Hi all, I have a home built 3d printer. It uses Arduino mega, ramps 1.4, and A4988 step controllers. things have been going along nicely until last weekend. I was doing a print that took about 24 hours, and when the print was finished, I homed the print head. x and y worked great, but when the z started down, it was very erratic, and then it just stopped. I ended up swapping out A4988's and then it worked fine for about 10 minutes, then it too died. I swapped it out again, and this time I made sure that the pot was turned down to limit the current. I have printed two pretty big projects since then, but this morning the Z was again dead. I swapped out my last good a4988 and made sure the pot was turned down. I also put an amp meter inline. my 2 Z motors were drawing 120mA. I homed the Z and it moved about 2 inches and then died. does anyone have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? I know that prior to the first controller dying I had a Z crash. ( homed outside of the bed too far) but it ran for a few days after that. any ideas on what I have hurt? thanks. https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,547993#msg-547993 Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:36:43 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,548084#msg-548084 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,548084#msg-548084
If the motors become disconnected while the unit is powered on, you're more likely to damage the drivers, especially if you do this repeatedly. If you've got a loose connector or bad solder joint and the machine vibrates during movement it could make-break this connection a lot causing the driver to fail.]]> Cefiar RAMPS Electronics Thu, 20 Aug 2015 19:29:06 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,548018#msg-548018 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,548018#msg-548018
I swapped out ramps boards. problem went away.]]> n2Jesus RAMPS Electronics Thu, 20 Aug 2015 16:18:01 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,547993#msg-547993 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?219,547993,547993#msg-547993 I have a home built 3d printer. It uses Arduino mega, ramps 1.4, and A4988 step controllers.

things have been going along nicely until last weekend.

I was doing a print that took about 24 hours, and when the print was finished, I homed the print head.

x and y worked great, but when the z started down, it was very erratic, and then it just stopped.

I ended up swapping out A4988's and then it worked fine for about 10 minutes, then it too died.

I swapped it out again, and this time I made sure that the pot was turned down to limit the current.

I have printed two pretty big projects since then, but this morning the Z was again dead.

I swapped out my last good a4988 and made sure the pot was turned down. I also put an amp meter inline.

my 2 Z motors were drawing 120mA. I homed the Z and it moved about 2 inches and then died.

does anyone have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?

I know that prior to the first controller dying I had a Z crash. ( homed outside of the bed too far) but it ran for a few days after that.

any ideas on what I have hurt?

thanks.]]> n2Jesus RAMPS Electronics Thu, 20 Aug 2015 15:24:01 -0400