Printing issues Ultratronics & Repetier 1.0.5d
Hi,
Just upgraded one of my Felix 3d 3.1 printers, containing a prusa e3d extruder, with Ultratronics Pro board, RADS128 drivers and LCD display 12864.
> Main reason : lets get less noise out of my printer :-)
I used Repetier development firmware v1.0.5d and configured with the online tool.
There is some issue selecting the STEP_DOUBLER_FREQ, you cannot type a value. It is set to 80000. After saving the config file the value is 12000 ?
Does anyone have a good config file example for Ultratronics + RADS128 drivers + 12864 Display ?
Next some strange effects:
- when setting heated bed manually it works just fine. Temperature will settle to requested value. But if i start printing via gcode, the temperature in the display is eg set to 45 deg, but actual value will rise further beyonbd setpoint.
- ocassionally when changing a config parameter file, the bed temperature sensor shows 0 all the time. Did not find exactly which parameter.... (not one of heated bed section)
- when printing gcode, it seems to start ok, but after some printing, it looks like it's going crazy directions. It misses part of 1st layer, or it suddenly poops an amount of filament at 1 place and then continues.
I tried a different SD card, but no improvements. Gcode export of Prusaslicer is set to Repetier type. Well it worked when i still had the original Felix controller installed with the same file.
Don't have z height correction enabled.
Looks like some gcode parts are skipped?
Does these issues sound familiar to someone ?
Kind regards,
Hansel
Just upgraded one of my Felix 3d 3.1 printers, containing a prusa e3d extruder, with Ultratronics Pro board, RADS128 drivers and LCD display 12864.
> Main reason : lets get less noise out of my printer :-)
I used Repetier development firmware v1.0.5d and configured with the online tool.
There is some issue selecting the STEP_DOUBLER_FREQ, you cannot type a value. It is set to 80000. After saving the config file the value is 12000 ?
Does anyone have a good config file example for Ultratronics + RADS128 drivers + 12864 Display ?
Next some strange effects:
- when setting heated bed manually it works just fine. Temperature will settle to requested value. But if i start printing via gcode, the temperature in the display is eg set to 45 deg, but actual value will rise further beyonbd setpoint.
- ocassionally when changing a config parameter file, the bed temperature sensor shows 0 all the time. Did not find exactly which parameter.... (not one of heated bed section)
- when printing gcode, it seems to start ok, but after some printing, it looks like it's going crazy directions. It misses part of 1st layer, or it suddenly poops an amount of filament at 1 place and then continues.
I tried a different SD card, but no improvements. Gcode export of Prusaslicer is set to Repetier type. Well it worked when i still had the original Felix controller installed with the same file.
Don't have z height correction enabled.
Looks like some gcode parts are skipped?
Does these issues sound familiar to someone ?
Kind regards,
Hansel
Comments
Temperatures especially the first time swing over set point which is quite normal. But not too much. Extruders could overswing 10-20°C on bad pid values. Bed I guess not that much.
Bed temperature 0 is strange. As set point that means off but measuring it 0 would be an error normally.
STEP_DOUBLER_FREQ switches between 12000 and 80000 when you switch processor type, haven't see changint it afterwards. You can change it manually in config file if it happened.
>- when printing gcode, it seems to start ok, but after some printing, it looks like it's going crazy directions. It misses part of 1st layer, or it suddenly poops an amount of filament at 1 place and then continues.
So you print form sd card? What you describe is that gcode is not as programmed. If you have read errors form sd card they go undetected as we have no checksums and then that might be the reason. So shorten cable or try internal or use repetier-server to exclude sd card.
Temperatures:
- tuned PID parameters for heated bed and extruder. (both controllers to PID)
Extruder is ok
Still have sometimes initial ~10 deg overshoot on the bed temp.
Sometimes it just rises to 60 deg and then reports an error since it can not hold the requested temp.
Could this be parameter / eeprom related ?
SD read/write:
- tried to use display with shorter cables, ~ 30 cm : still SD read/write issues. SD is mounted, but get error: Could not write eeprom to SD card. It does create an eeprom.bin file but with size 0.
- tried to insert SD directly on unltratronics board: same SD read/write issues.
- disabled display in firmware, while SD on ultratronics board: eeprom.bin of 4K created. No errors writing eeprom.bin ! (display was still connected)
So as soon as i enable the display (RepRapWorld GLCD v1.0) there seems to exist some SD card read/write issue.
Used Repetier host to print some gcode : no strange printing behaviour (except that not all printer settings are optimal)
So i guess this points to some Display / SD card issue - conflict.
Is it possible to disable the on board SD card reader in software ?
Would like to use the one on the display only because its easier to reach.
Any hints that i can try ? Thanks.
What is strange is that you can see the files - means pins are defined correctly. So the problem must be with timing or voltages. sd cards need 3.3v but some displays are for 5v displays as well and have a voltage regulator. The ultratronics uses 3.3v normally. But that is hard to say if that could be a problem.
> Sometimes it just rises to 60 deg and then reports an error since it can not hold the requested temp.
Could this be parameter / eeprom related ?
What was the target temperature set when it raises to 60°C? PID for beds are a bit harder so it might be that you just must relax the conditions. You need to check the temperqture graph including output power over time. That it is normally easy to see if it is just bad pid setting or a real problem.
When i have the display connected and enabled in firmware, the system accepts the SD card in both slots (1 at a time). Meaning both slots seem active. Is the switching/selection done in firmware or hardware?
Renards,
Hans
I disabled display in FW. Now SD card works ok in either display entry or via main board.
So enabling LCD will mesh up SD card read/write.
If i enable LCD display, software SPI is activated. If i uncomment these defines and goto hardware SPI, display only shows startup screen then freezes. But SD card works.
Software SPI is same just do we change pins manually. So gets a bit slower.
Problem is when a display uses spi for visualization and sd card. Then they share same pins and with hardware spi you can often not manipulate the pins manually. So that must match.
The RRD display for example has different pins. So here we have hardware spi for sd card and control and use software spi for the display function. In that case it is also good because the driver is very sensitive to timings and quite slow, so with software spi it works much better. Its the ST7920 chip.
As it looks you use same pin so try configuring sd card to use software spi and same for display. Actually looking into pins.h for ultratronics I already see
so that seems in deed be the problem. Use for display also software spi.
If i uncomment software spi defines, the display works, but SD card cannot read/write. Init Sd card seems ok in that case.
Issue still not solved :-(
So i do use the DUE_SOFTWARE_SPI, but then i keep having issues with my SD card. It initializes / mounts ok, but all other actions, reading/writing goes wrong. So software SPI does not seem to work with my SD for some reason. When i switch to hardware SPI, the SD card works ok, but the display not.
I hope there are Ultratronics users that have graphical LCD screen (RepRapWorld GLCD v1.0) with SD working ?
Can someone confirm this ?
Measured 3V3 supply on the LCD : 4.0V ! will replace LDO regulator and see if this brings something....
If i delete the eeprom file via PC, one will be generated with size 0 bytes. Deletion via rep server does not work (see last logging). Do i also see a WDT timeout (wat) ?
19:55:45.453 : start
Tried deleting eeprom file:
19:59:14.626 : N15 M30 eeprom.bin*79
Have you tried reformatting with sdformat. Not that the directory structure is just defective. Because it is quite strange that parts work and other parts not.
Switched to Marlin FW to exclude some HW issue.
No issues with LCD in combination with SD card. All functioning fine now......