JGAurora A5S - No Files to print on the LCD when I put the SD card in.

giantrobot2001

I bought a machine that was previously assembled, but seemed like new.  I'm not able to get help from the seller - But the machine may have been used, or altered...   Everything seems to be working great, I leveled the bed and the controls all work - fed the filament and got the head to heat and extrude out a nice thin filament just like in the setup video guide... then when I hit the print button, it doesn't see any files on the card. It has the PAGEUP and NEXTPAGE and BACK buttons, but nothing else.  Is it looking elsewhere for files? Do I need to hook up the USB cord to the computer for something?  is there a setting or something? I have tried different cards, of diff sizes and ages, and formatted everything FAT32. I can see the .gcode file in the root directory, but the printer does not.

Samuel Pinches

Welcome @giantrobot2001

Sounds like the printer has the community firmware installed. Maybe try going back to the factory firmware to test the machine in its' "stock" state, or try reinstalling the community firmware. Please see firmware.jgmakerwiki.com

Could also be a loose SD card cable (the one with less wires)

Samuel Pinches

giantrobot2001

I'll Check the wires now, but I'd love to go back to factory state if it is not.  But I'm curious - does the community firmware sometimes make the SD slot not active or something?

Samuel Pinches

No, it does not. But without knowing what firmware exactly was installed (e.g. was it made by me, or someone else), I can't be certain.

giantrobot2001

there is two places next to eachother on the board end of the ribbon it could plug into. It's currently plugged to the  spot closest to front.  I found a loose cable earlier - they don't give you much length for opening the chassis. Everthing is tight now but still no luck.  If it's not supposed to be in the back spot, I guess flashing the firmware is next...

giantrobot2001

Oh you gave me a pic - you are awesome.  Yes that's the one it's plugged to

giantrobot2001

I have this USB cable that's like a printer cable.  The manual says nothing about it.  Will that help me somehow? I do not see any device drivers - is that an alternate port? What does it do? - and thank you very much

giantrobot2001

It did not update anything. It's not reading from that slot.  I put the files on the card (two files and a system folder)  The instructions say it would remove the files from the SD card as indicative that it updated.  It actually instantly started and did not seem to update or do anything different...

giantrobot2001

Pronterface says not connected to printer in the lower left status when I plug in printer cable... mainboard?

giantrobot2001

Just noticed there's a "Fat mount fail" on boot and shut down.  It's such a quick flash, sometimes you can't even see it

  

Samuel Pinches

I’m wondering if you’ve received a lemon........

the FAT mount fail is normal as long as you are not trying to flash the firmware. 

How big is the SD card?

You need drivers for Ch340g serial to USB. Then, connect at 250000 baud to the correct serial port.

giantrobot2001

It was sold as new on ebay, but seemed like it had been assembled.  The X axis stop did not stop the extruder head (it started grinding the belt at the stop so I started a refund request) , and the seller did not want it back - it took a few weeks but I finally got a full refund.  I really wanted it to work and I knew these had loose wire issues, so I took it apart and found a loose plug inside the on the bottom wide plug from the gantry. I was very excited.  Thought I fixed it and everything seemed to be good.  I put some files on a card, tried an 8GB, 4GB, 1GB, and 512K card.  I boxed it back in it's giant box and now it's in the corner - my free 3D printer for parts or future repair.  I just ordered a "NEW" one for $449 on ebay a few minutes ago. 

giantrobot2001

So I thank you for the warm welcome. I promise to give back and help here. I've already learned a lot from you and your links. I'll post my experiences with my new printer, which should arrive in a week or less.  Thanks again for the warm welcome - I'm no longer afraid to go for another A5S as my first printer. Look forward to making/designing stuff, fine tuning the printer, and being part of your community.

Samuel Pinches

Awesome!! will be great to have you around looking forward to seeing how you go with #2!

Samuel Pinches

You may still be able to print fine via USB though - you could try that, and if it works well, you could connect it to a raspberry pi running OctoPrint for convenient wifi printing..... shout out if you get stuck.

giantrobot2001

That sounds awesome.  I'm gonna tighten down that floppy ("more stable") stock gantry mount with some very low cost common steel frame (repurposed TV/speaker mounts/stands). Any of these single gantry printer styles would benefit. I see they have some printed solutions in thingiverse. I can post info on cheaply acquiring this useful metal with pics in a general section as well. Sorry I didn't start this thread in the right section - just noticed the A5S has it's own discussion.

Stephen Todd

The A3s is very solid - the A5 printers are the ones that wobble - got to be the length of the uprights

I've seen various fixes, but I'd be looking at securing the top of the frame, rather than the bottom of the frame for maximum stability - unless you can easily rock the frame by hand from the top

Samuel Pinches

The A5S is stiffer than the A5 by far, they added extra screws and reinforcement with the xz gantry connection. Still not as stiff as the A1 which uses thicker sheet metal. I have not need the A3S personally, but the smaller size also give a stiffness advantage.

Stephen Todd

Yes, been thinking about an A1 for past 6 months - can get one from aliexpress vendor's UK warehouse for £232 with guaranteed 10 days or less delivery - will likely buy one, despite having serious doubts about the new controller board

At the price (including 20 percent sales tax), I could buy it and mod it into something better if parts fail, and not have any import duty concerns (TNT once tried to extort me, but failed)

giantrobot2001

The A1 is pretty.  Just the perfect combination of Raw parts and screws on a sleek chassis.  Funny thing is how many people wouldn't hesitate to fit some Frankenstein mod to it.

giantrobot2001

Attempt two at buying a new A5S and it's looking murky - looks like direct from China might be more reliable.

But that's another story - so let's get back to this:

I might as well get to working on this one now while we're fresh

Okay, where I left off -

• Pronterface says not connected to printer in the lower left status when I plug in printer cable.

• Mr. Pinches suggested "You need drivers for Ch340g serial to USB. Then, connect at 250000 baud to the correct serial port."

A quick forum search here yielded me a file from a sparks gogo site

- So now I got it (this is like hacker intrigue at his point)

Now, Samuel, You said I need to set the speed of the connection somewhere to 250000 and I can print from a computer through the USB (Pronterface will see it) ?  Please do tell where I will encounter dominion over said baud rate, and com port.. and doesn't windows already select the correct com port? - it detected a new device.  Forgive me, but I'm having flashbacks to early 90's sound card installations....

Stephen Todd

Windows will now see the printer thanks to the Ch340g driver, and windows device manager will tell you the port number assigned to the printer - right click the printer and second tab is where you set the baud rate from the drop down list

Samuel Pinches

@giantrobot2001 - how did you go? Pronterface is not as intuitive as it could be...

giantrobot2001

there is now a USB SERIALCH340 (COM4) in the unspecified category

if I go into those properties there is something bit rate set at 9600

Intuitive is not the issue - what in teh world man

Stephen Todd

In port settings there is a drop down list when you click the box opening thingy - select a higher baud rate

giantrobot2001

AH HA  I seen it it's a setting in Pronterface.  Okay print head moved... hit the bed clip - LOL and then it starts printing - Now its stopped with an error in the pronterface status an infinite loop "Line number is not last line +1  1184 resend 1185

giantrobot2001

Printhead stopped on the print on the first slice

giantrobot2001

printing a benchy boat right through JG Create.  Quite entertaining to see the machine shed hairballs off to the side. What's that process called?  Had to coat the bed in tape. No Bed adhesion on the diamond glass.

Stephen Todd

I have the A3s with "non-stick" build plate - I use water diluted PVA wood/fabric adhesive - 1 part glue to 3 parts water - rollered on with a small paint roller then bed warmed up to dry before printing

You can wet the build plate with water and clean off the PVA film easily with a cloth before re-applying

You will likely have to let the parts cool completely before you can get them off the plate - but I sanded my plate with wet and dry abrasive sheet to take off the shine, so my build plate may be particularly "sticky"

I have no hairballs - sounds like your slicer settings are way off - try printing a "stringing" test piece from thingiverse

The JGcreate I got with my printer was an ancient version of Cura - it was years out of date - I use Cura 4.4 which has JGAurora profiles included - latest Cura version is 4.5

giantrobot2001

Its printing through the USB cable directly through JGcreate.  Do you use Cura to create the file, and Pronterface to print from your computer?