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Solved Extruder Stepper Motor Twitch

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Dan Ershen, Jan 18, 2017.

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  1. Dan Ershen

    Dan Ershen New Member

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    Hey all,

    Recently the pin in the JST connector leading to the stepper motor for the extruder fell out, so I ordered a replacement cable. After switching the pins back to the R1 configuration, my extruder motor still skips back and forth in alternate directions, and makes a loud awful grinding noise the entire time.
    Bought a spare NEMA 17 to try and fix the issue, thinking the motor was burned out; it too behaved this way.

    Any ideas how to fix this?

    Link to video of problem behavior: https://vid.me/QXmb
     
    #1 Dan Ershen, Jan 18, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Stepper driver card is probably defective or at a minimum needs to be retuned.

    as long as you are certain you got the wires landed correctly :)
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Jan 18, 2017
  3. Dan Ershen

    Dan Ershen New Member

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    Not 100 percent certain I got the wires correctly. The wire pin alignment I set is shown in the video above.

    I just tried connecting the wire to the X axis motor, and it behaved the same way. It's definitely something with that wire connection, but I've tried just about every possible combination.
     
    #3 Dan Ershen, Jan 18, 2017
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The colors are not terribly helpful since Robo is inconsistent with them, but make sure that they are the same arrangement (pin order) as the others. Totally backwards is fine -- the motor would just step backwards. :) and you could then reverse the connector

    edit: On reviewing the video I am fairly certain that is a stepper driver problem. It could be a faulty stepper, but the symptoms look more like the driver.
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, Jan 18, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  5. coombs

    coombs New Member

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    I am having a very similar problem with the extruder motor skipping. It will work fine, but then it will start to twitch, then work fine again. I've been using this printer for over a year now with no problem like this before. I didn't change anything. Here's a link to my video:

     
    #5 coombs, Jan 18, 2017
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Same issue. It is either the stepper driver (most likely) or the stepper motor.
    You should start your own thread to not confuse the issues in case they are different :)
     
    #6 mark tomlinson, Jan 18, 2017
  7. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @coombs That could be too high acceleration numbers for the extruder motor.
     
    #7 WheresWaldo, Jan 18, 2017
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  8. Dan Ershen

    Dan Ershen New Member

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    Wiring is confirmed correct. Mirrors the other stepper motor wires.

    How would I go about fixing the stepper motor driver?

    And is the driver on the RAMPS board or in the motor itself? Because if it's in the motor itself, I don't know if that is the issue; When I plug the motor into the Z or X axis motors, the extruder motor runs just fine. It's only when it is plugged into the extruder motor pins that it behaves this way.
     
    #8 Dan Ershen, Jan 18, 2017
  9. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    stepper driver is located on the ramps board. You'll see a stepper driver next to every stepper cable. you'll need to tune or replace it and tune it.
     
    #9 Geof, Jan 19, 2017
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    This is a picture of the arduino, ramps and stepper drivers. The stepper drivers are the small cards on the top... they are labeled (on the ramps board) for X/Y/Z (x2)/extruder

    3DKIT1-1-700x700.jpg
     
    #10 mark tomlinson, Jan 19, 2017
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  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    And you cards should have little heat sinks on them (not shown in that picture)

    HTB1dknMFVXXXXaiXXXXq6xXFXXXf.jpg
     
    #11 mark tomlinson, Jan 19, 2017
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  12. Dan Ershen

    Dan Ershen New Member

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    Apparently the heat sink for my extruder stepper driver fell off, causing the chip to fry. Replaced the stepper driver, and the issue is solved!
     
    #12 Dan Ershen, Jan 21, 2017
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