Made a Makerbot extruder cable clip by justjoheinz

This is a small clip that fits in the hole above the motherboard and clips the cable that goes to the extruder – thus keeping it from touching the drive belt.

The model can be downloaded from Thingiverse to be printed.

The raft came lose at the end of the print so it was not completely finished, however it is still useful.

Makerbot extruder cable clip by justjoheinz (3989)

Makerbot: Connecting the stepper motors

By testing the stepper motors and the heater from the ReplicatorG control panel I found I had connected the X and Y motors to the wrong controllers.

The correct way to connect them is:

  • Z: This is the motor that is on the top of the MakerBot
  • X: This is the motor that is at bottom of the MakerBot
  • Y: This is the motor that is on the X-Stage (the moving table inside the MakerBot)

Cheat sheet to test them:

  • Z-: This should move the extruder down towards the build surface
  • X+: This should move the XY-Stage towards the covered side (the one where the electronics are on the other side)
  • Y-: This should move the build surface towards the M on the front

First challange; ReplicatorG said “Extruder board: Null version reported! Make sure the extruder is connected and the power is on”

The first challenge was that no green LED’s lit up on either the motherboard, the stepper cards nor the extruder.
All I could see was a red flashing light.

In short, don’t get confused by the error message. The power to turn on is not at the extruder, but at the motherboard.
There is a power switch on the lower left part of the motherboard – this should be turned on.

If you are getting this error when the power is turned on there, then something else is the issue 🙁

When all works well you will get a message about the motherboard version and extruder version in the text box below the main window (where the build area and model is shown)