pololu/stepstick driver failures - details please

Hi all,

Has anyone had pololu/stepstick drivers fail on their printers. Can anyone give any indication on how fragile they are and what they can/cannot tolerate. I'm not assembling in unclean conditions and the soldering iron i use has a clean tip. The solder i use is low melting point flux core to minimise heat damage/maximise clean connections.

I have built circuits to control my extruder using the layout attached which have worked fine. However i have recently had two stepstick drivers fail on me in the space of two days. The first one just refused to work and i pretty much soldered it to death on both sides thinking it was a connection issue. It is now in stepstick heaven.....or should that be hell since it didn't work.

The second driver i tried, i soldered it, a lot less than stepstick number 1 fitted it into the stepper driver circuit and it worked right away.

With regards to the circuit, i used the same one by using female headers instead of soldering the drivers directly onto the board. This is easier as if something fries, you can (in theory) just replace the chip.

Anyways, I had a fully functioning stepper driver yesterday and when i tried to test print today after sorting a motherboard issue, i had no response from my stepper driver.the printer was not turned on, nor was the circuit/driver modified in any way between it working and not wroking. I have now tried the stepper driver in another circuit using different components and get the same outcome. I checked for short circuits and wiring connections and all were fine.I tried a different stepper driver from anouther machine and this worked so its not a power issue. Again, i soldered it to death, this one might have made it to stepstick heaven.

So, to sum up, Stepper Driver Circuit/Driver worked one day, didn't work the next ,need some clarification on why the same components work one day and not the next,

Thanks

Raj

We get duds from time to time, don't know if its us are if they are DOA. Pololu say each one is tested and don't replace if dud, nor will they take them back and check them over

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

Hi NelsonRap,

That's pretty much the same response I get from my stepstick supplier. I asked for the supplier to let me know what tests were run on the drivers as there is a chance they get damaged during transit. I know that died during transit doesn't differ from dead on arrival much but at least they can be returned in an unused state.

It's a bit of a catch 22 with suppliers saying they only accept faulty returns in unused condition but the only way to find out they don't work is to solder them into a circuit/into headers.

Thanks,

Raj

I blew one by inserting it back to front and had another DOA (could have been due to the first accident).

I've seen a test rig for stepsticks/pololu's which used push on connectors. The connectors looked about 2mm with slightly pointed heads (so they stayed in place).
I'll try and dig up a photo, if I can remember where I saw it.

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My Reprap blog

jds-reprap.blogspot.com