Solved Extruder motor not moving after a full upgrade of the extruder system.

Hi, I have one of the refurb Robo R1s. I just finished a full upgrade of my extruder to a Toranado precision geared extruder. I set the stepper driver to .16 volt for a .400 amp nema 14 motor. Is this correct with the pololu a4983 stepper driver, the specs say a .25 factor. The problem I am having is the extruder stepper is not doing anything. I have checked the wiring from end to end, I even removed the plugs I had for a quick disconnect and soldered the leads solid together. Then I tried a second new motor with the same result, no movement. Any ideas of what I need to check would be appreciated.

 

Odd question, have you tested the motors to see if they work (Put 12v DC to the leads and see if it spins up) at least this way you can confirm the wiring all the way back to the connections on the board. What firmware are you running on the Robo (I just got one of the Refrub units as well and its been lots of fun ) Also using your DMM check the two leads and set it to read ohms (See if its showing OL) if so and your giving it power, something it missing. Mark can you supply a wiring diagram for the Ramps board? Perhaps something is plugged into the wrong place?

 

Last night I thought of a way to check if there is a Ramps problem, I plan to just plug into one of the axes and test the extruder motor that way as all 3 axes move correctly now. But for some silly reason this morning Mattercontrol will not connect to the printer. So for now I will have to put things on hold until I can get Mattercontrol working.

 

I just finished installing this for $15. If possible I would recommend it. This way you aren't dependent on the laptop for sending G-Code. I lost a ton of prints from doing that. The install on this is super easy. Then you can do adjustments with each axis from the turn of a knob. Just an idea to get you back up and running.

http://www.amazon.com/REPRAPGURU-Di...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

 

Just installed what? I have not had many problems printing from the computer. I am using a pretty good desktop machine running windows 10. I do have an xxl display I plan to hook up after I get the other issues resolved.

 

Sorry, I forgot to add the link If you already have the xxl controller why not hook it up and move the motors around with the knob on the screen instead of the desktop? To me it seems like it would be easier to hook up the screen and test the motors through a easy to use GUI? While your installing it and you have the bottom off anyways, move the connections around and see if you can get the motor to activate.

 

It looks like life is going to intrude on things for a while. It will be several days before I have time to get back to working on my printer. I will hook up the xxl controller at that time.

I just love windows, not. I would switch to linux if it could do everything I need done, but there are a few things I can not get working that I need or want. Thanks for your time and help with my problems.

 

Sure no problem. Let us know how it turns out. I'm interested to do an upgrade like that at some point but I want to get more familiar with the printer before doing so. Good luck getting it going!

 

So I had a chance to get back to this thing the last couple of days. This is what I figured out,

1 Ramps problem, no communication usb, resolved, replaced ramps board.

2 extruder motor, I can swap the extruder lead with the x lead on the board and both work, but when plugged in to the correct point extruder motor will not move, x still works fine. Both stepper drivers are set to the same voltage. I am at a loss, I have tried several stepper drivers, adjusted voltage from .2 to .6 volts and still the same thing.

Does anyone have any ideas. I would contact Robo3d but this is a refurb machine from ebay with no warranty. I have spent close to $100.00 not counting the extruder / hot end upgrade to trying to get this unit to print as well as the $225.00 davinci jr it is replacing.

I did hook up the xxl display to control things, it works great.

 

I would swap the motors if I could, the extruder is a nema 14. I have tried 3 different motors, all new, on the extruder.

Update: now nothing will work on the extruder 0 point of the ramps. I even moved the stepper driver from x along with the motor, still dead. Is there a way to use the other extruder point on the ramps board?

 

One of the upgrades I did was to a Toranado precision extruder
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1246951
I was looking for something to handle all types of filament, including flex.
This extruder uses a nema 14 to keep down the weight.
I guess this means the ramps board is the problem. I guess I will contact the person I got this ramps kit from on amazon and see if I can get it replaced. It is just this printer has been down for a couple of weeks and I would really like to get it running again.
Thanks for your help.

 

Do you have a recommendation on what brand of board to get if I end up buying one?

 

This is the one I used.

http://www.amazon.com/Robotlinking-...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

One bad stepper driver and a bad ramps board out of the box. Hopefully amazon will replace it.

 

Odd question but this might help to see if the ramps board is bad. What happens in you plug in the orginal extruder and motors that came with the printer. I have one of these refub units and have nothing but good things to say. Id plus everything back in as it was the day it came test it and see what you get. Otherwise replacing the ramps board could be a waste of time. Just a thought.

 

I would if I could, but I used the same wires to hook up the new extruder. Saved re running the whole harness to the print head.