Dual Z steppers to Single

I have a Prusa i3 Variant (Zonestar P802M). It has a Melzi V2 board with 2 Z Axis stepper plugs. I recently upgrade my Z axis to 1 stepper and belt system.

When only 1 stepper is plugged in the Z axis does not move when given instruction. Its like its not there at all. As soon as I plug in the second stepper and have it sitting off to the side it works just fine.

Does anyone know how to make this function on only 1 stepper? Whether that is changing the firmware somehow or adding a harness with a resistor.

Thanks

Simple solution cut plug off unused stepper few inches long put stepper away take plug with the 4 wires strip off some insulation plug it into the board and find which Z axis receptacle gives you a voltage on the black while telling the Z to go up and down once you find it take the stepper you are using cut the black and blue wire and connect to this plug then take the plug already on stepper with red and green wires and plug into other Z axis receptacle. You now have one stepper with two separate plugs on it tape or cut unused wires one plug R G other plug Bk Bl. Your printer came with two steppers with plugs and two receptacles on the board series connected. One receptacle has two traces only going to stepper driver ( black n blue) the other receptacle also only has two traces red and green going back to the driver

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rwt

I didn't know anyone did a V2 with 2 connectors for the Z steppers.
Sounds like they are connected in series so if you disconnect one neither will work. You can search on the web for z stepper motor wiring. I think most use wiring in parallel and only have one connector.
If you look at the wiring for series you can work out which pins to connect on your unused connector. You might need to do some research and retune the power settings as the lower resistance may over heat the controller.

The motors were wired in series - that's why it won't work with only one plugged in. You have to make a plug for the unused motor socket that shorts out the "coils" for that motor and delivers the current to the motor you are using.

Steppers are controlled by current. It doesn't matter if there's one motor connected or two, you should not have to change the motor current setting in the driver.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Quote
Roger123D
Simple solution cut plug off unused stepper few inches long put stepper away take plug with the 4 wires strip off some insulation plug it into the board and find which Z axis receptacle gives you a voltage on the black while telling the Z to go up and down once you find it take the stepper you are using cut the black and blue wire and connect to this plug then take the plug already on stepper with red and green wires and plug into other Z axis receptacle. You now have one stepper with two separate plugs on it tape or cut unused wires one plug R G other plug Bk Bl. Your printer came with two steppers with plugs and two receptacles on the board series connected. One receptacle has two traces only going to stepper driver ( black n blue) the other receptacle also only has two traces red and green going back to the driver

Ok great. I will check with my multi meter which is which and see what happens. Thanks!

ok let me enlighten you if you had only one receptacle on the board and you have 2 Z steppers then the black and blue from Stepper 1 go out to plug you hook up , the red and green from Stepper 2 go to that same plug. Now the red from Stepper 1 gets twisted to the blue from Stepper 2. Then the green from Stepper 1 gets twisted to the black on Stepper 2. the twisted wires do not go to the plug at all this is the wiring diagram I have in my instruction manual. I almost cut and wired my motors this way until I realized my Melzi board had two receptacles so I traced the board and found they made these connections on the board copper paths. By wiring in series you can get away with One Driver sending the same current and waveform through two steppers so they turn the same direction and speed. So if you follow my instructions above it will work as long as you identify which one of those two receptacles on your board has power to black n blue the other will have power to red and green and connect accordingly otherwise it won't work. Your single Stepper will now have 2 separate plugs on it one for each of those two on board receptacles If motor doesn't turn simply swap plug locations. Stepper drivers have 4 outputs for bipolar motors they have sent 2 to one plug the other two go to 2nd plug.

Quote
Roger123D
ok let me enlighten you if you had only one receptacle on the board and you have 2 Z steppers then the black and blue from Stepper 1 go out to plug you hook up , the red and green from Stepper 2 go to that same plug. Now the red from Stepper 1 gets twisted to the blue from Stepper 2. Then the green from Stepper 1 gets twisted to the black on Stepper 2. the twisted wires do not go to the plug at all this is the wiring diagram I have in my instruction manual. I almost cut and wired my motors this way until I realized my Melzi board had two receptacles so I traced the board and found they made these connections on the board copper paths. By wiring in series you can get away with One Driver sending the same current and waveform through two steppers so they turn the same direction and speed. So if you follow my instructions above it will work as long as you identify which one of those two receptacles on your board has power to black n blue the other will have power to red and green and connect accordingly otherwise it won't work. Your single Stepper will now have 2 separate plugs on it one for each of those two on board receptacles If motor doesn't turn simply swap plug locations. Stepper drivers have 4 outputs for bipolar motors they have sent 2 to one plug the other two go to 2nd plug.

Thank you very much for your instructions Roger it s appreciated!