Hi guys,

I need some help. My printer have been working flawless for a long time. Suddenly it started acting strange. Stopping mid print and the steppers did not answer until a reboot of the printer.

I tried:

New arduino
new ramps with new drivers
re flash firmware with auto bed leveling
re flash stock firmware (makerfarm)
disable bed leveling servo
new PSU
re install computer software
new computer fresh install
new USB cable
printing from SD card

all doing the same.


Can a stepper gone bad? they sound and work very fine when I do the pre-print movements but it will only print for a little while then quit. Sometimes a sudden stop or sometimes a sort of down stepping like its buffering more and more moving slower and slower. Sometimes the motors squeal instead of move after I stopped the print. A reboot and they move fine again.

Heaters are "on" but cooling... it seems to think it's still going but it's not

see video of example. (Never mind it not extruding at the moment, slipping on the filament)

[www.youtube.com]

Very grateful for help

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2014 04:18PM by ice.

are you cooling your stepper drivers

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Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

up and running
[3dimetech.blogspot.co.uk]

Quote
chris33
are you cooling your stepper drivers

Thanks for you kind reply

Only the passive cooling, small heat sinks. Have been working for a long while though and I did try with a new ramps with new drivers too.

However I got some ideas from Collin at Makerfarm and we noticed that when I unplugged the USB cable the LCD went blank. So I changed to the new arduino using my old stock ramps. Now the LCD works without USB too and I though it was all ok, but same problem remains.

When the steppers quit the LCD goes blank, the text fades out only the back-light is on. This might be a hint for you guys knowing how the parts work.

I feel 12V to the ramps, does it pass 12V to arduino and arduino makes it own 5v or does the ramps make 5v and pass to arduino?

I noticed the flat resistors controlling nozzle and bed get too hot to touch.

New video too
[www.youtube.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2014 01:23AM by ice.

Have you tried printing from your laptop rather than via SD card to see if the problem remains?

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_______________________________________
Waitaki 3D Printer

Quote
waitaki
Have you tried printing from your laptop rather than via SD card to see if the problem remains?

Same problems usb printing too.

When it fails the 5V drops to 3.3v if that are any hint. Measured on the servo output on RAMPS.

Printing without the bed gives a little longer print time before it freezes. My power supply of the day is a 1kW 30A capable unit that are not dropping in voltage. it keeps 12.0v at all times. But I don't know if it filters out EMC as good as a computer PSU?! does it matter?

Is that a psu, or a battery charger? Can't find any specs on it, and some sites are listing these under the category of battery charger(???)

Wow...sounds like it's being powered with a jackhammer! Has it always been that noisy?

And just between you and me....you should really do something with your wiring. You could have a weak joint somewhere in that mess, and when it gets to a certain z height, and the wires pull in a particular way, could be causing your issue. I would run a print and start moving wires. If it cuts out, then a full wiring check would be a great start.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2014 04:49AM by ShaneH.

Quote
ShaneH
Wow...sounds like it's being powered with a jackhammer! Has it always been that noisy?

And just between you and me....you should really do something with your wiring. You could have a weak joint somewhere in that mess, and when it gets to a certain z height, and the wires pull in a particular way, could be causing your issue. I would run a print and start moving wires. If it cuts out, then a full wiring check would be a great start.

The mess is from trying to find the fault. The sound are not that bad IRL. In normal everything is routed tidy.

Quote
ShaneH
Is that a psu, or a battery charger? Can't find any specs on it, and some sites are listing these under the category of battery charger(???)

It's a switched power supply 12-30volts, 30A. I just orderd a new 650W computer PSU to se if that helps. I started out with a 500W computer unit capable of 20A and it was running very well for a long time, as my problems showed up I changed to the Switched PSU as a step in finding the issue. But I do not know how good the juice are from this unit.

Is your usb cable anywhere near a power cable that can cause it

---

Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

up and running
[3dimetech.blogspot.co.uk]

Quote
chris33
Is your usb cable anywhere near a power cable that can cause it

printing without USB makes the same thing.

The new PSU did not help.

will try disabling steppers and extruder next

now I have the same problem (

Hi, it looks like a problem I got not long ago, and repetier firmware said "SD Card read error", but since it's doing it from usb too idk...

I also had an issue where the endstop wire were too close to the motor wires, and with the current going through them, I had some random triggering on the endstops, causing layer shifts (with repetier, idk how marlin handles endstops triggering during prints).
Are you endstops and motor wires set appart?

I found my problem.
I change orignal usb cable with new, better usb cable, and everything ok again.

check temperature of yours stepper motor and stepper driver

Quote
premek
check temperature of yours stepper motor and stepper driver

He said when the problem occurs the 5 volt rail drops to 3.3 volts. I would say that would almost certainly be the cause of the problem and nothing to do with the stepper driver temperature.

Thanks for all input.

I tried disabeling stuff, starting with the E stepper motor. Suddenly it printed again. I connected the stepper and it fails. I started to fiddle with the stepper drivers adjusting the ports, after a while I realized I had no clue of their position so I started all over and put the all to a minimum and increased until all axles moved without missing steps. All drivers ended up at a lower setting than before and the sound from the motors were allot less and not as hard.

Now it prints again! Fingers crossed.