ORDERED! Gigabot Upgrade Parts:
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Azteeg X3 w/Thermistors, shipped: $122.79
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Gigabot Heated Bed retro fit , shipped: $613.54
Total: $736.33 (I’ll print receipts and deposit them in the black box Jim!)
Hopefully these will be in next week!
Remember to let me see the broken current controller board after you get the new one installed so I can try to fix the USB port on it.
-D
10-4 Dave B! I’ll look for your locker, and post here when it’s done!
I made some progress on the Gigabot and recorded most of that on the wiki.
http://wiki.hive13.org/view/Gigabot
Currently, I don’t have a copy of the GB’s firmware, so it’s on paperweight duty currently. Email has been sent to RE3D for their broken links.
I made some progress on the Gigabot and recorded most of that on the wiki.
http://wiki.hive13.org/view/Gigabot
The extruder isn’t responding, no obvious hardware problem, still looking into the firmware settings…
Also the stepper amperage needs to be set, still need to look into that.
My Gigabot needs are on hold for a bit, aka it might be a while before I finish this if someone would like to step-in I’m open to any questions!
So… I think we need to be very cautious with the control module for this thing.
I took a careful look at the old broken one. Nothing was obviously blown BUT one thing did stand out: it has a fake FTDI chip. In fact, the chip is so fake that a real chip will struggle to fit in the same PCB footprint!
I did some digging to confirm this is the case.
I’ve attached a picture with a real ftdi chip on the left and you can see the fake one on the right.
Let me know how you want me to proceed. It will be much more challenging to fix this than if the real chip was used.
Also, I think that we need to inspect the new one to see if it has a fake chip too. If it does, we will need to restrict which machines can connect to it in order to avoid hostile drivers destroying it.
Dave
I tried fiddling (mostly just checking if the extruder was responding) and noticed the control panel led at least would "brown out" dimming to no light, text fading out, and becoming unresponsive. Cycling power made it go away... I have no idea what that was about. I've never seen it respond like this before.
Maybe we could replace the existing power supply wit ha lab power supply wit ha current limiting feature to see if there is any voltage dropout when the extruder is working. Maybe, this come from a too high current consumption on the power supply.
Julien
The heated bed has come in today, it’s now at the Hive. I’ve started a new part time job and have higher priorities with Thaedt before I can get to this, but it is on my todo list! If there are new electrical problems this is quickly going to escape my comfort level with the project… :-/
Thanks Jim for keeping everyone in the loop as we get our beloved Gigabot back up and running!
REMINDER! Someone needs to look at the replacement control board! Compare the FTDI chip to the picture I posted a few messages ago. If it is a fake chip we will have to be really careful which computers get plugged in to that thing.
-D
Should that be an issue any more? I thought FTDI updated their drivers again to not fry chips. Also if it does get fried by a rogue windows driver I think more recent linux drivers will actually repair them.
I think that issue is these aren’t real ftdi chips.
I’m just trying to say that I don’t think whether or not it is fake shouldn’t really matter any more. Not that we shouldn’t still check it, but I don’t think it is that big of a deal.
FTDI did push a new driver version, but we can’t control whether people accepted it. If you let everyone plug their laptop in to do a print, you can’t control the driver versions installed on people’s machines.
I think we should try to establish whether the chip is vulnerable and then shape a policy about who can plug into it accordingly. That’s all I’m saying - if we have another fake FTDI chip (which I do not know) then we need to take measures to ensure someone doesn’t plug in and accidentally zap it.
-D
So, here's a photo, I have a video of the brownouts but I'm having trouble sharing it. Anyway,something is wrong with this controller or maybe even power supply. I noticed issue in the x travel (stepper not getting enough current it looked like) the extruder spun for about 10 sec then I couldn't get it to run. The display keeps displaying gibberish, etc. I'm honestly not sure where to start troubleshooting or if we should send this board back and get a replacement.
X axis is working fine, the current pot was turned all the way down. Replacing the extruder stepper driver didn't change anything unfortunately.
We should watch the power supply and see if the voltage is dipping too low on it.
This may mean sitting there watching a multimeter very closely until it happens. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. 
In a few days I will be able to use my multimeter to log data to a computer if you can handle waiting.
Jon
Maybe we could first put back the old controller and check if there is any brown out. If not, it is the controller. If so, the problem is the power supply.
Julien
I’m wondering if maybe the code was installed or compiled improperly. The whole system just seems so… unstable. I’m ok waiting, I honestly just want it back up and printing lol.
Do we still have the old board laying around? That one was having trouble holding temp if I remember correctly.
-Jim
So… Should I proceed to contact Panucott Devices about a replacement? I’m also wondering if all the jams may have damaged the extruder?
Jim had mentioned about the firmware being wrongly complied… I just followed the instructions I found online, it’s all done through arduino, but I didn’t find much documentation for the settings I had to tweaking inside RE3D’s firmware.