Help please Ramps 1.4 XY issues

OK this might need some explaining.

Setup

Home built frame
Nema 17 motors,
Threaded rod X, Y & Z
Arduino Mega
Ramps 1.4 (Ebay cheapy)
A4988 drivers ( 3 off X,Y & Z)

Firmware - Marlin (with changes for setup, Configuration.h attached Configuration.h)
PC side - PronterFace


Home built 3D Printer/CNC machine which was nearly working

Z was a bit jerky, X & Y were fine.

NOW, after some adjustments

Z perfect, X & Y dead.

I think I fried the X & Y drivers by adjusting them too much and now they won't work but Z does.

I was hoping to finish setting up the board with the remaining driver while some more were in the post

BUT

If I try each motor on the Z driver/port on the Ramps board they work fine.

If I move the working driver to the Y position on the board and try the motors they just about move and are jerky and wont move correctly, same with the X postion.

Any ideas why when the driver board is in the Z position all motors work, but in X or Y position none of them work, could I have a setting wrong in configuration.h, or completely blown my boards ?

Quote
ITWhiz
OK this might need some explaining.

Setup

Home built frame
Nema 17 motors,
Threaded rod X, Y & Z
Arduino Mega
Ramps 1.4 (Ebay cheapy)
A4988 drivers ( 3 off X,Y & Z)

Firmware - Marlin (with changes for setup, Configuration.h attached [attachment 52040 Configuration.h])
PC side - PronterFace


Home built 3D Printer/CNC machine which was nearly working

Z was a bit jerky, X & Y were fine.

NOW, after some adjustments

Z perfect, X & Y dead.

I think I fried the X & Y drivers by adjusting them too much and now they won't work but Z does.

I was hoping to finish setting up the board with the remaining driver while some more were in the post

BUT

If I try each motor on the Z driver/port on the Ramps board they work fine.

If I move the working driver to the Y position on the board and try the motors they just about move and are jerky and wont move correctly, same with the X postion.

Any ideas why when the driver board is in the Z position all motors work, but in X or Y position none of them work, could I have a setting wrong in configuration.h, or completely blown my boards ?

Do you have all the jumpers in place under the driver boards?
What are your Steps/mm on each axis?
What size threaded rod?
Are all the motors the same?

Doug

HI, is your stepper not working? I am facing the same problem. I just input the sprinter, but my stepper which connect to x axis not work, I don't know why either, maybe it is the problem of the code?

My email lsu@syr.edu
315 436 7861

Hi all ,

Thanks for the replies so far

Yes all jumpers are inplace under the driver boards, the 3 steppers are

Xaxis - 17PM-K502-G1ST (4 wire)
Yaxis - EM-233 STP-42D135-01 (5 wires but only using 4 outer)
Zaxis - EM-233 STP-42D135-01 (5 wires but only using 4 outer)

As mentioned before

If I leave the driver board in the Z Slot and connect each Stepper to the Z they all work perfectly, and the steps per mm are spot on perfect, but moving the driverboard to X or Y they do not work.

The original stepper driver boards for X & Y I think are blown as even the Arduino will not work if these are plugged in.

I've removed the load from the stepper (disconnected the threaded bar) and they still don't work on the X or Y.

All the steps per mm are set the same (2650), which I've calibrated on the Z axis as being spot on.

The Z Jerk is set as 0.4,
and I did set the X/Y Jerk to the same, I'm now thinking this may be wrong, but as all the threaded bars are the same then why shouldn't it be the same.

Quote
ITWhiz
Hi all ,

Thanks for the replies so far

Yes all jumpers are inplace under the driver boards, the 3 steppers are

Xaxis - 17PM-K502-G1ST (4 wire)
Yaxis - EM-233 STP-42D135-01 (5 wires but only using 4 outer)
Zaxis - EM-233 STP-42D135-01 (5 wires but only using 4 outer)

As mentioned before

If I leave the driver board in the Z Slot and connect each Stepper to the Z they all work perfectly, and the steps per mm are spot on perfect, but moving the driverboard to X or Y they do not work.

The original stepper driver boards for X & Y I think are blown as even the Arduino will not work if these are plugged in.

I've removed the load from the stepper (disconnected the threaded bar) and they still don't work on the X or Y.

All the steps per mm are set the same (2650), which I've calibrated on the Z axis as being spot on.

The Z Jerk is set as 0.4,
and I did set the X/Y Jerk to the same, I'm now thinking this may be wrong, but as all the threaded bars are the same then why shouldn't it be the same.

Ok think you have answered your own question here (Blown/faulty Driver boards these are very easy to blow if you have a break in the connection at any time whilst they are powered up ie by unplugging a motor or if you have an intermittent connector) but just to prove it have you tried the Driver from the Z axis in either the X or Y positions and tested the motors there?

Hi again

From the text above
'If I leave the driver board in the Z Slot and connect each Stepper to the Z they all work perfectly, and the steps per mm are spot on perfect, but moving the driverboard to X or Y they do not work.'

I've tried all the combinations of swapping driver boards and motors, but still can't understand if I use the last working driver board in any position it only works in the Z slot.

The only other thing I thought of is is the RAMPS jumpers are set to 1/16 steps but the Marlin software is set to something different.

Is there somewhere in the Marlin configuration files that sets the step increments i.e 1/4,1/8, 1/16 etc

Quote
ITWhiz
Hi again

From the text above
'If I leave the driver board in the Z Slot and connect each Stepper to the Z they all work perfectly, and the steps per mm are spot on perfect, but moving the driverboard to X or Y they do not work.'

I've tried all the combinations of swapping driver boards and motors, but still can't understand if I use the last working driver board in any position it only works in the Z slot.

The only other thing I thought of is is the RAMPS jumpers are set to 1/16 steps but the Marlin software is set to something different.

Is there somewhere in the Marlin configuration files that sets the step increments i.e 1/4,1/8, 1/16 etc

No there isn't it is set by the Steps per mm setting and sorry I had missed the point of moving the drivers around so that leaves me to suspect that your Ramps board maybe faulty or the firmware is configured incorrectly you could try flashing with Repetier (Use his online config tool to get it setup) and try again if it still doesn't work then I would suspect either the Ramps or the Mega to be at fault but more likely the Ramps.

Doug Sorry I can't be of more help.

It's only the steps per mm in Marlin that defines the stepping along with the hardware jumpers.
If you set X and Y steps/mm the same as Z and they still don't work I think it suggests that the Ramps or the mega board may be faulty.

Just a thought - Have you enabled eeprom support? If so, any changes in your uploaded Marlin will not override the settings stored in internal memory.
You will need to restore defaults or send M502 and M500 (read settings/ save settings)

-a

Just as a me too. I had this problem where I had no X or Y stepper movement.

I found my problem was with the pins to the Arduino. The set of pins that plugs into A0-A7 were not installed straight when I inserted the ramps board into the Arduino the pins did not line up and failed to insert.

After troubleshooting the signals and removed the ramps board I noticed the pin header was bent. Once I straightened the header and aligned the pins every thing worked as expected.

ITWhiz

have you read [reprap.org] ?

You have 5 wire Unipolar steppers, and standard pololu Bipolar drivers....



You cant just use the ouside 4 connectors as the centre taps join the two coils together inside the motor

ie " A 5 lead motor has both centre taps connected, so re-wiring them to a 4 lead version requires at least opening the motor, if it can be done at all. "

I cant see how this ever worked, as you say it did....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2015 05:03AM by Dust.

hello :

5 wire is posible bipolar ? no ?
[www.youtube.com]

In the youtube video he is only powering 1 pair of coils at a time. Powering one coil sends part of the power to the other coil. The other coil is not connected to anything so that is not a problem.
A bipolar driver sends power to both coils at the same time with the direction and level of power constantly changing with each step
Feeding a 5 wire with a bipolar driver would have current levels in each coil being wrong as a coil would be receiving power from both sides of the drive at the same time.
This results in power being fed back where it would destroy the driver if power is too high .

Do not power a 5 wire motor with a bipolar driver!