I thought I would separate my issues into different posts.
Today I finished wiring up my board and got the machine successfully homing.
I have made this super wide version to carry my small 5 watt laser which also seemed to power up (at least the driver board and cooling fan on top of the laser was spinning.
I tried to connect light burn through the USB port of the board but could not get the laser to fire.
With the board still powered up (I know, I know) I pulled the laser enable pin from the board. And the laser fans powered off which confused me since I have the laser power tied in to the main power inputs on the board.
From that point on it all went downhill. Plugging the pin back in did not bring the laser fans back to life. The TFT also reported it could not find the printer anymore. I double checked that the UART speed was correct and cycled power, trying different things with no luck. So then I decided to reflash the board as well as the TFT. After I reflashed the board, the TFT still showed the no printer connection error.
After I reflashed the TFT it booted up with an invalid flash application screen and that was as far as I could go.
Does your screen show anything in Marlin mode? Did it work before?
I would get a computer connected over usb and try to check the skr first. Can you tell if the firmware.bin is converting to firmware.cur?
I would also disconnect the laser until you have the rest sorted.
I can’t see how unplugging that would cause these problems. That is usually for high current, high inductance loads, like motors. The laser should have just turned off. Unless I am not understanding the wiring (some pictures might help). Don’t beat yourself up. I’m sure you can figure out what state things are in. I’m still hoping it is all ok.
Still no printer connection. Repetier Host can’t connect either over USB. When I plug the USB cable, I get a voltage led light on the SKR Pro but no connection through the serial connection in Repetier.
The only other LED that is on is in the picture and I think it might be the the touch probe line that isn’t connected to anything?
I also completely unwired the laser and may have messed up the connection originally. It seams that either the pos or neg lead to the laser might have been connected to the enable pin. Perhaps when I unplugged that pin it back/cross fed the current and burned something out?
Connecting the 12v power supply directly to the laser driver board doesn’t spin up the fans so maybe I blew two boards?
I’m not sure where to go from here. The TFT boots with V1 logo and then goes into no printer error. The SKR Pro board seems to run normally. Firmware update LED blinks. Normal LEDs light.
I might try another computer with repitier host.
Pictures attached in case anyone can see anything…
I agree, that should not have done anything unless you did plug it back in backwards. Even then it is just the enable wires, they should not have any power. coming from the laser, maybe you had a floating ground between the laser and SKR? Are your grounds tied in anywhere other than the enable ground?
Try USB to a computer to get the screen out of the picture. What about the wifi?
No connection through usb through repitier or lightburn. Those programs don’t seem like they see the board, even-though the board light comes on when plugged in. Tried both a mac and pc.
I don’t have any other ground. I’m unsure even how the laser connections work. Just try to not get them mixed up (which I must not have done a good job at )
You should only be trying 250k with that firmware. The rest won’t harm anything, but they won’t work.
I still think the computer should be the most reliable. Make sure you are still powering the board with 12V (you don’t have the jumper to power the skr via USB). I would remove the screen and the esp8266 wifi chip, in case they are babbling. I would say remove the endstops, but you have them stuck in there with hot snot, so maybe leave them until you have run out of other ideas.
I removed the TFT ripped out the end stop and plugged in the USB. Still no port detected in Repetier host and my PC laptop does not make any sort of indication through sound or in device manager that anything is plugged in.
I am also unsure how to try the Wi-Fi. I have instructions from Ryan but I don’t know if the board shows up like a little hot spot named V1 control or if I have to put that name into a hidden network with the password. I messed around with it a little bit but was unable to connect.
In this test, did you have the 12V power on? The USB can’t power the skr processor the way you have it wired.
Nevermind repetier, you should see a new device in device manager if you have that processor powered and the usb cable is good. Repetier server could be keeping RH from connecting, but it can’t stop it from showing up in device manager.
I would not try the wifi until you have something more basic working. It might be fine, but it is too new (here) to be confident when it isn’t working.
This might sound odd. More than twice I have had a board work the next day. It has happened to me and here in the forums.
Maybe the caps need to fully discharge or something.
I was using the oscilloscope and was sloppy with the ground. Re flashed and reset the board and nothing. A week later after buying a programmer I tried again and it worked fine.
So if it doesn’t show up unplug everything and let it sit overnight.
I can’t imagine the enable two pin cable could do any damage. Ground loop thing, that could have wrecked it, maybe not though. I believe how it is supposed to be is the grounds from your laser power supply and your SKR power supply should be tied together to prevent a voltage difference going the wrong way.
When I plug the same laptop and same usb cable into my LR2 with mini rambo, the usb connection sound happens immediately but two different laptops and cables on the SKR PRO and nothing on USB.
Do all the stepper cables have to be properly connected for the printer connection error to go away? could i jus unplug everything minus power?
I have checked continuity on the three board fuses and already let it set overrnight unplugged.
I may just go ahead and buy a new board and then if I get the old one working, I will have a spare.
So the new board came in today and works like a champ! End stops, motors, TFT all perfect and the USB makes a nice activation sound when the cable is plugged into Windows. Not for sure what killed the old board but it’s good to have that out of the way.
The current problem is that the laser refuses to respond. I have the enable pin wired to PC9 and the laser positive and negative coming off the SKR main terminals. You can see in the pictures that I have a resistor wired in as well which was how it worked when I had the same unit on my old Primo.
When I go into terminal on the TFT and enter M106 S250, nothing happens. The fire button in light burn also does not activate it though I’m unsure what device settings I should be using.
When I remove the resistor on the laser driver (while powered down of course) and then repower the lowrider, the laser comes on 100% or at least very strong. I am concerned that I may have blown out the laser control on the driver board when I lost my previous SKR pro board.
Can someone confirm that I have the laser wired up correctly? I also am noticing a red LED off the driver board that I don’t remember before.
The firmware limits laser firing unless it is tied to a move command, otherwise a 1 second safety timer shuts it back off.
If you want to activate it for a few seconds- eg, to test or position over the center of a workpiece, you could issue a G01 command with a small distance and very small speed. This will keep it going for a number of seconds. Low power is suggested to prevent burning your spoilboard unnecessarily
I have the ESP01 wifi module and run my lr3 using a tablet. The esp3d console allows you to create macros. The following is one I use for activating the laser in order to position my work
G91 (relative positioning)
M03 I S1 activates laser mode, in-line commands, power 1/255)
G01 X1 F3
G01 X-1 F25
G90
What this does is moves the laser 1 mm at 3mm/min, at 0.4% power (1/255 pwm values) then goes back to the start point at a more rapid pace. In practice, this gives me a super low power spot that doesn’t appear to move, for about 20 seconds.
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