Help! My Makerbot Replicator 1 Isn't Working! EDIT: FIXED!!!

[CrazyHamSales]

Its hard to tell from that picture but it appears that your stepper motors are all plugged in, follow the wires and just make sure the motors are plugged in right, the board is labeled, X, Y, Z for the steppers. X is the motor that moves the carriage left and right, the Y is the motor that moves it front to back and the Z is of course the bed going up and down.

Also if none of the jogs move it could be your stop switches, try moving it so the carriage is in the middle and then you know the switches are released and see if you can move it with the jog. You could also have the stop switches plugged in wrong depending on which style of connector yours has, seems like the earlier Rep 1 some had a keyed connector some didn’t, you could unplug all the stop switches and then see if jog works, but that wouldn’t stop the filament feed motor from running.

One more thing comes to mind, did the board come with the stepper drivers installed? The little circuit boards that are plugged into the motherboard by the stepper motor connections? If you had to install those and none of the motors are working you could have them put in backwards, but if they came pre-installed on the board then they should be correct.

EDIT>>> I just looked at the pic again, none of your stepper drivers are installed, the sockets are empty! Theres your problem.

[Jeff_Younger]

Again SUCCESS! My Makerbot Replicator 1 now works!! Wow you all have been so helpful!

I did a test print and everything is good except when I got done with my first test print, the bed lowered and the extruder moved towards the home axes. When the bed got to the bottom, it started making noises like it was trying to go further down than was possible for its track, also, the extruder hadn’t quite made it back to the home axes and just stopped due to the bed making noise and then stopping itself. It sounds like the offsets for the bed are below what they should be, but I am not sure how to update this.

Any advice?

[CrazyHamSales]

Go into the Utilities menu on the printer, select Home Axes from the menu, see if it moves the carriage to the back right and stops against its switch and if the bed comes up and stops against its switch ok, if it does do that ok the bed will stay up, now back up in the menus and go to Build from SD and select your test print again, the bed will lower to the bottom and the carriage will go to the front left corner. Does it still make the noise with the bed when it goes down?

If so then it thinks its range of travel is larger then it should be BUT the switches are working since it was able to home the axes. The best bet now would be to connect it to the computer and run the makerbot desktop software and make sure the printer type is set to Rep 1 and then do a firmware update to the latest version, the makerbot desktop software will tell you how to do it just follow along. The current firmware version is 7.5, you can check this on your printer by selecting Info and Settings, then Version Number. Even if its 7.5 in there i would reflash the firmware because there is no telling what the new board was setup as, they could have the offsets wrong.

After the firmware update do the same test, home the axis, then select a print, does the bed work ok now? If it doesn’t the next steps would be to check the Z axis stop switch, top middle of back of the printer, If the switch is set to low then it will trigger that switch and still think it can do down farther then it can, moving the switch up moves up the lower stop position. On mine and most of the ones i worked on the the switch was attached with two screws to the vertical slots, there is other holes to make the switch a fixed position and thats how they generally came from the factory, but by moving the switch to the slots you can control the stop point by moving the switch up. It sounds like its trying to keep going down when it physically can’t. The reason for this is after it taps the switch it knows it can do down X amount of steps before hitting the end of the travel, if the switch is too low it will still think it can keep going.

As for the carriage for the extruder not making it all the way home, did it go all the way back but not all the way to the right? This is a common problem due to interference between the stepper motor wires and the X axis stop switch located on the right end of the gantry. The X axis motor and the X axis stop switch wires go down the hole in the front right corner, to alleviate this problem what most people do, myself included, is move the X axis stepper motor wiring to the back right corner hole along with the Y axis stepper motor wiring so only the X axis stop switch wiring is going down the front right corner, this gives them some separation and keeps down on the crosstalk between the wires.

[Jeff_Younger]

Well, here’s the thing. I tried uploading new firmware, and I followed the steps from here:

http://www.sailfishfirmware.com/doc/install-installing.html

I could not upload new firmware. I select the replicator 1 single/dual, and try sailfish 7.7 but it always says “upload failed”. Now ever since I have tried this, my replicator is unable to print again.

When I print from SD, it heats up fine, and then it goes to the front left position, but it tries to move too far forward and makes a jolting noise, then gives up and moves back to the *near home axes. It is like the replicator pauses the print, moves the carriage back all the way in the y direction and part of the way to right (x axes right?) but not all the way home. And when I resume the print, same problem. The jolting of the carriage continues. EDIT: I FOUND THE P-STOP OVERRIDE AND I TURNED I OFF. I NO LONGER GET THE CARRIAGE JOLTING ALL THE TIME (STILL HAPPENS OCCASIONALLY. THIS IS ALL WITH THE MIGHTYBOARD FIRMWARE THAT CAME INSTALLED ON THE BOARD)

**NOTE: the bed problem of it trying to go further down than it can has mysteriously gone away and has been replaced by the carriage issue I mentioned.

I am proving to be quite amateur with all this, but I am determined to get it right!

[CrazyHamSales]

Ok i would stay well away from Sailfish 7.7, i tried that on my Makerbot and had NOTHING BUT issues. The current official Makerbot firmware is 7.5.

It sounds like your Y Axis offset is still wrong, so it goes forward and mechanically it crashes and can’t move farther then it gets all confused, if you look on that page that you linked to… Step 1 Before you install Sailfish, you need to gather the home offsets, but since yours were likely wrong in the first place that won’t be of any help!

Go download the Makerbot Desktop if you don’t already have it and do a firmware upgrade to 7.5 from there first, then if you really want to go to the latest Sailfish you can get the correct offsets. If Makerbot Desktop refuses to install the firmware get ReplicatorG as it can also reinstall the firmware, i assume thats what you used to attempt to install 7.7? ReplicatorG can install the older versions as well.

On the older Rep 1’s it can take a few tries to get the timing right of pressing the reset button in the back during the firmware upgrade process with ReplicatorG or Makerbot Desktop, there is a modification to fix this but it requires soldering on a small capacitor to a location on the board.

If you use Home Axes in the menu though does it properly home all the way to the Right on the X Axis? It still sounds like a offset problem in the firmware rather then mechanical at this point, but just to verify that try this…

Turn the printer off…

Move the X axis by hand all the way to the right so it stops on the switch

Move the Y axis by hand all the way to the back so it stops on the switch

Turn the printer on

Select Home Axes again in the menu

It should shouldn’t move X or Y at all and raise the bed until it contacts the switch, now select Print from SD card, does it still crash to the front left and keep trying to move the Y? If so then its the offsets in the firmware and not a hardware issue! Which is good, you just need to get the right firmware in there and you should be ok.

[paul_15]

the procedure for install suggests the eeprom values for homelimit, endstop, etc. see section 6.4 about setting the eeprom values.

[Jeff_Younger]

[[[Turn the printer off…

Move the X axis by hand all the way to the right so it stops on the switch

Move the Y axis by hand all the way to the back so it stops on the switch

Turn the printer on

Select Home Axes again in the menu

It should shouldn’t move X or Y at all and raise the bed until it contacts the switch, now select Print from SD card, does it still crash to the front left and keep trying to move the Y? If so then its the offsets in the firmware and not a hardware issue! Which is good, you just need to get the right firmware in there and you should be ok.]]]

Ok good news, the carriage does not crash when I followed the above instructions.

Bad news is the “update firmware” option in the pulldown menu of my makeware is greyed out. It says I am connected to a replicator 1 and that the background services are running. I tried restarting services and that didn’t change any of the conditions.

[DesignGuyJared]

I have Saifish 7.7 on all 4 of my Replicator 2’s. Not sure if there are known problems with running this on a Replicator 1 or not. I can tell you that similar symptoms happen if you don’t have your offsets correctly set. On my Rep 2 the X offset is 151.999mm, the Y is 71.997mm and the Z is0.000. When I first set up Sailfish, these were not set correctly and it was if the printer thought the center of my build platform was the front left corner. When the G-code told it to go to home, all sorts of bad things happened.

This link talks about these settings and may be of help. 3D Printers for Educators & Professionals | MakerBot

You could also try finding someone with an original replicator and ask them what their offsets are.

[CrazyHamSales]

Ok, two things, if it didn’t crash when you did that its not your offsets! And secondly, if Update Firmware is greyed out in Makerware then its because you already have the latest version. But you can check which version on the printer itself, either by just turning it off and on and you will see the firmware version when it boots on the display, or in the info and settings menu. If its already 7.5 then your ok there.

Ok so what’s the problem? Most likely the same problem i had on mine when i got it. Your getting an interference issue from the stepper motor wiring which is falsing the stop switches. This is REALLY common, and it used to come up 2-3 times a week on the Makerbot forums and Google Groups when everyone was getting Rep 1’s.

Here’s how to fix it… From the X axis motor you will see the stepper motor and the stop switch wiring loops up and goes across the top and down the front right corner through the hole in the bottom panel in that corner. You need to unplug the X axis stepper motor wiring, the multi color wiring as the stop switch cable should just be a black cable. Pull it up through the bottom from that hole and pull it out of the retainers except the last one that it loops down from, then re-route that stepper wire cable across the top to the back right corner but keep it away from the Y axis motor pulley and belt and go down the back right corner and plug it back in.

If you want to just test this quickly unplug the X axis cable and pull it up from the front right corner hole and just hang it out the right side and plug it back in underneath then test that it can home and print. The X axis stepper motor wiring interferes with the stop switch wiring and in some cases it will also cause issues with the unshielded ribbon cable to the front panel, but putting it in the back right corner its routed far enough away from everything it doesn’t cause issues.

[CrazyHamSales]

His problem isn’t firmware now though, cause if he positions the carriage on the X and Y stops and then starts a print he doesn’t get crashing, meaning the offsets are correct and its not going to far.

The key to troubleshooting this is in his last reply to me is that if he manually homes the X and Y it works, which means its not getting a correct homing. Also when he homes the axes the X doesn’t return fully home.

On the Rep 1 this is a very common problem caused by the stepper motor wiring coupling to the stop switch wiring since everything is unshielded wiring. Moving the X-Axis stepper motor wiring from the front right corner to the back right corner is the common solution and was even being suggested by Makerbot support at one time.

On some i have even gone so far as to make a shielded stop switch cable, which also stops this problem dead. To do that i take the braid from a bad thermocouple and pull out the thermocouple and use it to make a shielded cable for the stop switch.

[Jeff_Younger]

Ok I will try the rewiring later tonight. I am also having other issues though.

I set the heater settings to 215, and it is constantly going up to 230 when i am preheating.

For example, if I do load/unload, it heats up to 230, then waits to go back down to around 215 and it will begin unloading/loading. I never had that happen before all this shenaniganry.

Also, when I try to do a print, the heat actually goes DOWN while printing. I saw it go down to like 189 during the print (still set at 215), and then it starts jamming up, maybe because the filament is less viscous.

Apparently, I am very good at keeping myself from printing correctly.

[CrazyHamSales]

Ok for the preheating, go to Info and Settings then Preheat Settings, are those numbers set correctly?

Does it go to 230 and stop? No errors? If it overshoots too far and its correctly reading the temperature it would pop up that there is a temp problem. But it sounds like its just hitting a preset temp.

The temp going down while printing could be a number of factors, cold room, air movement it cant keep up with etc, but it could also be a temp reading issue yet with the thermocouple.

[CrazyHamSales]

If moving the stepper motor wiring doesn’t fix the homing on the X axis you could still have a bad or intermittent X-stop cable for the X axis switch. I have had that happen before as well, it causes really weird intermittent issues, but from what you described it sounds like the problems i had with the interference issue.

Won’t know until you try one step at a time!

[Jeff_Younger]

I got one print out at a an average of about 220 degrees or so in PLA, at it was all warped and everything, but at least it finished wih no carriage jam or nozzle jam. It was a bit more consistent with the temperature on that particular print. I still think I may have even damaged this thermocouple because it jumps around in temperature like 10+ degrees on the temp screen with no transitions. I can’t actually believe that the actual temperature is jumping around like that. I have a source for a $20 thermocouple, so I’m going to try that. Still had no luck with the firmware update. I tried 20+ times last night and I got the same error. I wonder if it’s just fruitless to update it on this particular board.

[CrazyHamSales]

What are you getting for an error when trying to update the firmware?

Which version of firmware is in it now?

Also on the thermocouple a new one is probably a good idea but also i would check to make sure its insulated at the heater block. If you have a multimeter set it to the continuity test and unplug the thermocouple from the mainboard and check for continuity from the mainboard end to the heater block its attached to, and check both wires. Continuity from the heater block to the thermocouple can cause some weirdness as well due to static charges and such, its also a good way to blow up the chip for the thermocouple. At the very least if you don’t have a meter to check it make sure the end of the thermocouple is wrapped in a layer of Kapton tape, the gold tape that you use on the print bed, and then it should be electrically isolated. If your thermocouple has a ring terminal on it and its not the factory one i would also wrap a layer of kapton tape around the ring terminal so it covers it completely then pierce a hole in the tape in the center of the ring terminal for the mounting screw and reinstall. A lot of the cheap thermocouples i have bought off eBay with ring terminals were just crimping onto the end of the thermocouple and were not insulated. The way it should be done is the thermocouple is glued into the ring terminal with non conductive thermal adhesive. But its hard to find good ones that were done right!

My stock Makerbot thermocouples are just a bare end wrapped in kapton tape and pinched under the washer on the mounting screw, they still work great, i guess they were a lot better quality then most.

[Jeff_Younger]

Hello,

I attached some images of my current firmware. As for an error it simply says “upgrade failed” and says I can try again. So I do, and it is starting to get frustrating!

I also attached images of my wiring layout (which seems wrong, but I couldn’t really fit it another way. It Does twist the thermocouple wire quite a bit, so I am wondering if that part is now busted.

In addition, I also attached an image of how when i’m printing, the nozzle/heaterblock is smoking because the temperature is going up to 230-something while I print. BTW I did wrap the thermocouple completely in the kapton tape I have, and there has been no improvement.

ALSO, when I pause a print, and restart it, it does not continue the print in the same spot. So that tells me something other than the heat is still off.

[CrazyHamSales]

Ok if i had to guess, its the 7.7 you have in there. I know guys will try and say different on here, but i tried 7.7 on my Rep 1 and it was NOTHING but problems. You also mentioned that it won’t pause and continue in the same spot, i had similar issues with 7.7, it was just totally unreliable, missing steps, jittery stepper motors, lots of weird movements, it was a friggin NIGHTMARE. So i went back to Makerbot’s 7.5 firmware and everything just smoothed right out.

Your going to be burning off stuff at that temp, so no surprise its smoking. At this point i think a replacement thermocouple would be a good test to rule it out, however, the fact that its set to 215 and its at like 234 it should be tripping the overheat warning, normally what i would see if they overshoot that badly is a message that says something like “my temp readings are failing please check the wiring” etc. Apparently the 7.7 firmware doesn’t have any safety cutoffs to it?

Ok for the firmware problem, use replicatorG and get the factory 7.5 firmware, then before you try it, open just Makerbot Desktop and click on Services then Stop Background Services, confirm anything that pops up, then Close Makerbot Desktop. Then open RepG and try the firmware upgrade and select the 7.5 version of stock makerbot firmware for the rep 1. Now the trick is, getting the reset button press on the back at JUST the right time. Sometimes i find if you click the reset button on the printer with one hand while clicking the button on the software with the other hand at the same time works, sometimes you have to tap reset on the printer then click the button a second or so after, it varies. This is why i modified my mainboard, it involves adding a capacitor to the motherboard to enable the auto reset so you don’t have to click the button on the back anymore when doing a firmware upgrade.

[CrazyHamSales]

I did some digging through my backups tonight and i found my copy of WinBotTool and a hex file of the 7.5 makerbot firmware, i had to do a recovery on one a while back. If your still having issues with this let me know, i can upload these files to my webserver and send you a link. The WinBotTool is VERY easy to use, all you have to do is stop the background services in Makerware, close it, then run the WinBotTool select the firmware file, and it will tell you to turn the printer off, click ok on the box that is up, then turn the printer back on, and it starts writing the firmware. I just tested it today on another printer i’m working on, took the update the first try.

[Jeff_Younger]

That sounds like a great idea! I tried again another 15 times, I feel like I am going insane with this to be honest. I even looked into new printers today. But I would be willing to try the WinBotTool route if you are willing to send me the link.

If you want to email the link, email it to jeffreyyounger@gmail.com

Let me know!

Thanks

[David_Packer]

After searching through the net for answers on replacing a replicator mainboard, I’ve written an article that covers all the important stuff.

http://www.tekworld.com.au/replacing-the-mightyboard-in-a-replicator-wanhaoctc-or-other-cone/