Stepstick stepper drivers with Gen 7 1.4.1

I bought these stepstick stepper drivers from ebay Ebay Stepper drivers around a month or two ago.

Failed to configure the, out of 5 I found out that two would respond well to the changes in the Pot,

for the rest of the 3, tweeking Pot didn't make any difference, sometimes giving a move command from pronterface would only generate a single pulse, the PSU would turn on a for a second and go back to standby. Their attached motor would make a single buzz/beep and that's it. Turning the Pot won't make any difference. Even if they some how worked for a minute or half they would not work the next time.

Sometimes they would not do anything won't even turn ON the PSU.

I tried the other two good drivers on every axes and every motor, all the motors moved fine with which ever axes I tried.

The Vref on the trimpot for these two drivers read 0.2V to 1.6V when attached to the Extruder motor and 1.2V -1.6V on all the other motors, when they moved.

Tried tweeking the other 3 but they did not move the motor even at the same Vref for any of the axes or any of the motors.

Every time I would send a command to the Y axis from the pronterface, it would send the G Code and immediately after that restart the board, just as pressing the reset button would do whichever the driver/motor combo. Is it meant to be like that or what ?

[www.dropbox.com]

Last thing the Good drivers now would get too hot and one of them even got burned (So just one working driver left ) and that too is getting too hot.

Is it that since none of the other attached drivers work all the current is being drawn by the working one or any such thing? And is it the time to call all the other drivers dead ?

These are the stepper motors I am using:
Vexta PX243m-01A

Quote

the PSU would turn on a for a second and go back to standby

That's not a fault of the stepper driver. As long as the PSU isn't on, you can't expect the motor to move.

Likely your PSU needs a base load: [reprap.org]

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

The PSU is ON but in standby mode. That is the PSU fan is not ON.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2013 09:28AM by iamay.

If you refuse to add a load to your PSU while it needs one, I can't help you.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I dont understand it someone on reprap channel told me that the fans would turn on only when the motors need to move.

And anyways I have a PC fan attached to the disk power connector and it turns on only when the PSU would and when the PSU fan would and the two other stepper drivers work fine with this setup.

Quote

the two other stepper drivers work fine with this setup.

If your other stepper drivers work fine, your driver or the circuitry very close to it is at fault. Another possible reason for a PSU to turn off is a short. Like a short happening as soon as you try to move the motor. Try swapping the drivers and if the fault happens always at the same place, look at this closer.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Uhh I regret writing it all in one post you didn't bother to read it completely.

Unfortunately some of the stuff you get off ebay can be pretty dodgy. The fact that the AVR is resetting suggests there is a power draw on the 5V line causing the chip to reset, it could also be excessive current through the AVR. This could happen if you have an output pin shorted to ground or +5V.

There could be a short in the stepper drivers, or on the board, it's hard to tell from a distance.

I am having some problem with this particular axis the third one from the 24 Pin PSU connector side, every time I would try to move this axis the firmware resets doesn't matter if there is any driver attached or not.

I checked multiple times there is no cold solder joint or short there but there is this difference I have found in the Gen 7 1.4.1 layout on the wiki and one I generated from the Geda file. Check the attached images

Quote

there is this difference I have found in the Gen 7 1.4.1 layout on the wiki and one I generated from the Geda file.

Looks like you "generated" the Gen7 v1.5 layout. There's text on the copper side telling you which version it is. Unfortunately you removed this text on your etched board (to hide who designed the layout?), so you have to remember yourself what you got from where.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I still have the file and here is the file open in Geda.. Note the difference in the comparison photo and do you think it is the cause of my problem

Oh well, in the file "Geda- Copy.JPG" a track got lost. The yellow line represents a "rat" line, a track yet to be connected. As this is the track for the Enable signal, yes, this is a likely cause for no steppers moving. Completing the layout with a piece of wire should help.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Well I made the connection but it make no difference, the problem persists. Check the attached screencap note the Highlighted commands, they are for the Y axis.

SOLVED. there was a tiny short.