I’ve been having issues with my 5Xc. I was able to connect and upgraded the firmware yesterday to the latest stable master-firmware release. I had some issues and read the troubleshooting guide about the 1 & 4 light being on meant a config issue, so I replaced the config with the 3D printing default config. It booted up and I was able to connect and confirm “version” via serial connection using Univ. Gcode Sender java app.
I soldered the network plug (ordered from uberclock) and it seemed to work as well after I enabled networking and rebooted it obtained a new ip. I was able to see the pronterface looking UI on the webpage of the new ip. I was also able to telnet to it.
However… now I can’t get any of it to work. And lights 1 and 4 on steady but 2/3 are blinking which, if I understand it correctly, means everything is ok?
The network plug is showing an amber link light and blinking green activity and I confirmed via my router it does obtain the IP address. I just cannot connect to the board via web browser, telnet, or even serial over usb directly.
I would like to blame my soldering job on the network plug but I just redid what looked like only two possible cold joints. And light I said both network plug lights are working as expected.
My system: Windows 8 x64 and I have installed Arduino drivers (unsigned) as well as the official signed Smoothie drivers for windows 8 x64. I don’t think this is a communication problem between Win8 and Smoothieboard, as I can connect to my Arduino Uno and DigiStump Pro just fine.
What else could be the problem? Or is it just a bad unit that I need to get replaced/rma’d?
I cloned the gitrepo and copied /FirmwareBin/firmware.bin and /ConfigSamples/Smoothieboard/config and let it boot up, then I turned it off/on. It shows up in Windows Device Manager as Smoothieboard on Com 16 but when I try to communicate with it using Univ. Gcode Sender it does not reply with ok. or acknowledge any commands like “version”. Just does nothing. As before, the 1/4 LED are steady on and 2/3 are blinking.
Just tried Pronterface and it also sees the Smoothieboard on Com16 but when I try to connect it just spins/“Connecting…”.
Does the port speed matter? I’ve tried 250000 then 9600 but neither worked.
I will go grab my laptop and try that as well… I don’t think I’ve ever connected the smoothieboard to it so maybe, if it is a driver issue, it will connect.
Initially on the laptop it would not connect but I got another copy (just today) of the latest Edge firmware and default config and it came back to life.
Updated config.txt to allow ethernet and after reboot it was available online as well.
It worked for a while, even long enough for me to wire up the 12v and test a servo. Then it just stopped working again…
This is actually the second SD card I’m using. This one is 16gb the first was a 4gb micro.
I’m at a lost to the problem, other than some issue with the board itself. I’m not doing anything but powering it up and trying to connect. This last time it was working, was the first I tried to connect a servo.
Both my workstation and laptop, both run Windows 8 x64 and I installed the signed Smoothieboard drivers.
Everything seems to boot up as expected but it will not allow me to connect via USB and when I tried just the 12v (USB Unplugged) and connected the network it would not show the website.
I will try booting it up again. If it still doesn’t connect. I will try one more time to put a fresh copy of the firmware and config on the SD and reboot set network to true and just try letting it bootup using 12v power rail and connected to network.
Very frustrating… obviously. I’m half way through building my Shapeoko and would like to use the Smoothieboard to test it.
I just reconnected it to answer this question, have not refreshed the SD card again.
SD Card Inserted, 12v through VBB / Add-On Regulator, and Network Cable Connected
LED’s
VBB (Steady Red)
3.3v (Steady Amber/Yellow)
4 (Steady Green)
3 (Blinking in Sync with 2)
2 (Blinking in Sync with 3)
1 (Steady Green)
What I have observed is that when the board is working as expected and will connect over USB and Network instead of the #2 & 3 LED’s blinking in sync, they will blink but out of sync and according to some metric or other internal pulse it is keeping for those LED’s.
I’ve reviewed the troubleshooting page a few times regarding the LED’s and this scenario is not mentioned, or at least I did not recognize it.
All the cases you mention for the leds are smoothie booting up fine and running ( even though you can’t communicate with it for some reason, in part of the cases ).
The out-of-sync thing may be related to smoothie having read it’s config or using it’s default values …
Could you try this : format SD card, flash new firmware, copy new config file, and -not- at any point, connect Smoothieboard to the PC via USB. Then trying using it like this and seeing if it breaks or not.
Format the SD card, put firmware and config file ( modified for allowing ethernet ) on the SD card, then remove USB cable, connect 12V and ethernet, let it flash the new firmware, reset ( still no USB cable ) and see if you can access it via ethernet.
Then keep not using USB for any reason, and see if it breaks that way or not.
Found another SD card (this is #3) a Kingston 4GB. Used Diskpart to Clean it then did a slow reformat with Fat32 (as per wiki).
Copied latest edge firmware and default config, updated config to enable Network and set a static IP.
Inserted SD and Turned On - noticed lights sequencing to confirm the firmware was being updated and then finished with blinking 2/3, turned off and back on, then pressed Reset.
Upon rebooting it took about 5m before my router showed the 192.168.0.115 IP that I had setup in config. However when visiting that IP in browser it did nothing. Tried rebooting and no change.
Did that and it worked and didn’t work, let me explain.
In Order of Attempts
from laptop via Chrome web browser could not pull up Smoothieboard Web Server Pronterface
from workstation via Chrome web browser, smoothie web server pronterface pulled up fine
back to laptop, tried IE and it worked.
still on laptop back to Chrome to clear cookies/cache and still could not pull up webpage
ping also worked from laptop and workstation within seconds of rebooting smoothieboard
was able to Telnet from Laptop to SMoothieboard and return Version info
I was about to go into config.txt and comment out that line you had me change when I noticed what it said. Am I correct in assuming that when msd_disable = true that the SDCard should NOT be available to Windows as a storage? Because it was available and I pulled up the config.txt on the SDCard while it was in the smoothieboard and while I was connected to smoothieboard using Pronterface via USB
What on earth is going on? I’m happy at least that it is working and I can get it setup but the connectivity issues are bizarre. All this has definately helped me learn more diagnosis proceedures for these devices though.
Unfortunately the disable_msd no longer does anything as I had to remove the disable msd option due to some people having problems with windows blue screens,it is a windows bug but unfortunately smoothie functionality has to suffer to accommodate redmonds shitty drivers.
But this all sounds like bad SD Cards to me. or corrupted sdcards. You do know that if the sdcard gets mounted automatically and your reset or power off smoothie you are likely to corrupt the sdcard? it is highly recommended that the sdcard NEVER be mounted on windows (or mac or linux) unless you actually need to copy a file., then it must be immediately safely removed or ejected before a reset.
Is there a way I can have the SD Card NOT mount automatically when I connect to smoothie via USB? I don’t need it to auto mount, just a built in feature of Smoothieboard.