Firmware issues: V1.8 ZPL

Hi All
I downloaded the latest RepRapFirmware-108f-zpl.bin a week ago... I still use pronterface to drive my printer
BUT after installing the firmware things went SOUTH..... as soon as the printer started to do a fill in it would vibrate the table excessively and skip some steps, offsetting the y axis by as much as 10mm!!
Believe it or not but this "blew" some stepper drivers on the DUET(currents were X800,Z1000,Y800,E1000), first the extruder stepper started acting up, then the Y-axis vibrated badly. i thought it was the belts... but when manually stepping no issues..
I then got a warrantee exchange...
I then installed the same firmware on the replacement board and same thing with the table vibrating like mad
I then erased the board and installed the latest REPRAP MASTER V109 and all was fine
I tested every wire and checked for dry joints so the wiring was 100%

The only common factor was V1.8 from ZPL.....
At first the circles started to deform, then later most prints skipped in the y-axis


and then that was it... new DUET later

Tx Ben

Sorry to hear you were experiencing this kind of problem, but it sounds very unlikely to me that this was caused specifically by my firmware fork, especially because the official RRP firmware 1.09 uses exactly the same move and hardware code as my 1.08f release. Can you confirm the precompiled firmware binary is identical to the one I provide on my GitHub site (preferably by comparing the checksums using MD5 or so)? I've been using the provided firmware binary since I released it on both of my machines, and I have never noticed anything like that.

I'd rather think you have an intermittent connection somewhere in your Y-axis motor wiring loom, which would explain why it starts shaking and why at least one of your stepper drivers was blown (inductions at this point can easily damage them).

But out of curiosity, can you also provide your config.g file and the G-code you were trying to print? I guess you were trying to print from the SD card, weren't you? I could try them out on my Ormerods and check if I can reproduce the behaviour you described, however I'm sceptical that it will show exactly the same behaviour.

i had that problem when i had badly attached cable to the stepper motors ,it would vibrate to hell ,but luckly i noticed quickly before any damage was done.

My humble apology to ZPL

It turns out that the culprit was many fold:
1- Under the silver "shield" foil I found a wire that was poorly cut and nicked by the supplier/assembler, this made direct contact to earth/shield..... and seems to have damaged the motor driver
hence the problem was enhanced when I pushed up the current from 800 to 1000 on the Y-axis....this popped the chip
2- The other issue was the X-Axis belt that slipped ever so slightly and then the cause the offsets...it also seems that the stepper connections are intermittent, If I push/pull the connector the stepper skips.. even after re-wiring the loom


Tx Ben

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2015 03:03PM by BenBB.