Extruder Whining

Hey Guys,

My mendel have got temp sensing, heat control and working axis. The thing that is not behaving is the extruder stepper.

When I turn it on and connect to my laptop, it gives out a loud whine. It moves clockwise one step (1.6V), anti clockwise one step (-0.7V) for a few seconds before coming to a stop, still whining.

I am using tech zone's extruder controller board, v2.2. tech zone Motherboard v1.2.

When I click extrude on the Reprap host software, I am not getting any error message when i click extrude button. I am using latest reprap firmware.

I wonder if its a hardware or software side problem. Or should i just go for a 4th stepper controller?

could someone help me out here?

thanks.

... are the two SDA/SCA-pins (=DIR/CLOCK) right oriented?

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

4th?! what happened to 1 2 and 3?

@mlagana: 1, 2 and 3 went for X, Y and Z.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Go with a 4th stepper and don't look back.... I wasted endless hours trying to make the extruder board work properly...
As soon as I hooked up the 4th stepper all was good with the world! (I think it solved world hunger as well).

Dan

Hi,
I am having a hard time finding instructions for adding a 4th stepper controller for the extruder. I am probably using poor search terms :-(. All I have found is to connect SCL to stepper DIR pin and SDA to Step Pin. Are there more steps? Will I need to change the firmware? I would be very grateful for any links or help.

Thank you,
Sharon

You also need to connect the enable signal of the stepper controller to ground. The firmware stays the same I believe assuming you use a stepper controller that does half steps. If you use a Pololu driver configured for 1/16 steps you will need to increase the E_STEPS_PER_MM constant by factor of 8.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

thank you for the additional information. I will try to add a stepper board as soon as I can - my kids complain about it all the time. (It bugs me too, but they have better hearing)

thanks,
Sharon

Rather than forking out for an extra stepper controller, is it possible for the firmware to control the extruder board so that the controls to the stepper are hard-on hard-off instead of modulated in the audio range? I ask this because the coils on my motors (nema 17) measure about 30 ohms, so the current even with 12 v applied should only be 0.4 Amp.

Do I have a failed assumption here? Is measuring with a multimeter flawed with a reactive load? Even so, could the current be limited with a resistive load instead of a modulating the signal?

Doesn't setting the PWM to 255, i.e. 100% not do that?

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Thanks a lot to everyone for their inputs

@ DanielG: What changes do i need to make in the firmware if i am using a fourth stepper controller for the extruder motor and the extruder board controls the heat and temperature of the printhead?