Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

So it appears I have a dead smoothieboard. Been fighting with it for a week and cant get anything beside the 3.3v to light up.

I'm only using USB, but apparently I should be seeing 1,2,3, and 4 light up on the LEDs.



good times...

You should e-mail the place you bought it from so you can get a replacement.

I did, just waiting for a response. Tried a few things they suggested on the IRC with no luck.

You get yours up and running yet?

I'm printing parts to build the printer it'll go in - might use machinekit however.

On power up (plug in usb) you should see 1,2,3,4 light up green one at a time then fast flashing. 3.3v should light up orange/red as well.

You can try soldering in a 5V voltage regulator according to the documentation. That will let it run off PSU power instead of USB. It might work. I don't know how long I would trust a board that requires it.

Another thing - you have to connect power at 3 separate locations. If you only connect one or two, it won't work. However, this would not stop the board from booting - only from activating the FETs that send the current.

It's definitely dead. I get the 3.3v led only when using USB. None of my computers recognizes that anything is plugged in via usb.

Still no reply from uberclock.

Update: He is sending a replacement.

I promise if I wasn't so invested in the smoothieboard to work, Id tell everyone to avoid them like a plague.
Between them not shipping the GLCD with no communication, then receiving a dead board.. The replacement came today with a capacitor broken off and the 4x power header replaced with a 2x. But it has a QC Pass sticker, so I guess it's good to go.

Hopefully no other issues or surprises.

After an hour of trying to figure out why the LCD wouldn't turn on, noticed the GLCD shield had a lifted smd capacitor. I'm glad I at least have another set to compare...

I've heard other stories of problems like this with smoothieboards, which is why I scared myself away from the group buy: such massive increased productivity leads to bad QC. Even though Rambos are less sophisticated, they can be had from a reliable source.

I ordered an Azteeg X5 mini for my Heavy Metal build,,, I'll be curious to see how it looks when it shows up.

That's disappointing. Guess I better check out the board I have. I had not really checked it out as I to am waiting for the glcd I ordered with board.

I'm on my third board.. First one had a dead stepper, second one would randomly turn off after a few minutes of printing, and now the third I am still trying to get working..

mlapaglia wrote:I'm on my third board.. First one had a dead stepper, second one would randomly turn off after a few minutes of printing, and now the third I am still trying to get working..

I went through two Azteeg X5s in six months (maybe less?) when I was first getting into Smoothie development. The first one lost its heated bed FET, which is a tiny cheesy little surface-mount component. The second started stuttering at random times. If I homed it, it would slam into the endstops and grind the belts because it didn't care about the endstops. If it got through homing, it would stutter and head-crash sooner or later.

Got a Smoothieboard about six months ago... been beating the hell out of it, developing my Smoothie fork... it's still kicking. I hope #3 works better for you.

I hope so too, I just got one...