new to 3d printin looking to dive in

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o_lampe
How are the odds for buying steppers nowadays, that are NOT able to do 1/16 microsteps?

Background: I sourced my steppers I used to play with from old copymachines. They hardly do 1/2 steps, better use fullsteps only....

Just thinking out of the box
Olaf
PS: Did you try to reduce speed and acceleration settings?

Assuming we are talking about Nema17's the chances are very slim

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lokiwizz
Allright guys all these are valid points.
at this point I have not tested every motor.
but two motors act the same when plugged in to any of the drivers. As for steps or speed I have not changed them. the power supply I'm un certain on an explication on how to test for that would be greatly appreciated.

The replacement parts should be in today along with the osiliscope so I will check the drivers before trying a new one.

Buying 4 bad drivers is unlikely but damaging 4 drivers from hot swapping the motor harness I think is in the realm
of possibilities

However likely it is that you have blown your drivers i still think you should investigate If only to avoid the dilemma when your new drivers arrive and you still have the same problem.

Power supply testing depends on what power supply you have but the simplest test would be to measure the output and monitor it when under load . Connect your heated bed and or hotend to load it up and make sure the voltage doesn't drop.
You can also measure the 12V where it goes into the stepper driver and make sure that doesnt dip when you try and move the stepper motor.
Be careful when your probing around. The drivers work on 5 volt logic for dir/step/ enable but the actual feed to the motor comes from the 12 Volt rail on the ramps.


To avoid any issues with settings simply use the Marlin test code. If you can get them working on that then there should be no reason why they wouldnt work with the proper firmware loaded.

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bigfilsing

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lokiwizz
Allright guys all these are valid points.
at this point I have not tested every motor.
but two motors act the same when plugged in to any of the drivers. As for steps or speed I have not changed them. the power supply I'm un certain on an explication on how to test for that would be greatly appreciated.

The replacement parts should be in today along with the osiliscope so I will check the drivers before trying a new one.

Buying 4 bad drivers is unlikely but damaging 4 drivers from hot swapping the motor harness I think is in the realm
of possibilities

However likely it is that you have blown your drivers i still think you should investigate If only to avoid the dilemma when your new drivers arrive and you still have the same problem.

Power supply testing depends on what power supply you have but the simplest test would be to measure the output and monitor it when under load . Connect your heated bed and or hotend to load it up and make sure the voltage doesn't drop.
You can also measure the 12V where it goes into the stepper driver and make sure that doesnt dip when you try and move the stepper motor.
Be careful when your probing around. The drivers work on 5 volt logic for dir/step/ enable but the actual feed to the motor comes from the 12 Volt rail on the ramps.


To avoid any issues with settings simply use the Marlin test code. If you can get them working on that then there should be no reason why they wouldnt work with the proper firmware loaded.

Ok sounds good will load test the psu tonight before going any further. Marlin test code has been used and will continue to be used until I get this sorted out. I am assuming that the 12v lines should stay at or around 12v and not dip or drop off?

I just read this article about stepper drivers:
[reprap.org]

There is a section about different shunt resistors ( 0.05-0.2ohm) being used on different clones...
Depending on that, you can check your new arrivals and recalculate the Vref if neccessary.

( the article also mentioned, NEVER unplug the stepper, while powered ) So we´ve certainly found a "winner"
Olaf

Little update to list the psu specs.

Supernight
360w
12v 30a

This would be sufficient as long as it is capable And in good working order?

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lokiwizz
Little update to list the psu specs.

Supernight
360w
12v 30a

This would be sufficient as long as it is capable And in good working order?

Should be OK looks like a standard unit. There is sometimes a small trim pot near the terminals that allows you to adjust the out put voltage but that's normal not needed as they are usually set at the factory during testing.

It would be normal to expect a slight dip when a load is applied but nothing radical.

You might also want to check your ramps boards as it is there that a regulator "creates" 5 volts for the mega logic control and drive. Its a bit far fetched but id be checking everything i possible can while i wait for spares.
I still think you should get a bread board and set up a single driver and single motor system to test things out. You can also set yoour new drivers there as well. Not to mention having a play with your new scope :-)

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bigfilsing

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lokiwizz
Little update to list the psu specs.

Supernight
360w
12v 30a

This would be sufficient as long as it is capable And in good working order?

Should be OK looks like a standard unit. There is sometimes a small trim pot near the terminals that allows you to adjust the out put voltage but that's normal not needed as they are usually set at the factory during testing.

It would be normal to expect a slight dip when a load is applied but nothing radical.

You might also want to check your ramps boards as it is there that a regulator "creates" 5 volts for the mega logic control and drive. Its a bit far fetched but id be checking everything i possible can while i wait for spares.
I still think you should get a bread board and set up a single driver and single motor system to test things out. You can also set your new drivers there as well. Not to mention having a play with your new scope :-)

sounds good guys the investigation will continue tonight
im going to need to have a look at the diagram for the ramps and drivers to see where to take those readings.

as always thanks

Alright guys worked on it last night. First tested the psu, 12v to almost 13v no load. Then with the got end as load
right under 12v mid to upper 11s. So I would say the psu is not it. The new drivers and my scope came in. I them took the advice an broke out the bread board, set up a simple circuit along with my arduino uno. Pulled one of the steppers off along with the drivers. Low and behold much to my surprise and enjoyment it worked.
so I hooked up the o scope just because I have one now.
On to the next driver, that one worked. Tested all the original drivers and they are all good. This really had be scratch n my head. Is it the ramps board that's all that's left right? No no not so fast there buddy. This just gose to show that even a pinout for said electronic can be wrong. I pulled down the harness that I made and there it is problem duplicate. So quick swap of the pins in the conector an all is well in the universe once again.

Well thats good news ...
How can the pin out be wrong ???? its all very clear and has worked for many people for a considerable amount of time !! Or is that just a smoke screen for less than ideal wiring harness

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bigfilsing
Well thats good news ...
How can the pin out be wrong ???? its all very clear and has worked for many people for a considerable amount of time !! Or is that just a smoke screen for less than ideal wiring harness

haha funny funny no I will post up the actual pin out vs the listed pin out tonight to be clear. but in short I should have conected the dots when I ohm'ed it the many times. As you said it it's very basic and I felt like such a fool last night but I did get a good chuckle out of it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2015 10:23AM by lokiwizz.

At least you worked it out! Nice job.

All right guys getting close. She is all together now all axis move heated bed working hot end works thermistors reading. Ran it through a quick dry run.
all that is left is calibration. hope to have a test print by the end of the day.

Ps I went back and looked over the pinout it in fact turns out I was just dead wrong lol.

As always thanks for the help.
Chris

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2015 07:04AM by lokiwizz.

Good deal! Here's mine, a bit away from calibration just yet but at least it's starting to look right.

Well it printed sort of??? Got calibrating and ran some test prints none worth letting finish. Went back to calibrating esteps set for hot end pid auto tune hot end
I have had the nozzle clog twice. It's not in the hot end but rather where it and the cold end attached not shore what happening. Any thoughts ?

Not really much info to go on.
What kind of hot end do you have ? What PLA are you using . Speed ?

I would recommend you start with PLA at 200 C and print speed of 20mm/s and a layer height of 0.3
Hot end clogs can have many causes ...too much material too cold etc etc
IF you just feed the extruder with the head 10mm or more above the bed you should get a nice consistent flow of filament

Fix for now all setup was default 200c .3mm so on and so forth. Just had the walls test print successful. Think the problem was hotend got to hot before printing from all the testing and the bs fan and shroud was incapable of sufficient cooling replaced for the walls test and so far so good.

As always thanks for your time and help

Alright guys still having a clogging issue. I started out last night printing a 30mm to 40mm adapter for my fan and duct. The print was mostly a successful print could of used some supports. So I sliced it again with some.
This is when it clogged. started the print did not make it past the first layer. So I un clogged it, set fan to always on. Still clogging. I will try a print again tonight and take pics of where it's getting clogged. It is melting the filiment where the hot end and extruder join. Then will not remelt this portion and thus the extruder hob bolt just grinds away at the filiment. I think pictures will better show what I am experiencing. I think there is still a problem with the fan set up not keeping the upper portion of the hotend cool.

Well I got home fired up the printer, ran the same print and by about layer 5 or so no more extrusion. The hob bolt just grinds away at the filiment. I stopped the print end let everything cool down so I could pull it apart for photos.
i could not get the photos to link correct with out brake n the internet so i will try and add them as attachments

So any thoughts on this I think the hot end is to small and allowing the heat to travel up faster than my little fan can cool it down?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2015 08:06PM by lokiwizz.

the hot end is set at 200c fan on always
blue translucent pla 1.75m. All speed settings default in repeater. I don't know what other information would be of help so pls ask and I will do my best to answer

Again thanks for the great support.

Alright guys had some free time to work with the printer some last night. I unclogged the hotend, and polished up the upper portion. Fired her up set the temp to 185c and manually extruded. Loaded up the 40mm to 30mm adapter and hit print. With the temp at 185 it prints no clogging and the part came out solid as a rock. I let it cool down and I removed the part and cleaned up/removed the supports. I installed the better quality fan adapter and set out to print abother part. This part also finished with no issues. I think I found my magic number for this spool of pla and the curent hot end.
all that's left to do now is finish cleaning up the wireing.

Thanks all for the support