Toolhead not found, can't flash

[DogWood]

My TOM has been working well, up until tonight when I turned it on to
print something, got the dreaded toolhead 0 not found.

Did some reading, decided to try and flash it again, no go fails right
off the bat.

I disconnected it from the motherboard and the power supply to flash
it.

Windows "sees" it and loads drivers to it's not completely dead

the debug led is constantly flashing very faintly

Ideas? suggestions? throw it out a window and scream profanities?

Thanks

[DogWood]

Well I rebooted my PC and was able to re-flash the extruder
controller but still getting Toolhead 0 not found error

[Mark Cohen]

If it is not getting power from the power supply you would see the same error

Sent from my iPhone

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[Dan Newman]

On 24 Apr 2012 , at 9:10 PM, Mark Cohen wrote:

> If it is not getting power from the power supply you would see the same error

As per Mark: check that there's power on the Molex connector to the EC board.
Also, check the RS-485 cable between the Motherboard and EC board. If it's loose,
the Motherboard won't get a response when it queries for EC's and RepG will then
give that error. Since you disconnected it, you're half-way to checking the
cables: now just reconnect the power and RS-485.

Dan

[Mark Cohen]

One more thing. If you have it on a power y splitter then don't use that as they burn sometimes. Use that on a stepper.

Sent from my iPhone

[DogWood]

It is on a splitter and with this supply there is no way around that.

I checked the power with a multimeter and I'm getting 11.9V and 5V on
the connector.

Tried to check the rs-485 cable but my meters probes are too fat.

Everything seems nicely connected but I keep getting the not found
error.

I can re-flash it so its obviously not dead, perhaps the rs485 cable
(unlikely) or the connector has gone bad.

I think I'll pull the board and check the solder joints.

open to any other ideas

Thanks for the help

> One more thing. If you have it on a power y splitter then don't use that as they burn sometimes. Use that on a stepper.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>

> On Apr 25, 2012, at 12:14 AM, Dan Newman <dan.new...@mtbaldy.us> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 24 Apr 2012 , at 9:10 PM, Mark Cohen wrote:
>
> >> If it is not getting power from the power supply you would see the same error
>
> > As per Mark: check that there's power on the Molex connector to the EC board.
> > Also, check the RS-485 cable between the Motherboard and EC board.  If it's loose,
> > the Motherboard won't get a response when it queries for EC's and RepG will then
> > give that error.  Since you disconnected it, you're half-way to checking the
> > cables: now just reconnect the power and RS-485.
>
> > Dan
>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
>

> >> On Apr 24, 2012, at 11:55 PM, DogWood <dogonw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> My TOM has been working well, up until tonight when I turned it on to
> >>> print something, got the dreaded toolhead 0 not found.
>
> >>> Did some reading, decided to try and flash it again, no go fails right
> >>> off the bat.
>
> >>> I disconnected it from the motherboard and the power supply to flash
> >>> it.
>
> >>> Windows "sees" it and loads drivers to it's not completely dead
>
> >>> the debug led is constantly flashing very faintly
>
> >>> Ideas? suggestions?  throw it out a window and scream profanities?
>
> >>> Thanks
>
> >>> --
> >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MakerBot Operators" group.
> >>> To post to this group, send email to make...@googlegroups.com.
> >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to makerbot+u...@googlegroups.com.

> >>> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/makerbot?hl=en.

>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MakerBot Operators" group.
> >> To post to this group, send email to make...@googlegroups.com.
> >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to makerbot+u...@googlegroups.com.

> >> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/makerbot?hl=en.

[DogWood]

Solder joints all look good, hit the connector joints anyway.

If I don't plug anything into it other than power and the rs485 the
error light stays on, If I plug in the thermocouple it blinks
continually, but very faintly.

[Mark Cohen]

So maybe it's the motherboard. I had one like that.
It could also be that the reset trace on the motherboard isn't cut. That did strange things like that. Usually a big pause when recognizing the motherboard.

Sent from my iPhone

[Mark Cohen]

Reset trace on the arduino actually.

Sent from my iPhone

[Mark Cohen]

Also could be issues with the comm chip on the motherboard or the jack. We used to get solder balls on the comm chip wires with gen3 boards.

[Dan Newman]

> Tried to check the rs-485 cable but my meters probes are too fat.

You can use any ethernet cable to test with

> I think I'll pull the board and check the solder joints.

That's been a problem for many folks with the motherboard. It's possible
that there's a bad joint on the mb which is impacting comms with the ec.

Dan

[Jetty]

Try the ethernet cable as Dan suggested. There are 2 RS485
transceivers, one on the EC and one on the motherboard and plastic
being pushed through the nozzle can build up ugly static voltages and
they are static sensitive.

However they're surface mount, but if you're happy with that, they are
cheap, can be tested first with an oscilloscope made out of a spare
arduino. Then ground your HBP and extruder assembly (I ran a wire to
the case of the PSU) to make sure it doesn't happen again.

It happened to me via the thermocouple, but there are likely a few
vectors for this one.

http://groups.google.com/group/makerbot/browse_thread/thread/8cdc7154a74ebf7f/faa76f7f9f4fa590?q=

It creates exactly the error you're seeing, however there are multiple
potential causes for that error too.

[DogWood]

Thanks Guys,

Tried both ports on the MB. no-go, tried a new ethernet cable, both
ports, no-go

I will ground the extruder block and HBP.

whats the part # on the transceivers? I do have access to an
oscilloscope so I can take a look at the outputs.

-Doug

On Apr 25, 8:10 pm, Jetty <clelland...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Try the ethernet cable as Dan suggested.  There are 2 RS485
> transceivers, one on the EC and one on the motherboard and plastic
> being pushed through the nozzle can build up ugly static voltages and
> they are static sensitive.
>
> However they're surface mount, but if you're happy with that, they are
> cheap, can be tested first with an oscilloscope made out of a spare
> arduino.  Then ground your HBP and extruder assembly (I ran a wire to
> the case of the PSU) to make sure it doesn't happen again.
>
> It happened to me via the thermocouple, but there are likely a few
> vectors for this one.
>

> http://groups.google.com/group/makerbot/browse_thread/thread/8cdc7154...

[DogWood]

Forgot to mention, I pulled the Arduino and the reset has been cut

[Dan Newman]

See

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4969

The transceiver itself is a sn75176a. On the motherboard,
the part is routed to the following ATmega [Arduino] pins

[D19] PD2 (RXD1/INT2) R
[D30] PC7 (A15) !RE
[D32] PC5 (A13) DE
[D18] PD3 (TXD1/INT3) D

Those are from some old notes of mine.

Dan

[DogWood]

Thank you. most helpful.

went ahead and ordered some transceivers since they are so cheap.

Hopefully I will be back in business by next weekend.

Thanks again for the help

-Doug