I am a newbie using an old Lulzbot Mini 2/SE/0.5Fitted with a Taz 5 control. Every time I pressed Start Print to make a 3D print a notification came up that there was a firmware upgrade to upload. I have ignored this for several months until I became comfortable that I could perform the upgrade. I recorded the values for the esteps that I would need to reload after the upgrade. My laptop was connected through a USB cable and the TAZ panel was illuminated . I started the upgrade.
After a delay the printer table ran to the far extent on the Y direction and chattered against the end stop and the extruder nozzle was bubbling hot filament from the extruder. I switched off the powere to prevent damage.
When I switched on again to rest the printer the control panel was illuminated but totally blank.
My laptop is not communicating withe the printer although it say that it is connected.
Pushing the control knob on the Taz 5 has no effect…
Has anyone any ideas that I can try to restore control of the printer.
What do you mean by “Lulzbot Mini 2/SE/0.5Fitted with a Taz 5 control”?
I believe the previous owner fitted the Taz 5 control as an upgrade.
When I go into Settings - Printer it comes up
lulzbotMini"SE/ 05mm
lulzbotTAZ5.
That is all I can tell you.
So it’s an original Mini, (not a Mini 2), that has a RepRap Full Graphic Smart Controller (the same one used on a Taz 5) connected? If it has screws for the Z axis, rather than belts, this sounds right.
Make sure you’ve got the correct printer added in Cura LE (making sure Graphical LCD is selected):
When updating firmware, manually point it at Marlin_MiniLCD_SingleExtruderAeroV2_2.0.0.144_aded3b617 in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\cura-lulzbot 3.6\resources\firmware” folder. If you were back on 1.x firmware, it won’t automatically update to 2.x firmware.
If the previous owner may have done a custom firmware for some hardware modificationsyou’d need to get a hold of the old firmware and re-flash it.
Good afternoon thank you for your earlier help. The control panel is now operational on the printer and I can now alter the esteps etc. I am unable to make the 3 axises’s step and if I try move the Z axis it drives down activates the Micro switch but continues until the mechanism jams.
I have been told that the firmware was updated as far as the printer could go some years ago. Your instructions got the panel to display but not quite the display before I tried the update. Is there anything else that I can try.
Regards John D
Is hard to say, as the previous owner obviously made some changes to it, probably hardware in addition to the firmware.
I would recommend partial disassembly of the wiring to motors and endstops, and follow assembly instructions on ohai.lulzbot.com
If you can provide some detailed pictures of the board, wiring to it, the endstops, and anything else wired in, we may be able to help further, but there may be some changes that will be difficult to revert.
Wrathernaut via LulzBot
On the Ohai site our printer looks similar to the KITKAZ and also the TAZ 4 and TAZ 5
There is no Lulzbot Min2 / SE / 0.5 shown although that is what my Cura Lulzbot version3.6.34, recognised before my problems, as the printer.
I checked the nozzle and confirmed that it was a 0.5
The number on the outside of the control box is KT PR0013-5655 and the board inside it ia a “RAMBO” board with the number 10006542 .
Apart from problems trying to home the printer today I loaded a test cube drawing to see what would happen. After Cura prepared the sliced program and then I set it to monitor and pressed Start Print the laptop screen brings up the warning " Wrong printer detected -------
------- You can disable this check in application settings."
How do I tell Cura what the printer is or does the printer tell Cura the details which I can either accept or refuse.
A member of our organisation has been in touch with the old man who donated the printer regarding information for it.He is now wheelchair bound and suffering from dementia but he was ableto tell us that the details were on a SD card.
The SD card on the Taz control has several folders on it
fseventsd-uvid 36 bytes 01/10/ 2019
spotlight - V100 1.89mbytes 16 10/ 2019 (volume configuration.plist)
3 calibration documentation novelties 1.53 mbytes 10/01/ 20014
_leverarm_201015.skp 30/06/2019
_testbox 4.0kbytes 01/10/2019
(sterolithography mesh)
box extend.Gcode 213kbytes 22/112015
leverarm_201015 skp 1012 kbytes 20/10/2015
Does any of this help you ?
I will send the pictures on a message.
Regards John D
So, it’s definitely not a mini, which explains a lot of the confusion.
What are your goals with this machine? The current parts would let you print OK in ABS (and possibly nylon) with an enclosure, but PLA and most other materials are out of the question.
If I were to try and make it useable again, here’s what I’d do:
Replace the extremely outdated hot end. That budaschnozzle hasn’t been considered great for almost a decade. It’ll do ABS and some other materials that don’t need cooling, but you can’t really get replacements parts for it. A Biqu H2 extruder works good on these. If you’re on a tight budget, the BIQU H2 V2.0 Extruder For B1 BX Ender 3/ 3 V2/5/6 CR6/10 – Biqu Equipment is under $70 and I use one on my machine, but the BIQU X E3D H2 V2S Revo Extruder 3d printing parts for Ender 3 Voron V0 Voron2.4 BIQU 3d printers – Biqu Equipment is a good upgrade for the price.
The Rambo control board is older, but still very capable. It can run current Marlin firmware, and you can even add a touch sensor on it to get some pretty good bed leveling. You could even get a Klipper build for it if you want to get a Raspberry Pi or similar controller to add to it.
The motors and frame should still be good for a very long time.
You’ll have to get into modifying Marlin to do custom firmware to get the most out of it, but after replacing the hot end, you can get by with Taz 5 profiles and adjusting the flow to compensate for the 1.75mm filament vs. 2.85mm.