads link, yesterday.

Are you sure they are connected properly? It sounds like would happen if you swapped the y motor for the z.

Yes, as I said in the first post, swapping them was the first test I did.

It doesn't matter which motor is connected to the Y socket on the RAMBO board, when you send a command to the Y socket - ALL motors move in unison exactly the way they are supposed to do(but are NOT doing) when a Z command is sent.

And, even if X motor is plugged into the Z socket, a G28 command sends the hot end crashing into the X - axis - because it is the only motor that moves

if Y motor is plugged into the Z socket, a G28 command sends the hot end crashing into the Y - axis -

if Z motor is plugged into the Z socket, a G28 command sends the hot end crashing into the Z - axis - because it is the only motor that moves

I thought maybe the pins were mislabeled in the firmware, but I've tried the firmware that was working with my old board, I re-unzipped the original firmware I downloaded from the seemecnc link last March, and the current firmware which I downloaded from the seemecnc link last night. The behavior is the same for all of them.

I'd say the board is bad then.

Did you verify that all of your limit switches are working correctly? If you are unable to home (G28) then its possible with limit switch issues on X and Y that the X and Y stages think they've hit the limit already, so only your Z would move. Also, trying to command moves before a proper homing sequence can end up with unpredictable results.

If you adjust your firmware settings you can always swap the Z-tower's motor to a spare motor connection if it's just the driver chip for that connection that's bad.