Confused with support suggestion

DukeLander

One month ago I have bought jgaurora a5s. I had no problems (except curved bed) and it had over 60 h printing time and suddenly started with non logical moves, print failures, stops in the middle of prints till Z axis did not want to home any more, it goes only up. First I tough z endstop switch is dead (always closed but it is in NO mode) but after inspection switch is fine. Then l have tried to reflash with marlin and official fw, same result. I have contacted jgaurora support and they have suggested to change wiring order on z stepper motors (it has dual z axis with dual motors), so I have to change 1-2 or 3-4 order on 4 wire connection and everything is gonna be ok. And here I am confused : printer works fine 60+ hours and now I have to change wiring order to work properly? Your opinion? Thanks

Stephen Todd

Somebody else in this wiki had the problem of Z only going up, but not back down - I'll see if I can find the post, and the fix

Edit: Can't find the post using search tool

Stephen Todd

I had the same problem with a different make of printer after straining the motor wires - what happened was that some of the solder joints broke from the tracks of a small PCB attached to the motor - without all 4 wires connected, the motor would not bring the gantry down when told to - in fact, it would go further up instead of come down

As re-soldering the wiring connections made everything right again, I'd check continuity of the wiring using a multi-meter

DukeLander

Thanks Todd for your effort.
I have checked every connection with multimeter, everything is ok.
So I have started with elimination method.
First I have tried with another board, most suitable was Lerdge X. Same problem occurred. I have pulled out endstop connection from endstop connector on board, everything works fine.
So problem is between board and endstop switch.
Again, I have physically disconnected endstop switch from wires and reconnected endstop connector to board, problem appears again.
Again multimeter, wires are ok, no short circuit.
For "sanity check" I have used X axis endstop for Z axis, everything works fine.
Then I had idea, based on experience on work.
Lerdge have also option to totally shot down the motors. I have reconnected everything on its place, power on, shot down stepper motors, started with Z homing and everything works fine until first z axis stop.
When I try again, problem occurs, z goes only up.
If I shot down motors again, homing works till first stop.
So I have made new pair of wires for z endstop switch and connected directly in board. Everything works as intended.
So there is only one logical explanation: z axis endstop picking up "over jump" current/induction in adapter which is between inner and outer section (on picture).
I am gonna ask for new one.


And we all have to agree, suggestion from support is totally nonsense.

Stephen Todd

They likely missed the bit where you told them it worked fine until it stopped working

As you've traced the fault to that connector PCB, I'd continuity check the traces - could be a dry joint, or missing earth - likely to take weeks for a new board to arrive from China, and you may get it working in the meantime

Edit: Its standard practice to also re-flow all the solder joints with 60/40 solder as it only takes a few minutes, and the lead-free solder used in factories nowadays is rubbish

DukeLander

Printer came with failure on PTFE coupling. They sent new one and it came in one week.

Update on situation:

Last night I had time to check & test everything. On adapters PCB on non visible side I've found on contacts some dry glue sort of thing, remove it and now switch is working fine. But original board does not.

Because words are complicated for chinese supports, I have made 2 video for them, one with original and one with Lerdge Board,, where is obvious the original board has some issues.

Now I am waiting for answer...

DukeLander

And here is support response after 2 video's:



I have ordered a lot from Chinese markets, I had never pay more than 3$ for any shipping (ultrabase, hotbeds, boards...) and now jgaurora wants me to pay 10$ for shipping of one mainboard.
That means I am paying the full price of mainboard. For example, I have ordered last week directly from manufacturer  SKR 1.4 turbo with set of 8825 steppers for 19$, free shipping.

I must admit, I am very disappointed with this. Man expect at least some normal support for 400$ printer. 
Anyway, this is last time I have buy some brand printer, next one's gonna be only custom made by myself.

Stephen Todd

A5s controller board is custom made for JGAurora - and is something like $80, as there is no other supplier

Only other option you had was to fit a MKS Gen L board which you could buy for about $15 + the cost of the stepper drivers - its the 8 bit board fitted to A5 and would run well with the upgraded community firmware

You could have taken the the chance of MKS SGen L board which seems to be same board as MKS Gen L but with a 32 bit processor

I would be happy to get the custom board for $10, bearing in mind any standard parts you buy from JGAurora cost 2X to 3X what you pay from aliexpress vendors

I've dropped my plans to buy an A1, having seen the problems people are having with the custom board

Makerbase have a lot of different MKS controller boards and LCDs at dirt cheap prices nowadays

PS. I thought you traced the problem to that small connector board - are you now saying it is not that connector board, but the main 32 bit controller board

DukeLander

Stephen, if any 3d printer manufacturer pays in 2020 ~80$ for board, then they have some real issues in the management department.
Plus it has cheapest allegro  32 steps drivers + weakest  32 bit controller, which is tthere only because of color touch display (they had learned from mistakes on A5).
Personally, color touch are eye candy and only that. For me are discount displays way more faster and practical, but that's only me.

Meanwhile, as I said, I have tested printer with Lerdge X and now with Trigorilla 1.3 8bit board (leftover from anycubic delta, I have wroted test Marlin fw in 5 mins for aurora) and works great. 
Only problem is display adaptation on casing , but why should I change anything on ca. one month old printer with half dead board?
And answer on your question: adapter board had some conducive material on contacts, which made problem with current jumping and obviously killed the board.
Here are videos, you will see testing with boards.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IFlohABgmNpoycW1v0WlKD_PzC92gmQi/view?usp=drivesdk


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IHLUkb7IL0tOrCyZCkEG3TqtWeDVsor-/view?usp=drivesdk

Samuel Pinches

if your printer is under warranty JGAurora should supply replacement parts (e.g motherboard) at no cost.

DukeLander

Yes, they suppose to do that but after all evidence of purchase and failures (bill, pics and vids - I have made video of printer failure before I had done anything on it e.g. disassembling) and obvious misunderstanding with support, they asks and sent me payment request:

Stephen Todd

Now I get it, the connector board had the fault, and it killed the controller board

The replacement board would be worth getting for $10 just to sell it again and use something else in the A5s

I was meaning that JGAurora sell the controller board for about $80 as nobody else can supply it - an equivalent board from Makerbase would be about $23 including shipping and would be similar quality (not great)

I've not had any problems with my MKS display, but had to replace the controller board after 2 months as the board started interpreting incorrect temperatures

I do have a printer with a scroll/click display, and I hate it with a passion - touch screen is far better - but I have been looking at nextion user programmable HMI displays, as I think I can do a far better job of programming the user menu compared to MKS LCDs

DukeLander

I got it too now
I've found original jg a5s board on amazon.de for ~50€.
Point is the printer had 3 week before it got unusable.
JGAurora gives official warranty for those cases.
I have followed every step they gave me since I have reported problems. They had gave me advice to disassemble the printer, it wasn't my idea.
After every try & error form them and with my videos, they have admitted board has failure. And they want extra charge 10$ for that.
It is not money question, it is principle.
All I want is what they advertised, nothing more or less.

Samuel Pinches

Ok, I'll contact them and ask for your case to be reviewed. In my opinion, you should not have to pay for shipping of  parts that have been damaged due to machine faults.

DukeLander

This is great
Support said mainboard costs 69$ and they had already sent me before parts (ptfe coupler on hotend was DOA and they sent me a new one) and because this is second time I have problem with printer they won't sent me anything.
Well.... as mod on it forum over 100.000 members and a lot it/technical frends over reddit, tw etc, I am gonna enjoy this...
But as always, I was prepared for like this scenarios and soon are coming some pics of moded A5S.

Thank you Samual and Stephen for everything, you are great guys.

Samuel Pinches

I spoke to them and they clarified their warranty policy to me.

Part Failures:
Consumables (nozzle, throat ,thermistor):  3 months warranty
Main parts (mainboard ,screen, hotbed):   1 year warranty

Shipping Costs:
• Up to 3 months old: JGAurora covers shipping costs for first shipment, customer covers costs for any subsequent shipments.

• Over 3 months old: customer covers shipping costs

I've let them know you're not satisfied with their reply, and I told them that these limitations are not inline with my usual warranty expectations.

Samuel Pinches

They did not mention anything about subsequent warranty parts having shipping costs on their website: https://www.jgaurorastore.com/support-en/warranty/

DukeLander

As I said, you are great 
I am very thankful for your effort but please, do not bother yourself.
If someone knows limitations of this board, it is you.
I have plenty boards to play with like skr 1.3, 1.4, lerdge, trigorilla etc and I want to see this printer with fully used potential.
I will post on forum what have I done.
Thank you once more for everything .

DukeLander

JGAurora support confirmed it is mainboard failure and they have already sent the new board to me.

Samuel, thank you very much.

Samuel Pinches

I hope this solves it for you! Best of luck.