I'm working on a 3D printer project. I've switched from the Arduino Uno w/ GRBL CNC shield to the Arduino Mega 2560 w/ the Ramps 1.4 board. At this point I have installed the GRBL firmware on the Arduino Uno, and I have installed the Marlin firmware on the Arduino Mega. After sending the Mega Gcode on the Universal Gcode Sender application, it's almost as if I bricked it. My Mac can no longer find the Mega board on the list of serial ports. Both the orange and green lights come on when the board is plugged in. The Uno on the other hand shows up on the list of ports just fine. What steps can I take to resolve this issue?
It sounds like you may have a serial flood, ie you are sending data faster then the serial system can process. Try to program with the blink program, if it does not go in, I assume it won't try playing with the reset and total power down. To protect from this I typically put a 5 second delay in the setup before doing anything, this gives the programer time to grab the board. It is also possible you fried the board and or at least the serial interface. Check all of your voltages etc and try programming blink without anything other then the USB connected to the board.
Good Luck & Have Fun!
Gil
Power down the ramps board.
Disconnect your MEGA from the computer.
Remove the RAMPS board.
Power cycle your computer.
Once you are back up then connect the MEGA.
See if it shows back up in device manager (or your OS equivalent)
If it does then check your wiring on the RAMPS board BEFORE you re-mount it.
Meanwhile without the RAMPS board.
If it does show up open UGS with the correct COM port and make sure you are seeing responses in the UGS console to commands issued from UGS.
GRBL will tell you OK when it connects and will then list some of the "$" parameters etc.
At that point load a small test file into UGS and send it, or simply use the jog buttons and make sure it is responding in the lower console.
UGS has different levels of lower console responses that you can turn on for a little deeper diagnostics.
Another good test is to take a KNOWN GOOD and WORKING stepper and same with the stepper lead and a known good driver board all known to work and test each axis individually. Power down both the ramps board and the Arduino before swapping over the stepper, lead and driver.
It has nothing to do with a "serial flood" whatever that is.
Bob.
Also Have you recently upgraded your OS in any way as there were some reports of MAC upgrades causing some Arduino boards to dissapear.
Not a MAC person but you might want to check out installation and troubleshooting section if that's the case as I think that's where the posts are.
Bob.