Stepper driver a4988 getting hot too fast.

Hello everybody,

I just received my Ramps 1.4 from sainsmart, took me a littlewhile to figure out how to set everything.
And here is my problem, the stepper of the z axis is getting hot, more than 60°c just from a 0.1mm move.
I've tried other driver on the same socket other stepper motor, to miror on to an other driver (extruder1), to move it to extruder 1 as well.
I try to set different voltage on the driver from 0.6 to 1.5volts, whereas other driver are fine and the steppers turns smoothly the z axis is still overheating.

I guess the problem is not from my ramps or the arduino but from the firmware. I'm using the repeiter 0.92.4 with a xbox 360 power supply...

Any ideas ?

Cheers,
Lucas.

The most probable things would be that the current is set to high, or your are trying to draw to many amps. A4988 drivers are only good for about 1a, probably 1.5a with cooling. Otherwise, if your z axis moves .1mm when you tell it to, its not likely firmware but try to lower acceleration and speed. Also check for jumpered solder joints under your ramps to make sure nothing is shorting out.

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Prusa i3 Rework - Ramps 1.4 - E3d Lite6 - Full Graphic LCD Controller

Ok, definetly not the firmware! Now i've tried moving Z axis on the X driver and it works so the problem is on the board.
I don't know if arduino or ramps but I don't have any problems on uploading and the motors even if they are not spinning reveive an impulsion so I guess Ramp is faulty.
I've been checking all the solders and I can't see anything wrong I checked all the pins of the faulty drivers socket for shortcut ans compare them to the ones that works and not shortcut or poor contact...

What else can I check ?

Those sainsmart board seems poor quality fabrication...

anyway thanks for your time!

Hi, have you solve your problem?

Quote
lucas1414
Ok, definetly not the firmware! Now i've tried moving Z axis on the X driver and it works so the problem is on the board.
I don't know if arduino or ramps but I don't have any problems on uploading and the motors even if they are not spinning reveive an impulsion so I guess Ramp is faulty.
I've been checking all the solders and I can't see anything wrong I checked all the pins of the faulty drivers socket for shortcut ans compare them to the ones that works and not shortcut or poor contact...

What else can I check ?

Check the current setting on the driver board, as the previous reply suggested.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].