LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?  

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Support updated me to tell me my board was sent out unflashed, so i would have to flash the firmware myself. I followed the manual to do that, and now i cant make the RAMBo board appear inside Arduino, i have unzipped the folders to the right areas, restarted the IDE and my machine. Still nothing 🙁

EDIT:

Turns out the direct link to 1.0.6 of the Arduino IDE doesnt recognize the MarlinAddon, manually going to Arduino and grabbing the most recent version fixed this 🙂

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Well, downloaded all the files. attempt to upload and i get this error message :

I assumed the software side would be easier than the construction, seems i assumed wrong 😯

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

So much hassle 🙁 I tried using the firmware updater instead, which went through find and said it was successfull. Still only have 2 rows of black squares as in my original post?

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Running some more tests. The printer successfully flashed with the firmware updater. LCD Still showing squares. Pronterface is able to control all the axis and home the motors, however it has no control over filament extrusion or bed/extruder heat. I turned them both on and after 30 minutes everything was still as cold as when i started.

Im feeling like ill need to take all the cables/zipties/rambo out again and leave it guts out and connected to try and diagnose anything. Anyone with any kind of insight feel free to drop it here 🙂

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hi, I think you have switched the cables, can you post a pic of the lcd cables on the RAMBo side and on the LCD side?

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hi, I think you have switched the cables, can you post a pic of the lcd cables on the RAMBo side and on the LCD side?

Lemme just say, thank you for making this wonderful kit! Ive had a blast so far!

Heres a picture of the RAMBo connections, the cable with 1 line is the one closest to the camera :

(I have tried rotating these 180 degees as per support, but then the screen didnt even turn on.)

And here are 2 pictures of the LCD Connection, Although these were already wired when i received the kit so stayed apart from unplugging them:

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Thank you for your kind words, but let's just first resolve the problems you have.
From the first look it seems ok, but I don't have enough reference on my hand (Right now in Spain for Makerfaire Bilbao) I will be back in the office on Monday. I will ping Michal, with this issue.

One more thing, you said you have tried heating the printer with pronterface but it didn't do anything, right? Check all the fuses on the RAMBo if they are alright.

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

I have the whole wiring bare and in parts now. The LCD cables to the RAMBo, follow 100% the instructions in the guide.
Just pulled each of the fuses out to check if theyve blown, the blue 1 is guaranteed okay, The brown ones are a bit harder to see, but i rigged a shitty led/battery system for fuse checking (From owning a motorbike) and put them both on that, and the circuit complete, so i think those are fine too.

Going to go through with wiring today and will keep the topic updated 🙂

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Update time.

I rewired everything, step by step and triple checking their orientations/locations to the manual, it seems nothing was any different and everything went back where it came from. Heres some messy images showing everything on the board, i also double checked both ends of the LCD cables and they both match up with the documentation.

After rewiring it all, i still had the same issues of the LCD showing only squares. So i decided to try and reflash the firmwares. Firstly i did it the original way through the Arduino IDE, using the first version of the firmware (Under the older versions) on the drivers page. One thing had changed! I no longer got the timeout errors, everything seemed to upload perfectly fine with the RAMBo flashing during and everything. Still only had LCD squares. So i went through the next 2 updates this way, each time it worked but didnt fix the LCD.

Then i decided to go through and do the same processes, but with the built in firmware updater, heres a video of that happening:

Even though it appeared to not fix the LCD, i ran Pronterface again just for kicks and i could now make the extruder heat up! It took a 10 second delay for the fan to actually start up, and the heat climbed nicely. NOTE: I do fully understand pronterface gui yet, but the temperature seemed to hit 175 then started to drop down to 125 and idled there. The heatbed i didnt leave running long enough to see if that was heating up okay (Just in case there is still an issue with the extruder, no fires thanks 😛 )

Tomorrow i think im going to try and actually run a print through it even without the LCD. Im not that bothered about printing from an SD card or using the GUI on it for day to day use. I only wanted it to work so i can follow the calibration manuals which exclusively use that.

Hope this update has provided some extra info for you guys.

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Another update, I tried to go ahead and kick through a print directly through pronterface. I loaded in a test file and created the GCode of it (3DBenchy boat) and selected print after it had warmed up. It spat out this in the console :

SENDING:M105
ok T:86.3 /255.0 B:25.0 /0.0 T0:86.3 /255.0 @:127 B@:0
SENDING:M105
ok T:141.2 /255.0 B:25.2 /0.0 T0:141.2 /255.0 @:127 B@:0
Setting bed temperature to 50.000000 degrees Celsius.
start
echo:Marlin1.0.2
echo: Last Updated: Nov 22 2015 17:12:40 | Author: (none, default config)
Compiled: Nov 22 2015
echo: Free Memory: 3718 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Hardcoded Default Settings Loaded
echo:Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X100.00 Y100.00 Z4000.00 E174.20
echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
echo: M203 X500.00 Y500.00 Z3.00 E25.00
echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
echo: M201 X9000 Y9000 Z30 E10000
echo:Acceleration: S=acceleration, T=retract acceleration
echo: M204 S3000.00 T3000.00
echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum XY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s), E=maximum E jerk (mm/s)
echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X20.00 Z0.40 E5.00
echo:Home offset (mm):
echo: M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
echo:PID settings:
echo: M301 P40.93 I4.88 D86.08
echo:Retract: S=Length (mm) F:Speed (mm/m) Z: ZLift (mm)
echo: M207 S3.00 F2700.00 Z0.00
echo:Recover: S=Extra length (mm) F:Speed (mm/m)
echo: M208 S0.00 F480.00
echo:Auto-Retract: S=0 to disable, 1 to interpret extrude-only moves as retracts or recoveries
echo: M209 S0
echo:Filament settings: Disabled
Setting hotend temperature to 255.000000 degrees Celsius.
echo:SD init fail
Setting hotend temperature to 210.000000 degrees Celsius.
Extruding 5.000000mm of filament.
Extruding 5.000000mm of filament.
Extruding 5.000000mm of filament.
Extruding 5.000000mm of filament.
Extruding 5.000000mm of filament.
Extruding 5.000000mm of filament.
Loaded C:\Users\Danny\Desktop\3DBenchy.gcode, 94999 lines
4468.13222375 mm of filament used in this print
The print goes:
- from 8.00 mm to 129.77 mm in X and is 121.77 mm wide
- from 60.00 mm to 115.28 mm in Y and is 55.28 mm deep
- from 0.00 mm to 48.00 mm in Z and is 48.00 mm high
Estimated duration: 1:42:12
SENDING:M105
ok T:209.6 /210.0 B:25.5 /0.0 T0:209.6 /210.0 @:77 B@:0
Print started at: 22:47:47
start
echo:Marlin1.0.2
echo: Last Updated: Nov 22 2015 17:12:40 | Author: (none, default config)
Compiled: Nov 22 2015
echo: Free Memory: 3718 PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Hardcoded Default Settings Loaded
echo:Steps per unit:
echo: M92 X100.00 Y100.00 Z4000.00 E174.20
echo:Maximum feedrates (mm/s):
echo: M203 X500.00 Y500.00 Z3.00 E25.00
echo:Maximum Acceleration (mm/s2):
echo: M201 X9000 Y9000 Z30 E10000
echo:Acceleration: S=acceleration, T=retract acceleration
echo: M204 S3000.00 T3000.00
echo:Advanced variables: S=Min feedrate (mm/s), T=Min travel feedrate (mm/s), B=minimum segment time (ms), X=maximum XY jerk (mm/s), Z=maximum Z jerk (mm/s), E=maximum E jerk (mm/s)
echo: M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X20.00 Z0.40 E5.00
echo:Home offset (mm):
echo: M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
echo:PID settings:
echo: M301 P40.93 I4.88 D86.08
echo:Retract: S=Length (mm) F:Speed (mm/m) Z: ZLift (mm)
echo: M207 S3.00 F2700.00 Z0.00
echo:Recover: S=Extra length (mm) F:Speed (mm/m)
echo: M208 S0.00 F480.00
echo:Auto-Retract: S=0 to disable, 1 to interpret extrude-only moves as retracts or recoveries
echo: M209 S0
echo:Filament settings: Disabled
echo:SD init fail
Error:Line Number is not Last Line Number+1, Last Line: 0
[ERROR] Error:Line Number is not Last Line Number+1, Last Line: 0

What i found strange though with testing this is that, when i click 'set' temperature of the hot end, thats all good and it climbs to where it needs to be. As soon as i 'set' the hotbed temperature, the hot end starts to cool down until the fans eventually stop too. And the console appears to show the connection 'restarting' whenever i set the hotbed or restart the print. I bolded the places where i think this is telling me so.

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hello there!
your problems looks very strange, probably it's fault of RAMBo, but firstly let's toss out the other parts.

1) If you unplug the heatbed cable (only the heater, leave the thermistor connected) and set the heatbed to 100'C, does the electronics restarts? (the yellow LED1 between USB connector and RESET button blinks twice) or does the RED LED6 close to the heatbed connector goes on? If the LED goes on, could you measure the resistance of the heat bed?

2) If you swap the LCD cables on both sides (TWO striped cable goes from EXP1 connector on the LCD to the P1 connector on the RAMBo board, ONE striped cable goes from EXP2 on the LCD to the P2 connector on the RAMBo), turn off the printer, wait until everything goes black, then turn on, does the LCD starts to show something? If not, do you have some alternative cables you can use? Or test them if they are not damaged?

3) If you set only the hotend (extruder) temperature to the 240'C, does it reach it under 3 minutes?

Cheers!

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hello there!
your problems looks very strange, probably it's fault of RAMBo, but firstly let's toss out the other parts.

1) If you unplug the heatbed cable (only the heater, leave the thermistor connected) and set the heatbed to 100'C, does the electronics restarts? (the yellow LED1 between USB connector and RESET button blinks twice) or does the RED LED6 close to the heatbed connector goes on? If the LED goes on, could you measure the resistance of the heat bed?

2) If you swap the LCD cables on both sides (TWO striped cable goes from EXP1 connector on the LCD to the P1 connector on the RAMBo board, ONE striped cable goes from EXP2 on the LCD to the P2 connector on the RAMBo), turn off the printer, wait until everything goes black, then turn on, does the LCD starts to show something? If not, do you have some alternative cables you can use? Or test them if they are not damaged?

3) If you set only the hotend (extruder) temperature to the 240'C, does it reach it under 3 minutes?

Cheers!

Hi!

1.) After unplugging the heat cable and setting the bed to 100'C in Pronterface, i did get the red LED6 coming on. I will need to go out and buy a multi meter before i can test the resistance, would i be putting the prongs on the two solder points on the bed itself, or across the heat bed cable ends?

2.) No way! swapped both LCD at both ends worked! Thank you! I get full display and control now, Went through the menus and was able to select/control the axis. However, as soon as i try to run the 'preheat' command on ABS, the printer does accept the values and attempts to heat up, only to 'reboot' and ignore the previous values. This looks similar to what is happening in pronterface, heres a video of how that plays out :

3.) The temperature climbs up very steadily, the graph shows about 8 degree increments. It reached 240'C in 2 minutes and 8 seconds. What i did noticed with the RAMBo uncased, the LED above the Extruder cable was red as it was heating up. When i turned of the extruder, the LED went out and the extruder fan LED turned red. Im guessing this is normal?

Thanks again!

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

I managed to get some test prints out of it, the error at the top of this page in quotes, i think was down to this whole heatbed issue. i didnt realise the gcode generated had a value set for the heatbed. So when i tried to run it, it called the heatbed to heat up, which like the other ways, rebooted the system. Failing the print routine. I editied the heatbed value to 0 in notepad, and managed to get the printer to actually start :)!

The first and second attempts, the first one i forgot to put some glue on the glass, so none of the lines stayed still and it started tangling itself up. The second went much better after applying glue, it managed to get around 5 layers high, but even then the nozzle start pulling the print away from the bed so i had to cancel. Im assuming the heated bed plays a part in keeping this laid properly?

Im going to experiment with some insulation tape, and perhaps slightly higher temps for the extruder to make it a bit softed, it look like it was still 'tacky' as it came out, which pulled it off the bed.

Progress 😀

EDIT:

Had another go with printing without a heatbed. Came out wonderfully! All with default slicer settings, havent had time to read through the documentation for that yet. Really pleased with it overall though, except, it seems to be properly stuck to the glass. I had to near enough whack it with a wrench to get it to unstick. Did i need to wait longer for the glue to dry? or would this not happen if the bed heated?

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hey there,
great progress, now we know much more about your issue.
Now let's just fix it 🙂

Numbers here are not corresponding to your post.
1) If you insert the SD card to the LCD panel, are you able to access it through the LCD? If not, you need new cables or just take a look at them if they are not damaged (mainly it gets damaged when anchoring to the threaded rods with zipties) so please check that and let me know.

2) The video is with connected heatbed right? If so, you definitely have something wrong with it, now let's just check what. if you unmount it, and remove all the screws in the corners, are you able to see some damage where M3 washers were? If you plug it in to the printer (without the screws mounted), is it working properly? If so, you need new heatbed or you can do little trick by insulating the bottom copper plane from the washers until the new one arrives.

Nice print without the heatbed by the way!

Cherrs!

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Restarts when printbed was heating up: Had same issue and noticed when I was mounting screws to heat plate I somehow shortcircuited edges of heat plate with screws, what fixed that for me was actually putting isolation tape between screws and heat bed.

So make sure there is no shortcircuit between heat bed and Y-axis via screws.

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hey there,
great progress, now we know much more about your issue.
Now let's just fix it 🙂

Numbers here are not corresponding to your post.
1) If you insert the SD card to the LCD panel, are you able to access it through the LCD? If not, you need new cables or just take a look at them if they are not damaged (mainly it gets damaged when anchoring to the threaded rods with zipties) so please check that and let me know.

2) The video is with connected heatbed right? If so, you definitely have something wrong with it, now let's just check what. if you unmount it, and remove all the screws in the corners, are you able to see some damage where M3 washers were? If you plug it in to the printer (without the screws mounted), is it working properly? If so, you need new heatbed or you can do little trick by insulating the bottom copper plane from the washers until the new one arrives.

Nice print without the heatbed by the way!

Cherrs!

Sorry about the delay! Work picked it up incredibly over the xmas period. Only just had time to start working with it again. 🙂

1.) I inserted the SD card as it came, and the LCD shows "no SD inserted" when i take it out and plug it back in. I dont have a card reader on hand at the moment to try it with actual data on it ?(If it doesnt already come with anything?)

2.) The heatbed lives! without the screws attached. I have a very nice blister on my finger for proof haha So i am about to try and use some heatproof plastic as washer (With the metal washers) to see if i can get it mounted and functioning with them. Is this something i screwed up during installation? i ask just so i can let a friend know to be careful when hes assembling his 🙂

Restarts when printbed was heating up: Had same issue and noticed when I was mounting screws to heat plate I somehow shortcircuited edges of heat plate with screws, what fixed that for me was actually putting isolation tape between screws and heat bed.

So make sure there is no shortcircuit between heat bed and Y-axis via screws.

Youre a star for going through the effort to let me know your experience! your post motivated me to pull my finger out and give it a go. Lo and behold you were right!

Thanks for everything guys! <3

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hi Danny

1. SD Card - when you insert/remove the SD card, does the LCD show SD Card Inserted/Removed? If it does, then there may be an issue with the chip on the LCD board. You will need to take a photo of it, showing the numbers, post it here and then contact support via "live chat". Tell them to look at this thread.

2. There are a couple of things regarding the heated bed. The PCB is covered in an insulating varnish, however, the washers are punched out of plate metal and have sharp edges on one side. Those edges should be placed away from the heated bed to prevent damage to the varnish. Also, another solution may be to swap over the connections to the heated bed at the connector that goes into the RAMBo.

Although the polarisation of the heated bed should not matter, if it gets earthed, then it does become an issue.

Peter

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hi Danny

1. SD Card - when you insert/remove the SD card, does the LCD show SD Card Inserted/Removed? If it does, then there may be an issue with the chip on the LCD board. You will need to take a photo of it, showing the numbers, post it here and then contact support via "live chat". Tell them to look at this thread.

2. There are a couple of things regarding the heated bed. The PCB is covered in an insulating varnish, however, the washers are punched out of plate metal and have sharp edges on one side. Those edges should be placed away from the heated bed to prevent damage to the varnish. Also, another solution may be to swap over the connections to the heated bed at the connector that goes into the RAMBo.

Although the polarisation of the heated bed should not matter, if it gets earthed, then it does become an issue.

Peter

Thanks for joining in PJR 🙂

1.) The LCD doesn't change when i insert & remove it. No notification or anything acknowledging its use. I have done the numbered cables and swapping them over already through live chat. Its what got this thread some traction and ultimately fixed my initial problem of the screen only showing black squares.

2. I did have those sharpe edges face down/touching the heated bed. I never thought to try flipping them! Makes sense though. I managed to get it functioning fine with just some heatproof plastic squares between them all. Bolts tightened, ABS feet went on fine and the heated powers and functions. Still need to actual try a print with it 🙂 hopefully after a new z calibration i should get finer prints sticking.

I also need to suss out this twisted y axis frame, i have done the tap test, with no difference in noise on each foot. I have even slid paper towards each foot and it won't go under any of them. But i still can't seem to get an even extruder bite on all the corners at once.

Re: LCD Screen powers on, but only shows 2 rows of black squares?

Hi Danny

The SD card should be supplied with a variety of files loaded (STL and GCode). As it's not being recognised by the printer, I think you will have to get a card reader for your PC to check whether it is formatted properly. You will need one anyway to be able to transfer gcode to the printer, so that you don't have to have your PC on whilst printing.

I have a suspicion that the SD card needs formatting.

Regarding your frame, it sounds like it is square; is the table level?

Peter