Motor buzzes

[evanr]

Hi All,

This is a follow through on a thread I posted earlier starting Dec14,2015 Evanr: Extruder skipping, sparse print.

As of now, the extruder motor is buzzing forward and back.

I've done the following:
- swapped the leads in the Arduino from x,y,z to the extruder motor and it is good.
- changed the power supply, still same problem
- changed extruder motor to the spare motor controller on Arduino (I don't have a 2nd extruder), still a problem

x,y,z are good. extruder motor buzzes

Is it software? I'm using V1.6.1 Repetier, Felix 1.5 with a few updated parts.

Is it the Arduino?

I've been without my printer for 2months now... I miss it ( need parts, please help

thanks!

[aikx]

I've done the following:
- swapped the leads in the Arduino from x,y,z to the extruder motor and it is good.
- changed extruder motor to the spare motor controller on Arduino (I don't have a 2nd extruder), still a problem

Did you: "Important note: The potmeter (little screw) on the stepper drivers are mostly set incorrect out of the box. The pot meters have a turning range. Do the following as a starting point:
1. Turn the screw fully counter-clockwise.
2. Turn it clockwise a quarter turn.
This will give a good starting point for finetuning later. " (Instruction_Manual_of_Felix_1_5b_v2.pdf)???

What Motordriver on 2nd extruder?

[Dreide]

I've done the following:
- swapped the leads in the Arduino from x,y,z to the extruder motor and it is good.

It is not clear what you mean. Did you hook up the extruder motor to one of the other drivers or did you hook up the X (or Y or Z) motor to the extruder motor driver?
To me it sounds more and more like the rather common problem of broken wires close to the motor (right where they go into the motor). If there is too much tension on these wires and they are bent back and forth with each X movement of the print head, even if it just a little bit of bending, the wires will break sooner or later. Obviously, this would not be a nothing-or-all break right from the beginning but more like a loose contact, possibly depending on temperature and such. In order to check if this is the problem, you can gently wiggle, push, and pull the wires right where they go into the motor. Do this while trying to extrude and see if motor behavior changes as you wiggle.

[evanr]

Hi all,

Thought I'd post what happened.

The problem ended up being the Stepper Driver Motor on the Arduino board. I replace this and the power supply and the extruder is good now.

My guess is that the power supply wasn't working right and it affected the driver motor.

Anyways, it prints ok but the prints are now shifting when printing..... it never ends

[aikx]

...Anyways, it prints ok but the prints are now shifting when printing..... it never ends

Go back to my post....

[evanr]

Turns out the stepper motor (and the Arduino) were overheating so I put another fan on the Arduino and no more shifting prints

All is good

Thanks!

[evanr]

In this case, adding more power by turning the pot meter would have likely overloaded the stepper motor.