UMO: Electronic failure - how to check the components?

[lutz 0]

Dear all,

it's a pity but my Ultimaker 1 broke down yesterday during a print. And now I may have damaged it even more.

How it started:

The extruder stepper motor loosened itself during a longer print. I realized it maybe 2 hours later.

The print was messed and the heater and noozle was covered with PLA.

My steps:

when i tightened the motor again I restarted the machine. Now I wanted to move the Extruder via ulticontroller but it didn't function anymore.

So I changed on the Ultimaker electronicsboard the cable between “X” and “Extruder” to check if the stepper is still working and yes, it was.

Now I might have done a mistake. I changed the Stepper Driver between Z and Extruder and I did the mistake to place the extruder Stepper driver in the wrong direction. From now on the electronics went wrong. I realized my mistake and turned the Stepper driver in its right position again.

Also I checked the whole board without any stepper driver and also I tried to leave the Ulticontroller away, but it’s not working neither with USB nor UC.

Strange issues now:

 

• I can’t navigate with the Ulticontroller anymore, just switching between Startscreen and Settingscreen. I don’t see the arrow and I can’t select any settings with the knob.
  
• Temperature measurement, shown via Cura or UC, is jumping and not accurate.
  

How would you check the electronic components?

Arduino, Shield, Stepper Driver ( I think that’s it.. or am I missing something?)

For the Arduino, I found this, does it make sense?:

http://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/Arduino_MEGA_Ultimaker_Shield#Test:

Thankyou!

 

[macua85 52]

A guess and a long shot, but have you tried reinstalling the firmware?

[lutz 0]

Hi Macua, thank you for your reply.

I did it twice and also I tried to push the reset button on the arduino board and upload the marlin Firmware again. Sadly it didn't fix my issue.

Anyone familiar with arduino? Is it right, that I can pull the Arduino Mega off to use it with the Arduino developer environment to test it. And later when it's done, I can bring it back to the Ultimaker factorystate by uploading the Marlin Firmware again?

Is that correct?

 

[amedee 349]

Anyone familiar with arduino? Is it right, that I can pull the Arduino Mega off to use it with the Arduino developer environment to test it. And later when it's done, I can bring it back to the Ultimaker factorystate by uploading the Marlin Firmware again?

Is that correct?

 

Yes, no problem with that

 

[lutz 0]

Great, thank you!

So I will proceed with:

- testing the Arduino

- testing the Arduino with Ultimaker shield (the Link from my first post might help)

- and at least Arduino, Shield and all Stepperdrivers at their own.

 

[amedee 349]

Yes, sounds like a plan

 

[lutz 0]

I had time to do some tests,

1. Test, Arduino:

Arduino itself is working with the standard blink Example from Arduino. So this looks good so far.. but who knows. Best would be to crosscheck with another one.

2. Test, Ulimaker Shield:

Attached the shield to the Arduino and uploaded the Ultimakertest script from http://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/Arduino_MEGA_Ultimaker_Shield#Test

This script is pretty Handy to determine which stepper driver or motor is brocken.

So I found out the following by crosschecking all ports and drivers:

- Extruder steppermotor is all OK.

- I may have destroyed two driver, i assume that i killed them when interchanging them before and attached one of them the wrong way. Additionally I did the same mistake again and now i have only one functional driver left

but mostly:

- The Port for the Extruder is dead. I also checked with the second extruder Port and this is working fine.

So what to do next? The easiest would be buying a new board with drivers. Regarding the costs and the point that I may be able to fix it (we are makers aren't we ) I will give it a try to change some parts with the soldering iron.

It seems to be easy to change the condensator inbetween the driver sockets so this will be the first to check.

Anybody with suggestions which parts could be affected ( I know its hard to tell..)? Maybe resitors? I mean for me it looks that there is not much between the arduino output, the driver and the motor output.

 

[amedee 349]

The drivers should not be a problem, the Pololu/Alegro drivers are relatively cheap these days...

Instead of soldering on the mainboard, I would rather recompile a firmware with the Extruder outputs swapped (But I am more a software guy than a hardware guy )

 

[apex1001 0]

I am not an expert on the UM1 shield board but I do know something about electronics. Leaving a damaged component in a system is never a good idea. Especially power components tend to form a permanent short circuit. I do not know what else is powerd of the board but it might explain some buttons not working.

Below is a picture of the board I found on the net. I think replacing Q1 - Q3 and the powercomponent (voltage regulator?) on the right bottom should solve any problems with the board itself. After that replace any faulty driver boards. It should be cheaper (few bucks for the mosfets and power regulator) than a new board ;-).

Good luck with the repairs!

Vincent

 

[lutz 0]

Thank you both!,

Amedee, I just ordered 5x A4988 Drivers to test and replace. Your Solution to just change the Ext 1 with Ext 2 sounds like an easy workaround. I think I will consider it when it's not possible to fix Ext1. The Marlin Firmware would be an standard Anduino code ?

apex1001, you are right, I would prefer to have it fixed completely. Do mean you would replace the regulators Q1-Q3 first before replacing the condesator on the socket? Thanks for the Picture.

Lutz

 

[amedee 349]

The Marlin Firmware would be an standard Anduino code ?

 

Yes it is...

Check here for what you need to change.

Edit: the link to the source code is for the UMO+ (Board 2.x) -- for the 1.5.x board you need to look a bit higher in the same file (Motherboard #7)

 

[apex1001 0]

apex1001, you are right, I would prefer to have it fixed completely. Do mean you would replace the regulators Q1-Q3 first before replacing the condesator on the socket? Thanks for the Picture.

 

Yes that is what I mean ;-). Although I think they are probably mosfets and not regulators. But I don't have the actual part numbers so it's a guess.

Capacitors (condensator in german) almost never fail from things like this so I don't think replacing it will make a difference. Unless it's visibly fried. Do you have a picture of it?

You can probably find all the parts you need at a local electronics shop or at a webshop..

Greetz Vincent

 

[lutz 0]

Amedee. that change looks easy as it's just the initialisation of the output. I forgot that I have Issues with the Ulticontroller too. So in my case I think I have to fix it completely. Thanks for the link, my french is bad but the guy there seems to have a comparable issue.

Vincent, again Thank you, I will give it a try. Do you think the last mosfet in the right corner should be the first to replace/check? For me it looks that Q1-Q3 are related to the heated outputs.

I will report if it works

 

[apex1001 0]

Vincent, again Thank you, I will give it a try. Do you think the last mosfet in the right corner should be the first to replace/check? For me it looks that Q1-Q3 are related to the heated outputs.

I will report if it works

 

From your description I thought you meant the extruder is not working because one of the heater outputs is damaged. No heating means no molten plastic so no extrusion of said plastic which would point to Q1-Q3..

If those outputs are fine there is no need to replace them I guess. And then yes you could try to replace the mosfet in the right corner if that is actually connected to the extruder motor outputs.

Good luck ;-).

 

[lutz 0]

Hi there, some news on the topic,

after soldering and crosschecking again, I found the mistake, Beside the burned Stepper Drivers, my Arduino was damaged on Port 43.

I replaced it now, and the extruder Output is working again with the Testscript. Yes!

So after setting up the Stepper Drivers I will fire it all up again and hopefully this will be it.

I will report.

Anyone advice for the Stepper Driver Setup? I set them all to 0,6Volt now except the Z Axis to 0,15V.

My Z Driver was broken but can it be that it should be 0,05V? Measured directly on the poti-screw.

Ok, I may search for

Lutz