Mightyboard Woes (an experience).

[macouno]

Hi everyone,

In the last 2 weeks (feels like a month) I've had some troubles (of my own doing) with the Mightyboard in my Replicator 1. I thought I'd share some of what happened with you.

In this group there are a lot of posts about issues with the regulator on the original board in the printer. It is apparently quite a cheap part, and is prone to failing. And going by the posts here... if it fails, you need to replace your board. At first I decided to ignore the issue, and just keep printing. Because... yes... my printer was absolutely fine.

But then I had a rather important project, and all those posts talking about regulators failing, and $5.- solutions started to mess with my slight hypochondriac tendencies... So... I went and found a guy (let's call him Bob) good with electronics. Nice guy this Bob, very talented, very careful, knew exactly what needed to be done. He even bought the necessary parts for me, downloaded wiring schematics and whatnot... and I sent him the thread in this group with the right answer. Really btw... don't trust schematics... in that thread jetguy says what connection is what (5v, 12v, ground). They are not what you expect.

(image shows the board with the regulator wired correctly, but don't go by this image... use jetguy's post)

One fine morning I took my Makerbot to the studio of Bob and very carefully we set to taking out the Mightyboard (we labelled everything neatly), then removed the old Regulator and put in the new one... with extra fuse attached and everything... It looked like it went great... Bob checking everything, rechecking... He re-attached everything... plugged in the PSU... and... Click said the PSU, the blue light went out, and the printer did nothing (1 green led blinked on the mightyboard)... no happy music... nothing... EEK!

Yup... we wired the new regulator up wrong, fried the board. Of course we were both mortified (maybe Bob more than me)... and rewired the board correctly, but nothing to be done. The end result was a Makerbot with Red LED's glowing, black bars in the LCD (which means it's not getting anything sent to it) and no way to re-upload the firmware, connect to it, make it do anything... Dead.

I e-mailed with quite a few people about possible solutions. Makerbot support was also helpful with suggestions though it took them 48hrs to reply to every message, which is a bit slow when you're panicking ;)

As it turned out there were 3 possible solutions... (for replacing the board)

1. Via Makerbot. Which would have required me sending in my Mightyboard and them checking it (that's what they requested)... and of course... I messed with the board myself, so warranty there wasn't. Aand... if I were to receive a board via Makerbot it would still have the crappy regulator that started all this. Plus... shipping ain't cheap (from here in the Netherlands).
   
2. The FlashForge Mightyboard. This one comes with everything, except a series of connectors, and uses the original Power Supply Unit (PSU) I think this is the preferred solution for a lot of people.
3. The Mbot 3D mightyboard. It is pretty much an exact copy of the Makerbot mightyboard, even down to the text on the board... Which means that for someone who is very much the opposite of confident about connecting it... it's a nice option. Just do everything like it was originally. They removed the regulator from the board entirely, and offer a new power supply. Those were out of stock on their site when I contacted them, but after I e-mailed they updated the site within hours.

For me, here in the Netherlands, taking all costs into account... the Flashforge and Mbot options were around the same price, and since the Mbot people were really nice and quick with their support, it looked easier to connect, and offered more downloadable documentation, plus the power supply incuded... I went for option nr 3.

It took a couple of days for the mightyboard to arrive, and I put it in myself... Now... Mbot may have had more documentation, but if you look closely at their page... They use multiple colour combinations for the PSU (power supply) connection wires... and... none of those combinations were what I had myself, nor were the wires on my new board labelled in any way. In the end the image below here was the clearest example of what wire goes where. There's even an image with the same colours but the black and blue wires connected in reverse in the PSU.. Since they are both ground, maybe it doesn't matter, but it made me rather nervous.

I connected everything...  Plugged it in and... WHOA... new music! Not the tune I was used to from Makerbot, but it worked... the machine was alive (perhaps a silly dance was done, perhaps not).

I went about testing everything, heating worked, though I had to switch on the second extruder via the menu... same for the heated bed... and reboot the machine to enable those two. The first test print went well, and I cancelled it halfway through to see what would happen. The platform moved down nicely... but kept moving down too far... ending with a loud, nasty grinding noise. Apparently the Z-height in the Mbot firmware is set to 190 (too high for the Replicator 1). I took a day to ask around, and find out you just have to install the Makerbot firmware (via replicator G), which does no harm... I did, and... It works perfect now! The only difference is that it says Mbot printer in the LCD.

All in all.. my Replicator has been down for 2 weeks, and it cost me around 200 Euros to fix it (plus a series of restless nights).

And this... when it was working fine before. I'm afraid the old "if it ain't broke..." applies here. It was all completely my own doing, and rather unnecessary. In future I hope I can avoid this... trying to fix something that works fine already... and by doing so messing it up.

That said... everyone was incredibly helpful! On here & via e-mail.. from the community as well as all the support desks I was in touch with. Thank you to everyone!

I learnt a thing or two here, both about printers and myself... I hope maybe this post can help someone else as well.
Dolf

[Dan Newman]

> I connected everything... Plugged it in and... WHOA... new music! Not the
> tune I was used to from Makerbot, but it worked... the machine was alive
> (perhaps a silly dance was done, perhaps not).

I believe the MBot3D folks have switched to installing a custom Sailfish
build on their boards. That would explain the slightly different tune.
But they are definitely doing a custom build with different default axes
lengths. If (1) you have Sailfish installed, and (2) use RepG 40 - Sailfish, then

1. Select the correct machine type in RepG (Machine > Machine Type (Driver)).
2. Connect to the bot over USB
3. RepG will send to the bot the correct axes lengths and no more issues
when clearing the platform.

If you should reset the firmware to factory defaults, then you will again
have the wrong axes lengths. In that case, repeat the above steps. Or
install MBI or Sailfish firmware.

> that it says Mbot printer in the LCD.

That's the machine name. You can make it whatever you want from RepG's Machine > Onboard Preferences.

Note: if you use MBI's firmware

1. Do NOT use RepG to set Onboard Parameters. It will break some of them. When MBI
released their final RepG 40 and then abandoned it, they were in the process of
changing parts of their EEPROM parameters. They weren't yet finished AND they introduced
bugs into RepG 40. So, if you use RepG 40 to set machine onboard parameters on MBI
firmware, you will toast some of the parameters.

2. If you use Sailfish, then use RepG 40r23 - Sailfish which you can download from
the Sailfish thing at Thingiverse. It correctly handles machine onboard parameters
for the Sailfish firmware. You can also use MakerWare if you download the EEPROM
maps for Sailfish. They are also attached to the Sailfish thing at Thingiverse.
The next release of MakerWare includes those maps. (The Sailfish maps are already
in MakerWare for Thing-o-Matics.)

Dan

[RocketGuy]

Thanks!  You just saved me hours of research, as I too have kilt my mightyboard with a regulator replacement, just last night.  

In my case, one of the traces actually lifted from the board, and I'm not sure that it has electrical integrity any more.  I attempted an epoxy structural fix, but it looks like it wasn't enough and/or I miswired despite testing and triple checking *everything*.  

If one is attempting the regulator replacement, I might suggest actually doing a full board remove from the machine to aid in the mechanics of desoldering/re-soldering without awkward contortions (which led to my fun).  It's cramped enough without attempting to do it vertically...

I have just installed bottleworks awesome arms and HBP, plus the 3-n-1 extruder upgrade, and new fans all around.  So I'm resisting the urge to just chuck the thing and get a new Type A Machines printer (since I'd have to add a heated bed etc etc).  

Anyway, thanks for doing the research, I feel a bit better about my options now...

-RG

[macouno]

Uhoh... So... the story isn't over yet.

The MBot Mightyboard was absolutely fine until today... I did a 2hr long print, wasn't in the room for the entire process, and when I came to check on it... the power was off for the entire room, the print had quit... and after turning the power back on... I was unable to get anything from the board/psu... I'm not sure what the problem is... I asked MBot for help.

Man... I so shouldn't have messed with my board!

[macouno]

So... to continue... apparently my MBot power supply has failed on the first lengthy print with the heated bed... Apparently it's 150W capacity wasn't enough. I replaced the fuse that tripped inside it... and the new one blew as well.

I guess I have to find a fresh power supply, and hope my mightyboard is still functional...

To be continued... again...

[macouno]

Final? update....

I now have a replicator with an MBot mightyboard (somehow it survived this).. a custom switching 5v regulator, and the original makerbot power supply. It looks like it's all working again!