No start signal

Tristan

I have a Velleman k8200 which worked fine with repetier fine for over a year. I recently moved it upstairs and all of a sudden when I try to connect it connects and then won't do anything saying "No start signal detected". What does this mean? I've tried using a different controller board on my printer and using the previous version of repeater but I get the same thing.

Repetier

On startup the firmware sends "start" to signal it started and can receive commands. This did not happen when you got the message. Maybe it is just the wrong baud rate especially if upstairs means a different computer?

Tristan

No it's the same computer, it's my laptop. I haven't change the baud rate, is there anything that could have changed it?

Tristan

The baud rate should apparently be 250000. I checked and it was set to that so I set it to something else and then back to 250000 and it briefly started working again. It for some reason then started saying No start signal again. I've tried every other possible Baud rate and the same thing still happens. Do you have any idea what's causing this or am I just going mad?

Tristan

When I say the same thing still happens it just says "No start signal detected" it doesn't start working briefly then stop

Repetier

You could also try 115200 baud as this is also very common and if config had this originally it might have swapped back on a eeprom error. If you have lcd you can also check what baud rate is set in firmware.

If you can set it to 115200 by uploading firmware you could also try connecting with Arduino IDE serial monitor. Then you see what printer send and can also send e.g. M115. Might help seeing what the problem in communication is, if you see the full answer as it gets received.

Tristan

Sorry I don't know a lot about computers. What is an eeprom error? What is an lcd and how would I check the baud rate in the firmware? I'm also not entirely sure what you're saying in the second paragraph, could you elaborate?

Repetier

Repetier-firmweare stores important data in eeprom - whcih is a non volatile memory on your printers computer.

LCD = Liquid Crystal Display - means a display on the printer if you have one.

Tristan

I'm still not entirely sure what you're saying to do in the second paragraph, could you explain it in more detail?

What do you mean by uploading firmware? The firmware I use is the standard firmware from the Velleman website.

Also, what do you mean by connecting with the Arduino IDE Serial monitor, I know what the serial monitor is but how do I use it to find the problem?

Repetier

What I meant wa scompile your own firmware with 115200 baud as baud rate and install it with arduino ide. Then you could use the serial monitor to see if communication works and what it says as it seems that there the problem is. Problem with arduino ide is that it does not support 250000 baud so you need to change it before using for tests. But this requires the firmware sources so you can change it in configuration and some knowledge about uploading firmware, so may not be ideal for you.

But the main problem remains finding out what changed when moving upstairs as there should be the problem you are searching.