Stumped on Ramps 1.4. Stepper Wiring. Motors dont work, everything else does.

Hello fellow reprappers,

I'm currently assembling a Prusa i3 and having issues with the wiring of the Ramps 1.4. board. I'm having following Problems:

The stepper motors don't work at all. No noise, no jiggle. Nothing

However: The hotend heats up, and even the heated bed heats up. So the power supply shouldnt be the issue.

I am using Marlin + Pronterface. Everything is wired up, even the endstops (position: normally closed).

My stepper motors have 6 wires, and thats where I think my problem is. I have sorted the 6 wires into pairs of 3 (3 wires per coil, measured connectivity). Then I measured the resistance between the 3 wires and ended up with 6 Ohm and 3 Ohms. I then used the 6 Ohm pair as I figured the last wire was the center of the coil. This procedure was described here. The two wires that were left over, are now just tangling beside the printer. Do they have to be connected to each other or to GND?

I then connected to the ramps board: Coil 1 Coil 1 | Coil 2 Coil 2

I also have installed 3 jumpers below each stepper motor driver.

I seriously can't figure out where my problem is. I have googled for two days and searched through this forum, but only found solutions where people had forgotten to put the stepper motor drivers on the board or the powersupply wasn't strong enough..

Does anyone have an idea where my Problem could be? Are there any commands that I can send to Marlin via Pronterface that check my wiring?

Thanks in advance!

Whatever you do, don't connect the wires from one coil to the other. Also don't connect these to ground. This will either cause very weird operation, or result in frying the stepper drivers.

Q: What stepper drivers have you got? The DRV8825's tend to have the pot on the opposite end of the board to the A4988's, so you want to check that you've got these the correct way around.

Watch this video. You only use 4 wires:

[www.youtube.com]

Cefiar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Whatever you do, don't connect the wires from one
> coil to the other. Also don't connect these to
> ground. This will either cause very weird
> operation, or result in frying the stepper
> drivers.
>
> Q: What stepper drivers have you got? The
> DRV8825's tend to have the pot on the opposite end
> of the board to the A4988's, so you want to check
> that you've got these the correct way around.

I'm using A4988's. The pins on the RAMPS and on the driver boards are labeled, so I could line them up correctly. They are now orientated so that the potentiometers are facing away from the screw terminals.

disneytoy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Watch this video. You only use 4 wires:
>
> [www.youtube.com]
> lpage&v=5thxBgew7N0#t=397

The videos shows exactly how I connected my stepppers.



Furthermore, I have rethought my endstop wiring and came to a halt. When I'm sending the M119 command via pronterface to marlin, I get following result:

SENDING:M119
x_min:L y_min:L z_min:L

When I press one endstops, and then check the endstop status, I get following:

SENDING:M119
x_min:L y_min:L z_min:H

As I am using 'normally connected' endstops (verified by multimeter), I wonder if I need to inverse the endstop values. I thought, nc endstops should produce a default value of 'H' (high), or am I mistaken here? Which value does marlin expect to be 'keep going' and which should be 'endstop hit'?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2013 07:21AM by mattgolt.

> I'm using A4988's. The pins on the RAMPS and on
> the driver boards are labeled, so I could line
> them up correctly. They are now orientated so that
> the potentiometers are facing away from the screw
> terminals.

I hope you don't mean they were fitted the other way round before?

---

_______________________________________
Waitaki 3D Printer

Thanks for everyone for their suggestions. I have finally found my stupid mistake. Even though this thread may die, someone will probably find it via google or the forum search. So I'll describe my problem

I am using a computer ATX power supply that supplies 12V (16A) and 5V. I was confused by the power input on the Ramps board (5A and 11A), so I connected the 12V and 5V to these. I never went back to that point when troubleshooting, but one has to connect 12V to both of the power inputs on the Ramps board.

My stepper wiring (6 wire -> 4 wire) was correct, and so was everything else that I deemed to be the mistake.

i just wanna say thanks...when i read your posts i felt like i wrote them. my situation is exactly, and i mean exactly like yours....and with one little sentence, you turned 2 days of keyboard pounding, solder fumated, stupid stupid stupid reprap screaming chaos into unicorn filled paradise. Your my hero. i feel like a fool for not going back far enough lol....i rebuilt this damn thing about 2 dozen times - always assuming the power was right.

to hear those motors start humming was orgasmic...ish.

hi everybody!

i have the same issue and it's getting frustrating:

- Marlin + Pronterface
- optial end-stops (already inversed the logic in Marlin)
- using the A4988 drivers and they're connected properly
- using 3 jumpers under them
- atx power source is rated at 18 amps - not using a heated bed and the hothead works (heats up pretty fast)
- all i get is a weird vibration from the motors - no rotation

can anybody give me any ideas to where or what i'm doing wrong?

thanks in advance

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2013 04:40AM by adibadro.

It's a much better idea to start a new thread with a new problem rather than tacking on to the end of a different one.

In your case it sounds like the motor current needs to be set or the feed rates are wrong in Marlin.

1) What is the rated current on your motors?
2) What are your feed rates set to in Marlin?
3) What kind of printer are you working with?

WOOOWWWWWW

THANKS!!!!!!

DAYS SEARCHING FOR THE ANSWER!!! I JUST HAD TO CONNECT 12V TO BOTH OF THE POWER INPUTS!!!

Quote
mattgolt
Thanks for everyone for their suggestions. I have finally found my stupid mistake. Even though this thread may die, someone will probably find it via google or the forum search. So I'll describe my problem

I am using a computer ATX power supply that supplies 12V (16A) and 5V. I was confused by the power input on the Ramps board (5A and 11A), so I connected the 12V and 5V to these. I never went back to that point when troubleshooting, but one has to connect 12V to both of the power inputs on the Ramps board.

My stepper wiring (6 wire -> 4 wire) was correct, and so was everything else that I deemed to be the mistake.

i dont know how to connect SMPS to RAMPS 1.4 I studied about RAMPS 1.4 Needs 12V 5A for Stepper and 12 V and 11A for Heatbed ???????
but as per my search i m going to use SMPS with 12V 20A for Both Input supply of RAMPS 1.4 (As per require total power require for RAMPS is 240W=12V *(5A+11A) with adding more 25% for Safety margin )
So please tell me I M RiGHT OR WRONG
i m Mechanical guy i m not that much into electronics
I Will be Appreciate
Help me ASAP

reply me i m new on this site

[forums.reprap.org]

Greetings have Ramps 1.4 to cable up to L298N H bridge stepper controller.

Bridge has inputs 1 - 4 what are the ramps pin out for say the X or Y (found the direction and driver pulses on my CRO no idea where to send them and add what else)?

ramps produces step and direction pins, L298N takes the raw signals to the stepper coils

you need a L297 to translate, or rewrite the ramps firmware, thats a huge job, basically replacing the core design...

See [reprap.org] for eg of L297 & L298N

NB this is very primitive.. you only get full of half stepping. This is what we where using back in 2008‎!..... before pololu modules.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2015 06:35AM by Dust.

Thank you back to the design and do it properly. Cheers Richard