Totally blank LCD
When I turned the printer on this morning the LCD was blank. Like it was not powered on. So I tried adjusting the variable resistor (or whatever it is) on the back, but this did not help. I did notice that the LCD flashed all white when I turned off the power, but it still is blank when I turn power back on.
I checked all the cables and they seem OK. So does this mean the LCD board has died? Do I need to get a new one? IS it a standard board I can get here in the US?
翻譯年糕
Hawke ChienSheng Liu
2016-05-01 23:06:50
A picture of all cables layout will help people to help you.
Birk Binnard
2016-05-01 23:10:52
The LCD worked fine when I turned the printer off last night, and the cables have not changed. They are exactly like the instruction book says they should be.
Yinka Alade
2016-05-01 23:24:18
Sounds like it either died or part of the board died. That sucks. Can you push a print through the pc in the meantime?
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 02:37:55
I probably could print directly from my PC, but I have never done that. Most of my prints take from 7 to 25 hours to print, so printing from an SD card is the only thing that is practical. Without the LCD the printer is non-functional.
Clarence Lee
2016-05-02 09:49:15
Check it could be connected by USB on pronterface first. You need to identify is controller board still ok? Usually LCD board is not the broken one.
Yinka Alade
2016-05-02 10:31:44
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:07:03
Clarence: You are THE MAN! Connecting the USB cable made the LCD light up. The screen was all blue but by adjusting the potentiometer on the back I was able to get the proper display. However, here are 2 strange things that happened|
1. With the print
er powered on, if I unplug the USB cable the LCD screen blacks out. There is no way to get it to display anything.
2. When I had the USB cable connected and could see the display, I noticed that the temperature reading was 267 degrees and going up fast. So I powered off the printer. After that I disconnected from the motherboard the 2 blue wires that power the ceramic heater. Now the LCD reads room temperature (23 degrees) and is steady.
My guess is there is a short somewhere in the wiring for the heater disc. And this short has somehow blown the motherboard powersupply to the LCD panel. If that is true then I will need a new motherboard which I presume I can purchase from Atom.
The LCD panel has 3 ribbon cables and my guess is it is the 4-wire one that supplies power to the panel. That cable connects to a 4-pin socket on the motherboard so it looks like there is no easily replaceable part there. But assuming I can find the cause of the short in the heater disk wires I should be able to get the printer working agin just by keeping the USB cable plugged in to my PC.
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:14:08
There are some yellow LEDs on the motherboard that light up when I touch just one of the heater disk wires to either of the 2 motherboard power connectors. It is surprising that the LEDs light up with just on wire touching.
Clarence Lee
2016-05-02 11:16:33
It might be short symptom
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:20:12
Correct - I just tested the 2 blue wires with multimeter and they do short out. Will have to find the short and fix it. My guess is I may have to replace the heater disk. But what do you think the condition of the motherboard is? Could a short in the heater wires blow out something that powers the LCD?
Clarence Lee
2016-05-02 11:21:25
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:22:03
Clarence Lee
2016-05-02 11:25:16
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:30:42
That looks just like my motherboard but I don't see any L1 on it. I'm disassembling the hotend now to check the heater disk connections
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:40:53
I just checked the other heater disk I have it the multimeter shows a short across it's 2 wires. So now I think there really isn't a short in the printer's heater disk circuit.
This is confusing for sure.
Clarence Lee
2016-05-02 11:42:04
it's not short, check resistor value. Shouldn't identify by the beep on multimeter since it's usually only around 2.6 ohm
Yinka Alade
2016-05-02 11:47:20
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:50:10
2.6 ohms + beep is exactly what my meter shows1
I found L1. It looks like it got overheated. I'll try to get photo.
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 11:53:37
Gosh - it looks really bad when you see it blown up.
What is L1 anyway? It looks like just a test point..
Clarence Lee
2016-05-02 12:00:36
I don't have the correct model of this SMD component.
It's not a test point. L usually means inductor or choke
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 12:03:19
Right - L for capacitance. It's all coming back to me. It did look like only a single solder point thought.
So it looks like I will need a new motherboard. Who would you suggest I contact about that?
I guess i can put the hotend back together but will have to wait to print anything until the new motherboard arrives.
Yinka Alade
2016-05-02 12:46:27
Whoa, I wonder what made it burn out or if it just happens after a while.
Birk Binnard
2016-05-02 12:56:52
I know how it happened -
2 days ago I was reassembling the hotend after a gigantic jam. During this process I had to replace the heater disk - which meant cutting & re-soldering the heater disk wires. After I had the hotend back together I turned on t
ho power to check if the thermistor & heater were OK. When I did that i saw a short in the heater wires - apparently one or both of my solder joints were bad. So I quickly turned off the power - but apparently I wasn't fast enough.
Even though the printer worked OK for a day after that it must have stressed the motherboard enough to cause it to fail.
Joschka Friedl
2016-05-04 21:58:24
Hey birk,Can You tell me where you ordered The heating rings?
:o
would be a Nice to have spare Part.
:)
Birk Binnard
2016-05-04 23:20:28
Joschka Friedl
2016-05-05 01:36:30
Do You use that one yourself? It only has 5V, so you should use a stepdown?
Birk Binnard
2016-05-05 02:01:22
The motherboard has both 5V & 12V on it, so 5 should not be a problem. But I never checkedthe heater connections to find out.
Birk Binnard
2016-05-05 06:43:15
Here is a pinout diagram of the motherboard. NOte the 5V headers at the bottom.
Joschka Friedl
2016-05-05 07:15:32
So... Do You use one of those spare heat rings or not? Because if You put The heater on another slot than D10, it wont Work properly anymore. It would heat instantly when you switch The Printer on as it isnt controlled via Software / Display. You'd hav
e to change The Firmware.. Dunno if a stepdown Works on D10 properly.Oh and they are not as robust as you think. Don't ever screw The Hotend together too tight. Mine broke This way...
Birk Binnard
2016-05-05 07:24:23
I had 2 spare heaters that came from Japan but I think the one I listed above is the same item. I am surprised you broke yours after tightening the hotend parts together. I've made mine pretty tight with no problems. However, I am still investigating all metal hotends as a way to reduce the chance of jams due to problems with the internal ptfe tube.
Clarence Lee
2016-05-05 08:18:56
it's from China actually
;p
And actually the most important spec is the resistance
