Labview lifa to control a 3D printer

[Hyrum]

I would like to control my 3D printer from labview. I don't necessarily want to be able to print anything, I would just like to use it to do something I would like to do.  To start, I followed the instructions on how to pair the arduino mega with labview by installing all the labview add ons and the arduino firmware. I then went through the the stepper motor example and got my arduino mega (removed from the printer) to control a 4 wire stepper like the below on pins a0,a1,a2,a3 (54, 55, 56, 57). This required a few little mods which I was able to find my searching in this forum; change the number of digital pins to 70 in the pin out of range vi and manually set the com port of my arduino mega.

Once I knew the arduino was successfully paired and controlling a stepper motor on the pins I was interested in, I installed the RAMPS 1.4 shieldthat came with my 3D printer. This board essentially just has 5 stepper driver boards that use the step and direction interface.   According the the schematic for the RAMPS board , the step and direction pins are on a0 and a1 (54 & 55) and the enable pin is on pin 38.  I changed the stepper vi so that it set pin 38 low to enable the driver board (as found in page 10 of the data sheet).

(no other changes made to the Stepper Motor Example.vi)

So, when I hit run I don't get any errors but it does'nt move either.   Any ideas?

[Nathan_B.]

What shield were you using to control the stepper motor when you were testing?  According to the RAMPS wiki page, there are two different firmwares for it, neither of which are used in LIFA.  The first thing that I would try to find out is if the API used by LIFA for stepper motors works with RAMPS on Arduino alone.

[Hyrum]

The printer worked fine with the original firmware. Ramps is just a board with 5 stepper drivers on it. What I'm trying to do here is control one of those stepper drivers (x) with labview using the stepper motor example.  In order to do that, I replaced the printer firmware with the firmware supplied with lifa.

Has anyone had any luck using lifa with the pollolu style motor drivers?

[Hyrum]

I just pulled the driverboard off the Ramps and wired it like this and was able to control a motor with the the lifa firmware and the example motor vi.

[confuciusl]

did you have good luck to have your labview to cotnrol the RAMP 1.4+Arduino 2560? I have the same issue and want to have some help.

[goe1989]

Hyrum did you manage with this problem? I saw that you posted in 2013 and now we are 2016 but i am thinking if you remember your solution. I have the same problem. I don't know how to program 3D printer with labview. Hope you will answer!

[vipulkumar731]

Yeah ! even I am finding the same problem.

Did anybody find the solution ?

I assume this is because of LIFA.

[KlemensIWC]

Even if it is 4 years too late, but maybe helpful for others: 

You have to declare pins 54, 55 and 38 as output pins after the initialization! 

[edzy143]

Could you please explain in more detail?

[DarthRevan365]

I know this is an old thread, but I am working on a similar project, getting a 3D printer with an arduino board to work with LabView. If someone could please post a picture of a completed block diagram that works I would greatly appreciate it. Also is an MKS the same thing as an arduino, there is some disagreement between me and my professor.