New Problem All the Sudden: x-axis vibration, shutter, lock

Hi everyone,

my printer has been working fine for a couple weeks but all of the sudden a problem has developed with the x-axis motion. It moves fine manually moving the axis with smartcontroller or pronterface and sometimes will "home" ok but shortly after starting a print the x-axis will stop moving and vibrate loudly. It seems like the stepper is moving and then reversing really quickly but the result is no motion and a loud noise.

I did recently clean up my wiring with some shrink-wrap and braided sheaths; however, it seemed to print fine immediately after that so I think the wiring is ok. Like I said in the title this just started today out of the blue. Ramps 1.4.

Any advise and/or likely things to check for would be much appreciated.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 07:18PM by erlau.

unbundle your wires and see if it prints ok. If it does then it means you were getting EMI (crosstalk) on one of your wires somewhere. If it doesn't fix it then we can begin narrowing it down.

What you can try first is to swap around the x stepper driver with a different axis. I'm making an assumption that you don't have an all in one controller. If the problem follows the driver then you can suspect the driver.

Basically, the best way to troubleshoot your printer is going to be swapping items, in my opinion.

You should also check your connectors at the board and motor. I had this issue when one of the pins pushed out of the connector from the plastic housing. Could also be you broke one of the wires loose.

Twisting pairs of wires together helps to cut down on interference. I twist each pair of stepper wires, hot end heater wires, bed heater wires, and thermistor wires together. Keeping them short helps also.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll unbundle the wires and try twisting the pairs as well as trying to swap the problem motor with a different axis.