Techzone Motor runs HOT

The Y axis on my tech zone Huxley runs Hot. Like SUPER hot. Like as in... it starts to warp the gear and it starts to slide on the motor instead of turning with it. I followed the guide on their wiki for setting the variable pots however when I was adjusting it it either runs too hot or doesn't run at all. I updated the firmware and that helped a bit. It helped by allowing me to run my printer for 30 minutes instead of 15.

I think it's a firmware issue. Where should I be looking. What am I missing?

If I put epoxy on the motor/gear to hold it down would that work? Anybody have experience with epoxy and heat?



Edit: Apologies for adding another techzone Huxley post.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2012 08:03PM by Atomhax.

Mmm I fail to see why the firmware would do that to a single motor only.

Could you try inverting the X and Y motors connections to the board please ? if you also invert the endstops you should be able to print as usual (except your objects will get turned 90° I believe).

If the X motor starts to get hot and no longer the Y, then the motor driver chip on your Monotronics board might be the culprit, and the fix probably will involve some messing up with the board (verifying solder joints on the chip, changing the chip...) or electronics replacement as the driver chips are soldered on Monotronics.

If It's still the Y motor which gets hot, then the motor might be somewhat faulty. In that case you might want to try opening it and dropping some oil on the bearing(s), and verifying if anything seems to block its rotation (I wouldn't recommend opening a working motor as it could damage it but if it's faulty it might be worth trying). Or replacing it.


A possible workaround could be to active cool the motor (heatsink + fan) but that would only give you some more printing time.


Apart from that, can you manually move the Y axis ? Is it harder to move than the X ? You could have a misalignment problem.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

Thanks for the quick response.

OK, These are all Great Ideas.

Most of the time all I've been able to print are blobs because of this issue. I kinda lost hope in my printer after that. Now that this semester is over I had new found energy to devote to getting nice looking prints. It hadn't occurred to me that the chip on the board may be the issue. I'm going to check this out as soon as I get off work.

I'll post back with an update.

If adjusting the pots doesn't get you a comfortable motor temperature, you need to look for possible causes.

First, disconnect the belt, and see how smoothly the Y axis moves. If it's difficult for you to move it, then loosen up the smooth rod mounts, and reposition them so that it's easier to move.

If it moves smoothly and easily, then look at the firmware settings - acceleration could be set too high.

If it turns out that you just can't find a cause, or think that the motor is just a bit too weak, you can add a heatsink and fan to the motor, to help keep it cool.

@DeuxVis

So I guess it took me a little while to "get off of work". I moved places so my rep-rap was sitting idle for a while. I had taken it apart so I was reassembling the axis. I tried switching the X and Y motors. It has the same problem, just now on the other motor. Whichever motor is hooked up to the Y axis port on the board, overheats in about 3 minutes.

@raldrich

Since it had been idle for a while I'm going to try and adjust the POTs again. In case that doens't work where do I look for the acceleration settings?




I don't want to give up on this Huxley yet.

When you say manually move the motor do you mean with my hand, while it's on? Because, I cannot move any of them with my hand when it's on, it's to strong. However, I can control all the motors using rep-snapper or replicatorg

Atomhax Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When you say manually move the motor do you mean
> with my hand, while it's on? Because, I cannot
> move any of them with my hand when it's on, it's
> to strong. However, I can control all the motors
> using rep-snapper or replicatorg

He means off and with the belt disconnected from the carriage.

Ok, so I can move all the motors by hand without issue. I assume it's an issue with the electronics. As a last ditch effort, should/could I pass over the driver chips with my heat gun, maybe the connections are bad?

The only thing I can think of on the board which can cause a motor to always run hot is the adjustment pot. It's possible that it just isn't working, and current is never being limited - or, it's possible that you simply haven't turned it down far enough.

If there's no setting for the pot where the motor stops turning at all, then the pot isn't working - resoldering it may help.

I'll give it a shot tonight. I'll be sure to post whatever happens for future people. I think you're on to something.

Update: There is something wrong with the POT. I was measuring the amps on my multimeter. Every other motor is at around .4-.5 amps. The Y port that I've always been having issues with is at like 1.6 amps. If I try and adjust it, it goes down to 0.2 or back up to 1.6, there's not middle ground. I even brought in my wife, she has delicate hands, and no amount of precise adjusting would fix the issue.

I measured the amps using the notes written by BenM on the Wiki [reprap.org].


I'm going to try so more things, I'll post an update here... in case anyone else has similar issues.