Cannot Home Z-axis and X-axis Going Bonkers

rhiamonshae

I just set up my "new" JGAurora A5S. (Purchased a year ago, but just taken out of the box.) The X- and Y-axis homed fine, but the Z-axis was too high. So I needed to adjust the endstop to allow the axis to get closer to the build plate (there was a full quarter-inch gap even after raising the plate as far as I could before it became too loose). That was easy enough - I just loosened the endstop screws and lowered the body. Before doing that, I raised the Z-axis to work on the machine so I would not accidentally bump it. Then turned off and unplugged the machine. Once all set, I turned it back on and tried to Home All. The Z only moved up to the top of the machine and will not go back down no matter how many times I select the "down" button. I tried to Home All again and the Z still will not go down, but now the X is jamming itself against the left end and making a strange noise. I shut the machine off and let it sit for a few minutes, restarted it and the same thing happens - the Z will not go down and the X beats itself against the left end. Since I failed to lower the Z prior to attempting the Home All, did break my machine? Ugh

rhiamonshae

Hello again. I need to add to my post above. It was when I went to level the build plate that I discovered the Z-axis was too high. Sorry that I missed adding that in the original entry.

Stephen Todd

There are four wires to each stepper motor, if one of the wires is not making a connection the motor may go in one direction only

On another make of 3D printer I strained the z stepper motor wires and broke one of the solder joints to the motor PCB - z-axis would go up if told to, but also went up if told to come down - re-soldering the joint restored normal working

Samuel Pinches

Welcome @rhiamonshae ,

I suspect the issue may be a fault with the endstops. When you turn the printer on, in one of the menus you can home each of the axis one by one. On each physical axis there is an endstop. When you tell the printer to home an axis, it will move the axis towards the button until the button is pressed, and then it will reverse and back off till the button releases. If the button is stuck down, it may cause the axis to reverse continually.

1. Put the x and y axis roughly in the middle positions manually with the printer off.

2. Locate the endstop for the x axis.

3. Trigger the home function for the x axis, and manually press the x-axis endstop, and observe if there is any response from the printer. Be ready to turn the power off at the mains switch before the x-axis collides with the side again.
What is the result?

rhiamonshae

Thank you, @Samuel Pinches. The X and Y are homing fine again. I was able to manually stop the X as you suggested. Unfortunately, I think that @Stephen Todd may have something there with a loose wire for the Z. I was able to (VERY CAREFULLY) manually move the Z down from the top and test the Home. It went up a little only. Then I tried working with the Move buttons. Up works just fine. Down...(sigh)...Nothing. Sounds like I need to do surgery. Bugger it all. (Thank you @Stephen Todd, for your input.)

Samuel Pinches

I would suggest connect the printer to a computer. Download and install pronterface. Connect to printer. Send command M119 and see if the printer thinks the Z endstop is stuck down ("triggered").

I can explain this process later in more detail.

rhiamonshae

Thank you @Samuel Pinches. I downloaded Ponterface. In the Settings -> Options screen I did the following:
Serial Port - left blank since I do not know it (yet)
Baud Rate - 250000
Bed temp for ABS - 110
Bed temp for PLA - 65
Extruder temp for ABS - 240
Extruder temp for PLA - 210
Width - 305
Depth - 305
Height - 320
The rest I left at their default settings since I have no idea if I need to change them and I saved the changes.

Back in the Ponterface screen I clicked Port and Connect to start the communication with the printer (as instructed from a Google search). Port = COM1 gave me and error message: [ERROR] Could not connect to COM1 at baudrate 250000: Serial error: Cannot configure port, something wen wrong. Original message: WindowsError (87, "The parameter is incorrect."

Changed to the only other option of COM3 and I got a bunch of gobbly goop that I cannot begin to copy. 

On a whim I tried COM1 again at a 115200 setting. Received an error. So, what the heck, I tried COM3 at 115200...I nearly fell off my chair because it connected. I have oodles of rows of M105. I sent the command of M119 and I received the message of "Sent" and "Triggered" followed by oodles more rows of M105.

Not sure where to go from here. 

Stephen Todd

Important to get your COM port settings right or you are adding another layer of uncertainty

load Device Manager
double click Ports (COM & LPT)
double click USB-SERIAL CH340 (shows your COM number here)
click Port Settings tab
set Bits per second to highest number displayed in list
click OK

load Pronterface and set to COM number displayed in device manager
 and 250000

or install Repetier-Host and Config/Printer Settings/Connections tab  set to auto-detect and 250000

both Pronterface and Repetier-Host have up down control buttons for z-axis

Samuel Pinches

If you pronterface is connecting at 115200 then you have an old factory firmware installed. The newer factory firmwares connect at 250000 on the A5S and A1.

Regardless, this test will work on both:

• Send command M119
• Which axis say triggered? Triggered means that the motherboard things that the endstop on that axis is being pressed.
  

Samuel Pinches

M105 is simply the firmware being asked by pronterface to reply with temperature information. Under Pronterface -> settings you can disable the "monitor printer status" and I think that will stop the M105 lines. They can just be ignored otherwise.

rhiamonshae

Thank you @Stephen Todd. I did as you suggested and found that my USB-SERIAL CH340 is COM3. So, I disconnected from the COM3 115200 mess and reselected with Port COM3 @ 250000. I hit Connect and received gobbly goop.  More keeps coming.

I made doubly sure I had my Pronterface settings correct. I believe they are. (I always had the Baud Rate on this screen at 250000.)

I reset and tried it again, but still, I get the gobbly goop. This is what my Pronterface screen looks like.

So, I tried Repetier. Using Auto-detect, when I clicked on the Continue with Step 3 button, it changed the Baud Rate to 115200. Here is the screenshot for you.


After several minutes of that, I aborted and tried it with a set Baud Rate of 250000. After several minutes, I received the message below. 


I am officially confused and I think my A5S is as well. Ugh

Samuel Pinches

@rhiamonshae - try install the latest factory firmware.

rhiamonshae

By the way, just for grins and giggles, I tried changing my Baud Rate on the Pronterface Settings screen to 115200. Then I attempted to connect with Port COM3 @ 115200. I received an "Access is denied" error. I figured as much, but if one does not check, one never knows for sure... (Still confused.)

Samuel Pinches

Make sure you've closed other apps that use the same com port. E.g. cura, repetier server etc

Stephen Todd

I suspect your firmware is corrupt - likely a bad install in the factory

The community firmware is better anyway - and you get bed mesh leveling - most of us found that we needed it as the glass bed is usually bowed in the center

rhiamonshae

Thank you, @Samuel Pinches. I made sure everything was closed and tried again. Same results...Gobbly goop...


I am totally happy to try the download of new firmware @Stephen Todd. How do I go about doing that? (Sorry I am such a newb...)

Stephen Todd

Full instructions are here on Samuels wiki:

https://jgaurorawiki.com/a5/firmware

Stephen Todd

You can upgrade using Cura, but when I tried that it trashed the bootloader that the controller board processor needs to load new firmware - made things more difficult as I then had to buy a specialized interface and program the controller board directly

So, what the wiki says to do is use your computer to interface with controller board chip and load the new firmware - the controller is basically an arduino, and we use an arduino software program to talk to it

Samuel Pinches

FYI @Stephen Todd  - this is an A5S not A5. The firmware page for the A5S is https://firmware.jgmakerwiki.com

Samuel Pinches

I would still recommend trying the latest factory firmware first:

http://www.jgaurora3d.com/list_21.aspx

Stephen Todd

Yes, must use the correct firmware for the printer, and latest available

Didn't realize A5s had been out so long - assumed it was A5

rhiamonshae

Thank you, @Stephen Todd and @Samuel Pinches. You have been most generous with information and patient with my situation. And once again I need to call upon your expertise. I downloaded the A5s .rar file, but when I attempted to open it I received the following message and I am not sure what to select. When I clicked on More apps I received a list with a number of apps and I am totally unsure what to use. The list included Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Internet Explorer, Notepad, Paint, Windows Media Player, and WordPad. So, I am not sure where to go from here. (By the way, I created a folder on my desktop in which to save it, since I was not prompted to save it any particular place.)

Samuel Pinches

Hi @rhiamonshae - you can extract the .rar file with a program like 7zip. https://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Best,
Sam

rhiamonshae

Thank you, @Samuel Pinches. I thought I did everything right, but I must have done something wrong. Pronterface came up with more gobbly goop, so I tried Repetier again. I had it Autodetect and it defaulted to Baud 115200. It also connected!  


I aborted and set the Baud Rate to 250000. I waited and waited and waited for it to connect. No luck.

Stephen Todd

I'm not convinced the firmware updated correctly - Pronterface should not return gibberish

Connecting at 115200 is not a problem

I'd try to update the firmware again with a different SD card

Samuel Pinches

@rhiamonshae I would suggest to contact JGAurora - support@zgew3d.com

rhiamonshae

@Stephen Todd and @Samuel Pinches  - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I used a brand new SD card, still got gobbly goop with the Baud set at 250000. I tried 115200 and I connected. I got loads of the M105 code and remembered to turn off the "monitor printer status" box. So I hit Reset, unclicked the box, and pressed the Connect button. Then I sent the M119 code... Eureka! Here is what I got:


So, my X and Z are triggered. Now all I need to do is fix them. Any pointers?

Stephen Todd

I think now just test x, y, z movements, and bed and extruder temperature control - see what does and does not function - e.g. does z go all the way up and down, x and y movement reach edges of bed

rhiamonshae

Bye the way, I need to also report that, using the Move keys, I can manually move the X in both directions, but I am still unable to move the Z down - it only moves up.

Samuel Pinches

Hi guys, I'm not sure you understood what I was trying to do.

The M119 test checks to see which of the limit switches is currently triggered.

Triggered is the normal value when the axis is at the start of the travel range, where it pushes on a physical endstop switch located at the home position on each axis. When the axis is not at the home position, the value should NOT be triggered. If you home all the axis, and then run M119, you should see TRIGGERED on all axis. When the axis are moved out a bit, the switches will not be pressed, and so the value should be open.

The X and Z endstop switches are accessible, and you can try holding down or releasing the switch, and see what difference is reported back by running M119. The Y endstop is located in the back of the printer, and can be triggered by moving the bed all the way to the back of the printer.

If you see open where you expect triggered, or vice versa, that indicates a fault on that line.

Either:

a) the switch needs replacement,

b) the wire is cut or damaged,

c) a connector is loose or broken, or

d) the motherboard itself is damaged and a port is not reading the switch status correctly.

This needs to be fixed before printing will be successful.

rhiamonshae

Thank you so much, @Samuel Pinches. That cleared it up for me quite a bit. I homed all axis (had to manually move the Z, of course, using a level to be sure I did not bugger it up) and ran the M119. I received X = Open (bad), Y = Triggered (good), and Z = Triggered (good). I then moved the axis away from the home position and ran the diagnostic again. I received X = Triggered (bad), Y = Open (good), and Z = Triggered (bad). 

So, my X is backwards, my Y is good, and my Z is a mess all around. I definitely have some repair work that needs to be done. 

Thanks again for all your time and input, @Samuel Pinches and @Stephen Todd.