Hey guys, having some troubles with my mks base.i think I may have shorted the stepper motor connection (E0 STEPPER) to my extruder motor. My question being, I have one spare slot (E1 STEPPER) can I set this up to use this slot for my extruder instead?
All other connections work,cables and the extruder motor, it just seems to be this one point on the mks base. Have been using my Prusia for about 18 months up until now.
Alternatively, would it be an option to replace the base with, say a v1.2 or v1.4.
Cheers
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Have you verified that it’s not the stepper driver that’s broken? These are easy to replace.
But otherwise, yes. it should be possible to use E1. You will probably need to modify the correct pins file (probably pins_MKS_BASE.h). I’m not aware of good documentation for the pinout of the MKS boards, so this may require some experimentation (please let me know if you find a reference)
Also keep in mind there are “2Z” versions of the board (usually, that’s the 1.2 of MKS GEN I think). These boards have two stepper outputs hardwired together for the Z axis and they cannot be used independently. Mine is marked with a Z1 and Z2, so this should be easy to identify.
Personally, I would not buy a new MKS board. These are badly documented (I have the MKS GEN version, BASE may be better) and there are a lot of other and better choices (maybe a bit more expensive, so that’s also a factor obviously)
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Thanks Pete.
No I have not verified the stepper driver, nor do I know how. If you could swing me in the right direction that would be grand.
I also am unaware of how to be able to modify pin files.
I usually go to youtube for my printing troubles but am having a hard time finding info on this issue, but ill do some more research tomorrow.
Cheers again
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The easiest way is to switch the drivers. On your board there are 5 stepper drivers, they will look something like this:
You can take these out. Before you do, make sure the power cable is unplugged and USB is not connected to your computer! Also make sure you place them in the correct direction. It’s probably best to leave at least one plugged in so that you have a reference.
Now put in a stepper driver that you are sure works, for instance, take the one for the Y axis and put it in the E0 location. Check if you can extruder now and also check if Y axis works.
If it’s a bad stepper, the extruder should work and the Y not. If that’s the case, you’re in luck. Just order a new driver.
As far as changing pins is concerned: have you ever uploaded a new Marlin firmware to your printer? That’s the first step to perform this change. There’s plenty of info on this on YouTube and Google. One warning: make sure to backup your firmware before putting anything new on it.
Let me know how this goes and I can give more info on any other steps.
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NoikK
5
The MKS Board has soldered driver. The drivers und the Mosfets of the MKS board are very weak.
if you are using repetier firmware you can easyly change the used driver on the configuration webpage. If you using Marlin just open the file pins_RAMPS_13.h in Notepad++ and change the following values.
#define E0_STEP_PIN 26 >>> 36
#define E0_DIR_PIN 28 >>> 34
#define E0_ENABLE_PIN 24 >>> 30
now you can use the unuses driver. don´t forget to switsch the cable.
–Enno
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NoikK
6
And maximum important:
install an fan for the board.
–Enno
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MKS uses drivers fixed to the board, not stepsticks.
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Yeah it is quite doable, just have to edit the relevant pins.h file. The BASE iirc copied the pinout from the RAMPS shield so instructions for that (bad driver sockets is common on cheapo ramps and probably this board too) should work out.
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Aha. Thanks for the info.
I have the MKS Gen 2Z v1.2 which has removable drivers
The same thing happemd to me. Just switch it in the firware and use E1
Good to know. I have some Chinese MKS GEN 2Z V1.2 which has stepsticks.
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thanks for the help guys, I’m having a hard time with this firmware business though, ill have another go tomorrow.
I’m using this as a guide to the basics but its not really working out for me http://reprap.org/wiki/MKS\_GEN#Firmware
I cant seam to get the Marlin into Arduino to get anything to work.
Better luck tomorrow maybe
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Hey Enno, I cant find these values in the pins_ramps_13 file, do you mean just to add this to the file? and then load it into Arduino, and onto the printer?
Thank you for the data, you helped me a lot and I managed to make the board work because the E0 also did not work and with the change of data in pins.h made it work.
