Anet A8 printer Dead On Arrival - SOLVED - POLARITY PROBLEM

[OnTheGulf 0]

Solved. Polarity of DC to motherboard was wrong, Anet A8 videos show red wire to right side terminal and it is the right polarity for the new boards with 3 green plugs and no screw terminals, but my kit had an older motherboard with screw terminals. The PCB had polarity markings on it and they were opposite what the video instructions said. I switched the power wires after reading the board so the black wire was on the right side and the machine fired up properly.

When in doubt, do not read the instructions, look at the printed circuit board, some nice designer might have left the polarity marking on it! So simple a solution yet so easy to miss when trusting instructions.

Original post below.

Also, on power supplies, certain supplies do need attention that the HOT side of the receptacle goes to the L (load or line) side of the power supply. In cheap supplies power is rectified right away with no attention to the AC wire designation and so it does not matter how the supply terminals are wired because it is AC, not DC, since AC wiggles back and forth between polarity only to be sorted out by either leg of the rectifier bridge as proper DC for the supply.

OnTheGulf

Hello All,

Just built my first kit, a Anet A8, and when I plugged it into the wall there was a large spark. I had wired the power supply like the instructions by David Dan on youtube said at 5:25

the screw terminals from left to right are Line, Neutral, Ground and the power cord colors are light tan, light blue, yellow in the same order. So I checked continuity of the power cord and for USA the Line would go to the HOT, Neutral to Neutral, and Ground to Ground at the wall receptacle. The HOT blade is on the upper right looking at a USA receptacle. The continuity test showed the HOT blade of the power cord went to the light blue wire. I rewired L, N, G terminals with light blue, light tan, yellow. Anyone else see this? Meanwhile, nothing lights up. No lights on the mother board and no lcd display backlight.

Anyone have an A8 in the USA who can tell me if it does not matter how the power cord is hooked up to the power supply?

Thanks

Edited February 11, 2017 by Guest

[Senior 0]

I know I,m responding to comments make over a year ago but I have a problem that I need an answer to. I just built an Anet A6. Had the same problem of following the video and not looking at the + and - symbols on the motherboard. Plugged it in and got pops and smoke. One of the ribbons was slightly stuck to the processor as well as another wire to something else. Is the motherboard fried? Also, I did not get an SD card. The A6 was a gift from my son. Maybe he can get one from where he bought it. I saw a site to buy a new motherboard if

I need it, but what about an SD card if he can't get it? My A6 did not come with any instructions on how to get started, so I'm searching the internet. Also, I use Solidworks at work. Can I use it to design things for the printer? I would appreciate any help to guide me to the right sources to get up to speed. Thank you.

[gr5 2,172]

I think you know the answer but here you go: "yes, the motherboard is fried".  Most importantly the cpu and the stepper drivers.  You need to get a whole new one.  You should be able to get one for about $30.

 

For the SD card, get this one:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Memory-SDSDUN-008G-G46-Newest-Version/dp/B00M55BS5O/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1523798720&sr=8-6&keywords=4gb+sd+card

 

It's tempting to get 2 but don't.  You'll never use the second one.

 

[XYZDesignPro 70]

Welcome to the Forum Senior.  Sorry to hear about your misfortune.  Hopefully you'll obtain the parts for the repair soon and join the world of discovery that owning a 3D printer can bring.  I'm a Solidworks user for some 20+ years now.  Started with SolidWorks 97+.  You'll just need to save the part file out as an STL to bring it into Cura for slicing into GCode.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

3 hours ago, XYZDesignPro said:

Welcome to the Forum Senior.  Sorry to hear about your misfortune.  Hopefully you'll obtain the parts for the repair soon and join the world of discovery that owning a 3D printer can bring.  I'm a Solidworks user for some 20+ years now.  Started with SolidWorks 97+.  You'll just need to save the part file out as an STL to bring it into Cura for slicing into GCode.

Second that as Solidworks has a solid reputation when it comes to printable files. No pun intended, but left in there intentionally because, who does not like a good pun?

[Senior 0]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. Like I've said, I have no instructions but I've seen how to level the plate and the steps to configure a Cura file, but is there a tutorial for what

to do when I first turn it on. Are there model files in the "Jump" drive (does it plug into the back of the monitor) or does help with the setup?   My home computer is Windows XP,

so I don't think that will work with Cura. So, at work, could/would I convert a Solidworks file to Cura and load onto the SD card to put directly into the A6?

Thanks again. Hope someday I can contribute to the forum. 

[gr5 2,172]

 

 

I don't know this model of printer but it sounds like a reprap style Marlin firmware printer with SD card.  Which is extremely common and a good design.  So the overall basic steps are:

1) Output STL file from CAD

2) Have cura turn it from STL into gcode.

3) copy the gcode to an SD card and put in the printer.

 

You can probably connect to your printer through USB also using pronterface on win xp.  This is helpful in debugging the printer and calibrating things if it doesn't just work right away.  For example debugging limit switches (maybe the motors go the wrong way or a limit switch is plugged into the wrong connector or a wire is broken).

 

As far as Cura on win xp, you need to avoid the 64 bit versions of cura because I'm pretty sure win xp is 32 bit only.  cura 15.X is fantastic so I'd go to the latest version of cura 15.X and see if that works on your win xp machine - I think it will.  If it does then I'd stick with that slicer - it's a great slicer.  DO NOT update your firmware using Cura unless it's a version of Marlin from Anet.  You might want to get on an anet forum instead of the Ultimaker forum, lol.

 

pronterface:

http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/

 

older cura:

https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/list

[XYZDesignPro 70]

Great explanation gr5.  From Solidworks chose Save As and select STL file format.  Chose the default Fine setting.  Save the file to an SD card if you can, or perhaps just email it to yourself at an address that you have access to at home..  At your home, bring the STL file into Cura to save out as Gcode on the SD card.  Put the SD card into your printer to read and process.

 

You might be able to use the 32 bit version of Cura 2.3.1 32 bit, dated Nov.8 2016, which can be found on the page gr5 linked to in the above post:

 

gr5, I'm not familiar with this printer at all.  You certainly know your way around reprap printers better than most.  Can you offer Senior some specific instructions on how to set up the printer in Cura?

[gr5 2,172]

I definitely would stay away from cura version 2.X.  It was unpleasant to work with.  Cura 15.X is so much easier and less buggy.

 

I think the latest cura probably has an anet style printer?  maybe?  I don't know.  In cura 15.X go to machine settings and select reprap style printer.  But you probably/might need to add some custom gcodes for the anet.  Anet should have instructions or should have a version of cura 15.X somewhere modified and ready to go, right?

 

I just know it's a kind of prusa i3/reprap style printer.