External display runs terribly slow on MEGA 2560, but fine on older board

[dremd]

I've got 2 machines, both with MBI V2.4 Motherboards, both with External displays, one with older ardino, one with the MEGA 2560. 

So far the Ardino MEGA 2560 machine is just DEAD SLOW (2~5 seconds for button presses to respond).

So far I've tried swapping displays, installing stock MBI firmware (VS Jetty), unplugging everything but power and ground, and repeated reboots (which don't always succeed in coming back up) all to no avail.

Anybody have any good ideas? I've never successfully printed with the Mega 2560 if that helps with the diagnosis.

Thanks a ton.

Oppen Gangnam Style

[Mark Cohen]

Perhaps the reset trace is not cut on the problem board

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[Jetty]

The only thing I can think of which would slow down is if your Mega
was doing more work
than it should or the clock running slower.

There's a software fuse CKDIV8 on Mega's which divides the system
clock by 8 if enabled, that
could account for it.

The doing more work possibility would be due to interrupts. For
example a fault in the USB
circuit onboard the 2560 internally jabbering or some other electrical
issue causing constant interrupts.

Things you can do, you have 2 machines so you can swap stuff to
diagnose.

Try swapping arduino's between the 2. If the problem moves it's the
arduino, if it doesn't,
swap the Motherboard and see if that solves it. If it does it's the
Motherboard, if it doesn't then it's the Extruder
Controller, in which case shout here for more suggestions.

Also if it turns out to be the Motherboard, some of the 2.4
Motherboards shipped with bad solder joints,
inspect it, clean up / resolder, anything that looks suspect / dull.

[dremd]

Excellant thought, I had to pull it apart to check, it is cut, unfortunately the issue persist. 

Thank you very much.

[dremd]

Thanks for Fast Reply Mr. Jetty :-)

I just tried it and the issue follows the shield.

I just pulled out my loupe and I'll start looking for cold solder joints. 

Little aggravating when you've never used the board, that my second DOA board. I guess i need to start testing parts as soon as I get them.

[dremd]

Scratch that thought, Follows the power supply!!!!!!

Power supply was a "new" Logisys 550 Watt Model # PS550E12BK.

Any suggestion on what Amazon Prime eligible power supply to order to replace this guy?

[Dan Newman]

On 4 Oct 2012 , at 6:54 AM, dremd wrote:

> I've got 2 machines, both with MBI V2.4 Motherboards, both with External
> displays, one with older ardino, one with the MEGA 2560.
> So far the Ardino MEGA 2560 machine is just DEAD SLOW (2~5 seconds for
> button presses to respond).

I've seen this on my ToM. Turned out that there were problems with

1. The v2.4 motherboard -- it had some cold solder joints, some suspect
solder joints, and some solder flash down in the interface header which
was shorting some pins.

2. A a later date issues returned owing to a problem with the ribbon
cable connecting the interface to the motherboard.

Did this use to work? You might try switching interfaces & cables
and see if the problem follows the cables and interface. Or it could
be a motherboard problem.

Also, is this an Arduino MEGA 2560 which *you* supplied? Are it's
fuse bits set correctly for 16 MHz operation and has the reset trace
been cut?

> So far I've tried swapping displays,

Cable should be swapped as well.

> installing stock MBI firmware (VS
> Jetty), unplugging everything but power and ground, and repeated reboots
> (which don't always succeed in coming back up) all to no avail.
> Anybody have any good ideas? I've never successfully printed with the Mega
> 2560 if that helps with the diagnosis.

Sounds like an issue with the Arduino Mega 2560 then. To check the fuse
bits you will need a AVR programmer.

Dan

[Dan Newman]

On 4 Oct 2012 , at 7:50 AM, dremd wrote:

> Scratch that thought, Follows the power supply!!!!!!
> Power supply was a "new" Logisys 550 Watt Model # PS550E12BK.
>
> Any suggestion on what Amazon Prime eligible power supply to order to
> replace this guy?

I use an Antec EA-500D (which I've seen as prime elgible in the past).
(Also the Newegg warehouse is nearby so I've been known to go there
directly.)

Dan

[Dan Newman]

On 4 Oct 2012 , at 7:41 AM, dremd wrote:

> Thanks for Fast Reply Mr. Jetty :-)
> I just tried it and the issue follows the shield.
> I just pulled out my loupe and I'll start looking for cold solder joints.
> Little aggravating when you've never used the board, that my second DOA
> board. I guess i need to start testing parts as soon as I get them.

I don't know who/what made some of those v2.4 motherboards, but they/it did not
do a very good job. I've seen and heard of several of them with bad solder
joints, flash, excess rosin & flux residue, etc. The v2.5 motherboards
were made to better specs. (There's also some design issues with the
layout. For instance the stepper motor headers are placed too close
to one another making it impossible to use locking connectors. Mind you,
they used headers which are meant for locking tabs -- they just failed
to leave room for their use. It's okay to make an Arduino shield with a
larger footprint than the Arduino itself. So that's no excuse for
cramping everything on the board.)

Dan

[Mark Cohen]

A good 500watt one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371004

> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/makerbot/-/E9vNQIe3ukgJ.

[dremd]

Just ordered that one, I'll update when it is in place. All appears well with the Cooler Master that is running the other machine.

[Dan Newman]

On 4 Oct 2012 , at 9:14 AM, dremd wrote:

> Just ordered that one, I'll update when it is in place. All appears well
> with the Cooler Master that is running the other machine.

The one Mark suggested looks okay: at issue is that it match the cut-outs
on the bot and have the fan oriented correctly. The Antec I suggested
also works.

But, another comment: some ATX PSUs will not operate (or behave poorly)
when presented with too small of a load. And some will power down after
a few seconds in that situation. So, if you ONLY had the Arduino,
MB v2.4, and Gen 4 LCD interface connected, then that may have been too
small of a load for that particular power supply.

Dan

[dremd]

OOOH!

I totally didn't know / realize about the minimum load bit.

All it runs the Ardino+ Extruder controller + LCD everything else runs on 36 volts (including extruder heater via relay).

Thanks for great info!