Prusa i3 X fried board? [SOLVED]

[wickwire]

Hi,

I have a situation with my Geeetech Prusa i3X kit (black acrylic), I had just finished assembling it and then moved on to the wiring connections and first power on.

Without turning the power on, I connected the USB cable to my PC - linux detected the serial device and the Prusa LCD turn on, but blank.

Then I powered on the printer and the LCD displayed several information about the model, axis, temperature, all zero values as expected. The board fan started working too, but it seemed to be rising in hum.

After a few seconds of operating, as I was on the computer reading the PDF manual, a loud pop sound came from the board. The LCD turn blank again and I haven't been able to get anything working ever since. Linux always picks up the serial device when I plug the USB cable, the LCD screen always turns on blank, but turning the power on/off on the printer does nothing.

I am not very savvy when it comes to electronics/electricals, however I guess it is fair to say that something must have fried along the way, so maybe someone can help me diagnose the problem and identify the faulty component(s).

First off, I connected the power supply wires as described on the manual:

I connected the red wires to the V+ and black wires to COM, and matched green/yellow, brown and blue wires to the connections on the manual.
I also checked that the PSU selector was already on 220V which is correct for my country.
I connected the cables on the board which is a GT2560 (white board) according to the manual.
I double-checked to see if any wiring was inverted, but the plugs will prevent that from happening.

After the break down of the board, I grabbed the multimeter and tried to measure any voltage on the power connector going to the board, but the multimeter registers nothing. How can I ensure that the PSU is still good?

I also believe there are some fuses on the board, two tiny rectangular shaped pieces, could those have gone out? How may I test them?

Are there any other steps I can take to isolate and identify the fault?

I can post pictures of the setup if needed.


EDIT - Replacing the PSU solved it. Went with a 12V, 25A / 300W PSU from ebay, after installing it and testing it, all motors and heaters are working, the board is working properly, did a Marvin test print using slic3r and octopi and it all worked properly, in terms of mechanical controls/software.

The print result was a "wavy" marvin keychain figurine, I'm guessing that's due to the known "Z wobbling" effect, I'll have to check if the rods are straight, but that's another issue entirely, so I'm marking this one solved and thank goodness it was only a defective PSU...

Thanks for the assistance!

[William]

Hi,

I have a situation with my Geeetech Prusa i3X kit (black acrylic), I had just finished assembling it and then moved on to the wiring connections and first power on.

Without turning the power on, I connected the USB cable to my PC - linux detected the serial device and the Prusa LCD turn on, but blank.

Then I powered on the printer and the LCD displayed several information about the model, axis, temperature, all zero values as expected. The board fan started working too, but it seemed to be rising in hum.

After a few seconds of operating, as I was on the computer reading the PDF manual, a loud pop sound came from the board. The LCD turn blank again and I haven't been able to get anything working ever since. Linux always picks up the serial device when I plug the USB cable, the LCD screen always turns on blank, but turning the power on/off on the printer does nothing.

I am not very savvy when it comes to electronics/electricals, however I guess it is fair to say that something must have fried along the way, so maybe someone can help me diagnose the problem and identify the faulty component(s).

First off, I connected the power supply wires as described on the manual:

I connected the red wires to the V+ and black wires to COM, and matched green/yellow, brown and blue wires to the connections on the manual.
I also checked that the PSU selector was already on 220V which is correct for my country.
I connected the cables on the board which is a GT2560 (white board) according to the manual.
I double-checked to see if any wiring was inverted, but the plugs will prevent that from happening.

After the break down of the board, I grabbed the multimeter and tried to measure any voltage on the power connector going to the board, but the multimeter registers nothing. How can I ensure that the PSU is still good?

I also believe there are some fuses on the board, two tiny rectangular shaped pieces, could those have gone out? How may I test them?

Are there any other steps I can take to isolate and identify the fault?

I can post pictures of the setup if needed.

Hi,
According to your description,i guess your PSU was broken,i think you can upload a video of PSU output test on Youtube and attach the link so i can watch it.
Including measuring the AC input and DC output.

[wickwire]

Hi,

I can do that, in the meantime I have gathered these links from around youtube and the forum here in order to try and debug the issue:

1) test the PSU (and I have already ordered a new model online - 12V, 25A - and will compare the results)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzh2z1jRrh0

2) test the two SMD 1808 fuses (and I have already ordered new 10A / 15A fuses as well and will compare the results)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iHRESNMFAg

3) test the voltages along the GT2560
http://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopic ... 19&t=17039

Right now, with the components I currently have:

1) the PSU is outputting 0.02V and that is also the voltage I am getting on the power connector pins at GT2560
2) haven't checked the fuses yet

The thing is, I definitely heard a bang on the GT2560 board, so something there most definitely fried, just need to figure out what was it.

The USB part of the board is working, the PC is able to pick up the USB to serial device - also I had to tweak the potentiometer behind the LCD board to get the text but even with the 12V part broken, I can cycle through the options on the LCD.

Another thing I noticed from the start was that the GT2560 board lights up the LCD just with USB connected, even when the 12V power from the printer PSU is turned off -is this normal...?


Thanks in advance!

[William]

Hi,

I can do that, in the meantime I have gathered these links from around youtube and the forum here in order to try and debug the issue:

1) test the PSU (and I have already ordered a new model online - 12V, 25A - and will compare the results)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzh2z1jRrh0

2) test the two SMD 1808 fuses (and I have already ordered new 10A / 15A fuses as well and will compare the results)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iHRESNMFAg

3) test the voltages along the GT2560
http://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopic ... 19&t=17039

Right now, with the components I currently have:

1) the PSU is outputting 0.02V and that is also the voltage I am getting on the power connector pins at GT2560
2) haven't checked the fuses yet

The thing is, I definitely heard a bang on the GT2560 board, so something there most definitely fried, just need to figure out what was it.

The USB part of the board is working, the PC is able to pick up the USB to serial device - also I had to tweak the potentiometer behind the LCD board to get the text but even with the 12V part broken, I can cycle through the options on the LCD.

Another thing I noticed from the start was that the GT2560 board lights up the LCD just with USB connected, even when the 12V power from the printer PSU is turned off -is this normal...?


Thanks in advance!

Sounds like the GT2560 board is OK,everything works.I suspect the bang sound you heard may be from the PSU box?
You can check if your GT2560 works fine once your new PSU arrives.

Another thing I noticed from the start was that the GT2560 board lights up the LCD just with USB connected, even when the 12V power from the printer PSU is turned off -is this normal...?

About this,yes it's normal.When USB connected,the LCD lights up but it's nearly transparent，see the LCD on my printer(power not turning on,just USB connected):

QQ图片20160830164103.jpg (56.45 KiB) Viewed 11674 times

[wickwire]

Ok, so the LCD lighting up over USB is normal, thanks - I'm just waiting for the new PSU to arrive, I did continuity tests on both SMD fuses and those seem to be ok too, let's see what happens with the new PSU, once I have tested it I'll post the results, thank you!

[William]

Ok, so the LCD lighting up over USB is normal, thanks - I'm just waiting for the new PSU to arrive, I did continuity tests on both SMD fuses and those seem to be ok too, let's see what happens with the new PSU, once I have tested it I'll post the results, thank you!

OK,waiting for your updating!

[wickwire]

Update:

I am still waiting for the replacement PSU, however I decided to use a working 12V 160W PSU from an old Dell Optiplex GX270 laying around.

- I disconnected the extruder and heatbed heating connectors from the board;
- I disconnected the USB cable from the board;
- I removed the two 10A/15A fuses from the board and did continuity tests with the multimeter - both fuses passed
- I re-plugged the fuses: with the board oriented with power/USB connectors to the LEFT, I placed the 15A fuse on the TOP slot and the 10A fuse on the BOTTOM slot (I will re-validate this from the available info on the forum/wiki);
- I connected the power connector from the 12V PSU to the board and the fan started working, as well as the LCD, green background, black foreground - so I remembered to re-position the LCD potentiometer back again;
- I selected the Auto Home feature and the extruder head started moving to the right and grinding against the end of the axis (X ?), and then the heat bed started moving back towards the end stop (Y ?), so I guess the motors are working! I did not check the vertical motor or it didn't work (Z ?) so I will be checking all the connections again but that's another issue;
- I did not test any heating as I had all the heat connectors off;
- Then I did some more testing by connecting the USB at the same time as the power, and it all still worked, so for now, it looks promising!

I will wait for the new PSU to arrive, then test it and install it, re-check the wiring for movement and heating and post back just to confirm!

Thanks for the assistance!

[wickwire]

Update #2:

The replacement PSU is still to arrive, however I have been using an ATX PSU for testing, haven't activated heating yet but so far Auto Home works.
I had to recompile the Marlin firmware to fix the X axis movement to the left. Both X and Y movement is working, Z also works but the threaded rods are slightly bent and the smooth support rods aren't sliding properly through the linear bearings, I'll have to fix those.

I will test the heating with the new PSU - the one I'm using for testing isn't powerful enough for it - so if a successful print comes out of this, I'll post and mark this thread as solved

[William]