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Partially Solved E motor not working

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by gunsmoke132, Aug 12, 2019.

  1. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    i started printing something only to hear my extruder motor making a horrible grinding noise. natturaly i thought the hotend was clogged and fixed it only to find it making the same noise. i later took the e motor off just to see if it can spin by itself but it still jitters. ive tested the wires ive tested the actual motor and replaced the driver. nothing. i got a new ramps and it gave one sudden jolt of life now ill not move. idk what to do
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Initially -- sounds like the RAMPS or the stepper drivers at least.
    The new RAMPS may be bad ... I have (on many, many posts) described how likely it is to get a bad one if you buy a replacement. The stepper drivers (the little cards) have not been this way so I would start by replacing (or at least swapping) the one for the extruder.

    However -- it may be the stepper. Your is sounding like that. They fail in that same fashion if the motor itself is dropping steps. Motors are cheap enough if you want to try a new one.

    The stepper motors are not as likely to fail as the other electronics, but it happens

    (in all honesty I doubt your RAMPS itself is bad. It is almost certainly the stepper or the stepper driver. I'd swap the stepper driver first since it is easier and cheaper)
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Aug 13, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
  3. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    so i got an update after fiddling with it for a couple of hours at 2 am. it seems almost like it was both the cable and the card because after i replaced both motors seamed to be working.so i put everything back together and went to try again. now the motor doesn't work?

    is it possible there's something weird going on with the motor that it's causing the ramps to break?
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I can certainly believe that a motor failure could kill the stepper driver board. I am little less confident that it would also damage the RAMPS board BUT ... I am not an electrical engineer by profession (although I do sometimes play one on TV*)

    The good news is that a new stepper and new RAMPS is probably not a bank breaker (just a pain in the rear-end**).

    *kidding...
    **serious
     
  5. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    ok so i got the motor to work for a short period after retarting the software but now its back to being dead. ive noticed whatever the old motor will do the new one will do in the same situation so im going to go ahead and say the motor is fine but im still stuck
     
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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    That only leaves the drivers or the RAMPS... (well, in theory the Arduino could still be flaky--I just don't see that often).
     
  7. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    Update!
    I got it moving again! But I’m back at square one because it’s doing this again...
    https://imgur.com/gallery/V5Nwn3X

    Most of the noise is due to it being on the glass plate but it wasn’t picking up the sound without it
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    IMAGUR is not sharing the love with me today :(
    If it is making clicking or knocking noises that is still the stepper dropping steps.
    Usually the driver, but a bad stepper can sound exactly the same.

    It could be a bad connector/wire, but that would be only if one motor was affected... not all of them
    swap a wire from another motor and test that...
     
  9. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    https://imgur.com/gallery/V5Nwn3X

    its a new wire. i got it to work before. the ramps is brand new. unless something is weird with the new driver...
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Could be... new does not always mean working (and in the case of driver chips -- it may just need to be calibrated).

    [imagur is just not letting the video play for me]
     
  11. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    true.
    time to give it more juice lol
     
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Of all the electrics to go south, the steppers are the worst to troubleshoot.
     
  13. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    im going to plug the driver into a different axis to see if i figure out the issue
     
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Sure, just bear in mind that not all of the axis require the same torque to move so it is possible it works on one and not another :)
    Generally they are set for high enough current out of the box that this will not happen, but...
     
  15. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    im going to swap e for z because the Z is known to work and the E is in question

    UPDATE: im 99% sure its the driver... the z is not functioning and the e is smooth
    im just going to order a new batch of drivers and see if were good
     
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  17. gunsmoke132

    gunsmoke132 Member

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    the driver is A4988?
     
  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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