Restarts when moving steppers

when I move my z axis up and down rapidly the whole system resets. The bed-leveling servo jitters wildly when moving any axis, but its plenty worse on the Z.

Ive replaced the ramps, removed stepper drivers, removed the 5v jumper for servos, nothing seems to work.

The power in at the end of the ramps begins to fluctuate and drops to 3v right before the reset occurs. Is it time for a new power supply? what else could it be?

edit the voltage at the end of the ramps doesn't always drop

My setup:
mendelmax 1.5+
Ramps 1.4/arduino mega/4 plololu stepper drivers
heated bed
runs solely off its own 35 watt psu(not entirely sure about the wattage)
no plugins to any computers, just a screen that plugs into the ramps.


this thread is very similar to what i have going on but, found no solution there: [forums.reprap.org]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2015 07:44PM by bodaciousbrian.

Check the power input connector on the RAMPS - it could be fried. Barring that, sounds like a bad power supply . . .

- Tim

well, 2 separate ramps boards had the same issue, ill buy a new power supply and see if that helps. thanks Tim!

How are you moving the Z axis rapidly? Are you using a jog function or are you manually forcing it to move?

---

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

Quote
the_digital_dentist
How are you moving the Z axis rapidly? Are you using a jog function or are you manually forcing it to move?

With the move stepper option under Prepare in the lcd.. I say rapidly but it is quite slow. just +10 cm back to 0 repeat, it wont ever move more than 15 cm total before it fails. 30 seconds total.

The main symptom I see other than shutdown is chatter in the servo. All axis cause interference on that servo, but none are anywhere close to as bad as the Z, I suspect its because it has 2 steppers and draws more currant.

The restarts still occur when the servo is unplugged all together.

This whole thing was noticed because i had just replaced that servo, due to wires being constantly stretched, it would fire randomly when my x axis would move to far to one side. I have tried 2 other servos, and the original one again and all work the same way, with lots of jittering.

My servo wires are totally separated from all other wires servo has been powered by:
Powering directly from the powers supply and only connecting the stepper data line to the ramps, on the d11 pin,
data to d11 and power from adjacent 5v and ground wires using the 5v jumper located toward the power supply from d11,
data to d11 and power from Other servo controller such as 5v/ground next to pin d4

All ways of powering the servo suffer the same massive jitters.

Quote
bodaciousbrian
With the move stepper option under Prepare in the lcd.. I say rapidly but it is quite slow. just +10 cm back to 0 repeat, it wont ever move more than 15 cm total before it fails. 30 seconds total.

The main symptom I see other than shutdown is chatter in the servo. All axis cause interference on that servo, but none are anywhere close to as bad as the Z, I suspect its because it has 2 steppers and draws more currant.

First, are you using servo motors or steppers? How are you driving them? How do other axes cause chatter in which stepper/servo?

Quote
bodaciousbrian
The restarts still occur when the servo is unplugged all together.

Are you saying when the Z axis motors are disconnected and you tell the thing to jog the Z axis the board still resets?

Quote
bodaciousbrian
This whole thing was noticed because i had just replaced that servo, due to wires being constantly stretched, it would fire randomly when my x axis would move to far to one side. I have tried 2 other servos, and the original one again and all work the same way, with lots of jittering.

It sounds like the motor wire broke while the machine was operating. That is the same as disconnecting the motor while the machine is operating which will usually destroy the stepper driver module. Try replacing the module(s).

Quote
bodaciousbrian
My servo wires are totally separated from all other wires servo has been powered by:
Powering directly from the powers supply and only connecting the stepper data line to the ramps, on the d11 pin,
data to d11 and power from adjacent 5v and ground wires using the 5v jumper located toward the power supply from d11,
data to d11 and power from Other servo controller such as 5v/ground next to pin d4

All ways of powering the servo suffer the same massive jitters.

Draw a diagram that shows the wiring between the controller board, power supplies, and motors, take a picture of it and post it here.

---

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

Quote
the_digital_dentist
First, are you using servo motors or steppers? How are you driving them? How do other axes cause chatter in which stepper/servo?

All steppers except the bed auto level micro servo. All steppers are driven by the pololu drivers on the ramps board. It is the bed auto-level servo that chatters, and I dont know why.

Quote
the_digital_dentist
Are you saying when the Z axis motors are disconnected and you tell the thing to jog the Z axis the board still resets?

Yes. Changing out the pololu sheild has no effect either.

Quote
the_digital_dentist
It sounds like the motor wire broke while the machine was operating. That is the same as disconnecting the motor while the machine is operating which will usually destroy the stepper driver module. Try replacing the module(s).

I only have 1 extra driver, i replaced the Z and swapped the order of the rest, they had no change at all, still they all cause a bit of chatter, but wont reset or freeze the machine, with the exception of the Z.

Quote
the_digital_dentist
Draw a diagram that shows the wiring between the controller board, power supplies, and motors, take a picture of it and post it here.

i didn't draw in any sensors, but they are are where they belong =)

Do you really have a microservo that runs on 12V? (Usually they run on 5- 6V max....)

If so, the chatter and reset might be caused by a ground loop.
Can you reroute the servo GND to the pin header, where the servo-signal comes from?

-Olaf

If you run the Z axis up and down without the servo plugged in, does the controller still reset itself?

---

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

Sorry i havent been around to reply, I work a month at a time =/

Quote
o_lampe
Do you really have a microservo that runs on 12V? (Usually they run on 5- 6V max....)

No, I forgot to diagram the step-down, it runs on 5v.


I've replaced the power supply, the ramps, the pololu drivers, all thats left to replace is the arduino. I have lost my backup files for the marlin setup I was using so im currently redoing all of that.. If it doesnt work the only thing I can think to do is is get a new arduino, and/or a whole new electronics setup..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2015 05:57PM by bodaciousbrian.

Quote
the_digital_dentist
If you run the Z axis up and down without the servo plugged in, does the controller still reset itself?

No, it only happens when the servo is plugged in..

Just updated marlin, and it still occurs

I think your problem is poor power to the servo, or a bad conection to the servo ground wire. How are you powering it: what exactly is the step-down you mentioned?

---

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].

I've experienced a few freezes when I turned the encoder too fast or too much with 1.0.2 Marlin version. ( some kind of stack overflow? )
Especially worse on Z-axis, because each step is limited to 1mm per menu.

The newer Marlin version has a dynamic encoder algorithm. Maybe they sorted out the bugs too?
-Olaf