Blown Voltage Regulator on Mega2560 with RAMPS Shield

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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Getting myself into 3D Printing, and I am currently dead in the water with 2 AdMegas with blown voltage regulators. (They literally exploded the second I turned power on) I have quadruple checked all of my connections and made sure there were no solder bridges or shorts, but I have come up empty handed.

I have purchased a replacement RAMPS shield and AdMega2560, but don't want this to happen again because of something I am overlooking. How do I tell if the RAMPS shield is what is killing my mega, and does anyone have any recommendations for things to check before I go and break more boards?

I am using the Prusa i3 design for my printer. FYI

Thanks!

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Hi,
We need MORE details, how is all this wired, a schmatic!! Where is your power for the Ramps coming from? I hope your not hoping to drive them from the Arduino 5V, that will not work, it can't handle that much power...

So lets see a schematic or pictures, etc.

Hope it helps

Mel.

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Googling "Prusa i3 schematic" should give you a pretty decent idea of how it is wired.

Here's a good one: nextdayreprap.co.uk

It looks like I overlooked a solder bridge on the back of the RAMPS shield on the pins for the end stops. (Attached picture)

Thanks for the help.

solder bridge on end stop pins.jpg
solder bridge on end stop pins.jpg760×1344 269 KB

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(deleted)

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I DID provide more information. Your reply is not helpful and only serves to act as an example of how condescending you can be; especially because it is 2 hours after I posted stating that I figured it out...

If you refer to my original question:
"How do I tell if the RAMPS shield is what is killing my mega, and does anyone have any recommendations for things to check before I go and break more boards?"
I'm merely asking for recommendations for checking for shorts on an AdMega2560, essentially.

Now we can get into a pissing match about this or you can help me understand what could cause a blown voltage regulator on an Arduino Mega; so I can avoid doing things like blow up my house.

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I wonder if you can get a replacement MEGA+RAMPS card here?

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Whole printer + control card + LCD + power supply for $218.
https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/reprap-prusa-xi3
Like getting a control card & a bunch of spare parts :slight_smile:

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jldubz:
I DID provide more information. Your reply is not helpful and only serves to act as an example of how condescending you can be; especially because it is 2 hours after I posted stating that I figured it out...

If you refer to my original question:
"How do I tell if the RAMPS shield is what is killing my mega, and does anyone have any recommendations for things to check before I go and break more boards?"
I'm merely asking for recommendations for checking for shorts on an AdMega2560, essentially.

Now we can get into a pissing match about this or you can help me understand what could cause a blown voltage regulator on an Arduino Mega; so I can avoid doing things like blow up my house.

The reason we ask for informations you is that people routinely point us to things that they say are the same as what they're doing. And then we spend days and multiple posts back and forth trying to help based on that, and then they're like "Oh I did that bit like this instead, but that shouldn't matter", because they don't realize that that little thing does matter and makes the difference between everything working and their device failing. So to prevent us from wasting our time and yours, we try to preempt these common miscommunications.