Makerbot #453 : Now with lights

I had an old LED flashlight that doesn't work well. The button and the battery holder was broken. I took the LED part and connect it directly on the plastruder board. Now, even in the dark I can see my bot printing :-)

Makerbot #453 : Heated Platform on it's way

I just bought some parts for my printer. It should help because I have some problem trying to make ABS stick on the base.

- Ceramic Heated Platform Kit
- Adhesive Temperature Indicator Strip ( 2 models)
- Thermistor plus Temperature Sensor Kit

All from MakerGear

They should ship it next week...

Makerbot #453 : Now working...for real..

I received my new Mainboard and a new extruder board.
Now, RepG show me the temp. of the nozzle.
When printing, the process don't stop at each 3 seconds.
Now I can make adjustment to make it working better.
Ok, It's like I lost the last 2 months for the bad boards but at least I learn a lot ;-)

Makerbot #453 : Good news !!!

With all my frustration, I decided to write to Bre Pettis to see if they can make something for me, like sending me another board.
I get a response from Adams telling me that they will send me a new board.
Haaaaa....soooo happy !!!

Makerbot #453: what was done

This is a list of things that I did in hope to resolve my makerbot problems.
- no bootloader on sanguino. Push it in bitbang mode
- firmware 1.6 on both boards.
- no rj45 connected when loading firmware on plastruder
- thermistor working well, I even changed it to be sure
- changed the rj45 cable ( cat5, cat5e , cat6)
- connected the power supply on a booster pack to eliminate AC noise
- 3 differents power supply
- all lights closed to remove possible noise from fluo
- heat all solder points to make sure there's no cold soldering
- add the R180ohms on both boards for the communication
- upload firmware : 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8
- 3 different OS on 3 different PC : win 2000. Win XP, win 7
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Makerbot #453 : another night of frustration

I spent another 4 hours trying to resolve my communication error with my plastruder.
I cannot find any more solution to try.
I realy think it's the hardware that make that.
I installed the firmware v. 1.8 and connect a new thermistor for the build plateforme
and I cannot see it in repG like the other one. Also, when seting to 60C the LED
on the board dosen't light up.
I Installed RS486_tester from the gen3 firmware package on the master and the plastruder.
Connecting the USB cable on the plastruder show me that it was sending data.
When connected on the master it show that t wait for a response that never append.
I also try to update to firmware 1.8 from repG 10 since someone told that repG12 can make problem.
Nothing new. Always the payload error and the no firmware version in repG.
Can it be the bootloader on the board ?
Can it be because I pushed the bootloader on the sanguino in bitbang mode ?