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Z-axis motors jambing and buzzing with Mac OS 10.9.5

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by jaltwies, Oct 10, 2014.

  1. jaltwies

    jaltwies New Member

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    Worked with Brian at tech support last week with great success. Matter Hacker was not communicating with z-axis motors periodically. motor would stall and buzz. Brain suggested trying Repetier as the MH software was buggy with this Mac OS update. All was working fine and I was fiddling with the z-offset to get a good first layer print and Repetier started doing the same thing...buzzing and stalled Z-axis movement randomly.

    Brian mentioned we may need to re-flash the arduino...any input?
     
    #1 jaltwies, Oct 10, 2014
  2. jaltwies

    jaltwies New Member

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    Well, not just that version of Mac OS. Tried with an older Mac laptop running 10.6.8 and same failure. HELP???
     
    #2 jaltwies, Oct 10, 2014
  3. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Jamming and buzzing is more likely a sign of torque issue. Either the stepper motors are stalling from too much friction, the stepper drivers are under amped, or the stepper drivers are over amped.

    If you'd like, MatterHackers should be the one troubleshooting MatterControl issues on mac: http://www.matterhackers.com/community/forum
     
    #3 Mike Kelly, Oct 13, 2014
  4. jaltwies

    jaltwies New Member

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    I'd be inclined to think it is a torque issue if it stalled every time the z-axis moved but that's not the case. Sometimes the R1 completes the 9 point self leveling and sometimes it stalls. Does this in Repetier and Matter hacker...
     
    #4 jaltwies, Oct 13, 2014
  5. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Stall doesn't have to be consistent. Sometimes the threads seat one way and the stiction is low, and another time they can have higher stiction.

    What you describe sounds more like a stepper issue.

    How good are you at using a multimeter?
     
    #5 Mike Kelly, Oct 13, 2014
  6. jaltwies

    jaltwies New Member

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    very good with a multimeter. I've lubed the threads with light weight machine oil and it still jambs.
     
    #6 jaltwies, Oct 13, 2014
  7. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Ok, let's measure the voltage on the stepper drivers.

    http://i.imgur.com/wbo9IsZ.png

    You might need to move the heatsink a bit to access Vref.

    Compare this voltage against the voltage on another stepper driver.
     
    #7 Mike Kelly, Oct 13, 2014
  8. Shigemal

    Shigemal Member

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    #8 Shigemal, Jul 17, 2015

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