MakerBot Gen4 (Thing-O-Matic) PCBs (the button panel)

[Jetguy]

All, I recently made an order of the gen4 Interface PCBs as the source of these had pretty much dried up. These are really nice boards in black and silkscreened just as the originals.

I have 40 of these available if you want to add the LCD control panel (still need to source the rest of the parts on your own but that is really not bad at all).

Cost is $8 plus your desired shipping method. I still have to work out a payment site and other details.

[Ethan Dicks]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 1:17 PM, Jetguy <vernon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> All, I recently made an order of the gen4 Interface PCBs as the source of
> these had pretty much dried up. These are really nice boards in black and
> silkscreened just as the originals.

Nice. I made a hand-wired one years ago when I got my Thing O Matic.
Laser cut the case, and pulled a 16x4 LCD from a discarded business
desk phone.

https://www.thingiverse.com/make:98460

> I have 40 of these available if you want to add the LCD control panel (still
> need to source the rest of the parts on your own but that is really not bad
> at all).

16x4 LCDs aren't the most common size but should be available
somewhere. I didn't try to source the right buttons so I don't have
button tops on mine.

> Cost is $8 plus your desired shipping method. I still have to work out a
> payment site and other details.

Nice.

I've been using my home-built one for years. It's really handy,
especially for kicking off prints at Maker Faires.

-ethan

[Owen Stenseth]

I would be really interested in one of these. Would you be willing to ship to Canada?

[Jetguy]

Sure, just PM me. I'm hoping to get a small online store setup one of these days so bear with me until I get that going, we have to do sales one at a time over email.

[Jetguy]

[John P]

I also have a stack of Gen4 boards as I wanted to build a few from scratch too. A few warnings:

Find your 4x16 LCD board, and then lasercut the acrylic case for it - you will need to change the dimensions of the LCD cut-out for the specific board you have, the exact model isn't documented.

From memory the Mainboard checks for the presence of the Gen4 Interface board by a resistor value across one of the LED pins - unless you match the resistance exactly with the LED they expect, you may want to swap the LED out with a resistor (anyone remember which pin/what value resistor it is? I'll update if I find it first).

[John P]

Update: the Arduino processor detects the Interface board from the load on the FOO pin. I don't know the exact resistance needed, I'll sacrifice a board & get a decade resistor box - it's likely to vary with different LCD boards though so YMMV.

[Jetguy]

I will be bringing the stack of boards to MRRF.  If you want one, either see me or if you know a friend going, have them bring you one.

Also, I would love a mainboard (the shield that plugs into the mega). If anyone has that board, I would love to trade or swap. I have a repaired extruder controller I'm trying to make into a complete "system"

[John P]

Results: Anything over 10ohms works.

I used a 1.8ohm green 5mm LED on the FOO pin - it's not resistive enough.

Looks like it's a minimum - I have a 10kohm resistor fitted now that works fine.

Anyone had luck with getting backlight to work with the Gen4 Interface? I've tried connecting pins A&K with no luck.

[John P]

That should be 0.4ohm green LED not being detected, not 1.8.

[Jetguy]

The backlight all depends on the LCD module used.
The reason I say that is, the OEM supplied 4x16 character LCDs did not use the A and K pins connected- and yet that LCD module had a backlight.

So, more to the point, what exact LCD are you using?

[John P]

I have https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/lcd-monochrome-displays/1359748/ which is working as a subtractive display - without the backlight working there's no white, just blue & the absence of blue.

I also have https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/lcd-monochrome-displays/2948702/ which is as close as I could find to the original - no backlight present there though.

I have https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272041591203 as well - no datasheet apart from the description, the backlight doesn't light up either.


All three are HD44780 compatible which is the important bit - reading the datasheets the backlight needs 5v - is it not getting enough power?

[John P]

Checking the pinouts, pins 1 & 2 on the LCD are 5v/ground.

I'm going to try jumping these to A & K, which should be the power/ground for the LCD.

[John P]

Success! Connecting up power & ground (Vss and Gnd) didn't work either way either way with A&K.

Connecting up the cable backwards did - A & K need Vss and Vdd. Modwires now added.

The control interface is now fully functional and turns out the post I read about the FOO pin earlier was one you wrote back in 2012, Jetguy - thanks for your help.