After building my awesome mpcnc I get excited about making a zenxy! I found an affordable second hand rambo 1.1b on ebay. Arduino IDE can ping the serial number through the USB port, but when I attempt firmware upload, it times out and fails. I have tried every conceivable windows 10 Arduino IDE version, read Marlin forum threads ad-nausium. I considered getting another Arduino to use as a bootloader/programmer… but I have never done much with arduino, so may be opening a can of worms. I am not even sure that the rambo 1.1b even works (the lights come on and flashes different patterns and thats about all). Pronterface won’t even see it on the usb port that Arduino IDE sees as serial# com5. Is there a chance I can send it in and have it programmed there at V1 for a fee? I am eager to get this resolved, but, as a starving artist in Maui, my resources are extremely limited (my mpcnc project was funded by a “parton of the arts” Jay Zimmerman of Paia and it works amazingly for me)
Do you have the 12V power too? The usb only powers the serial port, not the microcontroller.
Windows is wonky in the way it handles serial ports. Try this:
#1. Are you running both Pronterface and the Arduino IDE at the same time? Or either one with a serial monitor app? Once a Windows program grabs a serial port, no other program can use it.
#2. Do you have the bit rate set at 115200 bps or less for programming? The bootloader auto-detects bit rate, but cannot do so reliably above 115200 bps. The setting that the arduino will use for programming can be found in the file “boards.txt. in the board’s hardware directory. This is separate from the rate set in Marlin config.txt which sets comm speed after programming. That can be set up to 250000 but only if your PC can handle those speeds. I usually leave both at 115200.
yes. I switched the power supply jumper and powered it with my bench supply.
No, I use only one program at a time, just tried pronterface just to see if it might see whatever fw was on the board when I got it. I’ll look into the com rate thing. Thanks for your insights
Set boards.txt for 115200 and try it with a new USB cable, and make sure it’s a data (4 wire) cable. A phone charging cable will not work.
If that does not work try setting boards.txt to a slower value for testing, say 19200. Programming will be very slow but if it works then one of the USB ports is wonky, probably on the Rambo, or, much less likely, on the PC.
Before you get to far with this, the most likely case is you bought a dead board. Getting your money back as quickly as possible is a good idea.
I am all for fixing something and completely against getting ripped off. The boards are typically very easy to flash.
Thanks man, I knew it was a gamble when i got it. I am a big fan of what y’all do here btw. The helpful V1 community embraces problems and success!