Ramps 1.4 stepper test code weird noise

Hey, I finally got around to hooking up my ramps 1.4. The first thing I did was try and jog in marlin but that didn't work so I went back to basics and tried the testcode for the steppers. I fiddled around with the trim pots and got it to a point where my stepper seems to be running fine. BUT it makes this weird car alarm sound, is this normal? [www.youtube.com]

I know stepper motors can sing when making certain movements but this sounds weird. I tried it on every axis and all 4 motors they are all the same. Could it be something else I should be looking for?

Here's some things to do:

1) Check the power supply, if it's not the right voltage odd things will happen.
2) Check the motor wiring for things like shorts
3) Check the data sheet on your motors, make sure they are right for the drivers
4) Use a DVM and verify that the Vref voltages are in the right range for the current needed by steppers you have

Thanks for the response.

To answer your questions:

1) 12V 47A power supply from a computer server, I use it on my makerbot
2) I believe this steppers have 6 pinouts but the connectors only have 4. I believe it is a 6 wire unipolar but the pinouts the 4 main coil leads to make it bipolar
3) I have searched far and wide and can't find any info on them. they say Minebea 17PM-K104-01V and a small symbol that says astrosyn
4) I will do this tomorrow as several sources did suggest this

ok the best I could find is this data sheet [www.eminebea.com]

it doesn't have exactly my motor but 1 can possibly assume it is inbetween models 17pm-k064 and k142 where they currents are 0.6 and 1.4 respectively. holding torque is in mNm 200 and 280. does that mean 20 and 28 N-cm?

If you can't get data on your motor, you can only guess what it's ratings might be. The motor guys sometimes do really stupid things with their part numbers. I’d bug the people who sold them to you and see if they can supply a spec.

Based on your research I’d start at 0.5A and see how that does. The torque is not the concern at first, burning out the motor windings is. The torque numbers for your motors are < 1/3 the numbers on the motors I use. You may have to run them pretty close to max current.

The lowest setting sounds a bit better but not perfect. that being said, the lowest setting (turning the pot to it's minimum) has really weak torque. I decided to buy some new ones. the new ones are said to have 44 n-cm which I think should suffice. Don't know about a direct drive extruder though, any comments?

If you are talking about a true direct drive extruder (no gears), that's not going to be enough torque. You probably will need 5X that much.

Those new steppers came in and they look pretty good. The only issue is now when I want to jog the robot via prontorface it spins forever and doesn't seem to stop moving. Even at 0.1 increments. I am using marlin modified for delta style movement.

If you change steppers, you may need to change the configuration in your firmware to match them. You certainly will need to change it if you switch out to a new extruder design.

i've been fiddling around with the configuration.h file for the steps etc. is there somewhere else i should be looking at as well? I tried to search for this stuff but could not find much help for the marlin modified delta firmware

Most of the stuff is in configuration.h or the advanced configuration header. As always with open source, the doc's lag a bit behind the code.


Are you running a delta printer? That adds a few issues to the mix...

I sure am running with delta. so I changed firmware from marlin to repetier and it seems to be working pretty well now!