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Motor trouble
I'm having problems with the x-axis motor on my Creator Pro. I'll start a print, and when it's travelling to the home axes it moves fine. Then at some point during the first layer, it starts jamming/skipping, totally messing up the print as well as losing its position each time it skips. I cancel the print and go to jog mode and find that in +x and -x it is jamming and skipping like crazy. Then I power off the machine and turn it back on, go to jog mode, and the motor is working perfectly fine again. It only gets messed up once I start a print job again and can only be fixed by rebooting the machine.
I've attached a video to show what the jamming/skipping looks like. Has anyone had this problem before? I'm thinking it may be a problem in the electronics controlling this motor as opposed to a mechanical issue inside the motor itself.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2c...eator-pro_tech
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- I would have to say your conclusion is right on the money. It would seem your motor driver is either miscommunicating with the stepper motor or your stepper motor isn't functioning correctly.
- If your machine was recently purchased I would contact to see if your under some warranty. Otherwise I'm not sure how your would go about replacing the motor controller/driver, their accessory section doesn't have that component listed as a purchasable item. Their board looks proprietary, so contacting them is your best bet.
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Stepper motors do that when they have one wire broken out of the four. It is where I would start, it's the easiest to check.
Just thought I would add that in case you didn't have enough to check looking at the motor and the electronics. :)
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Yup, almost always the wire.
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But how does that explain that when I reboot the machine, I can jog the x motor just fine?
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It might make some momentary connection that breaks again when the printer is more active. Cheapest/easiest thing to do is to replace the cable. Steppers are pretty tough but they do fail occasionally.
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It's definitely not the wiring. I just tried printing a different object and it worked just fine. Something is super fishy with my software (I posted another thread about it here)--all of a sudden it's having a lot of difficulty processing large .stl files. I think something got messed up in the .x3g that caused the error with the motor because the much smaller .stl object I just printed gave me no problems. Currently updating my Makerbot Desktop to the latest version, will update here if the issue is resolved.
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Smaller object does not rule out the wire. If anything it may point to that being the problem. With a smaller object you're not moving the carriage as far. Less movement could keep the wiring in a position where the break doesn't manifest itself. FWIW when I bought my creator pro it came with an extra x-axis cable which implies that they expect that wire to get damaged at some point.
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Sorry I should clarify--the object I was printing wasn't smaller itself (it was roughly the same size as the original I was trying to do), it's that the .stl file of the second object was much smaller. The first object was much more detailed and was about 60 KB, whereas the second object was just a cube and was about 1 KB. The software had a much easier time processing the smaller file.
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I can only see the video at a small size, but it looks like the belt is oscillating. Might something be jamming the carriage or pulleys?
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It's not the belt or a jam or anything (read through my various replies here for more details on it, that video shows the motor behavior after starting a print job and cancelling)--the motor operates perfectly fine when jogging or manually moving it around, and even on a print job for a smaller STL file. I think the problem is software-based, which is what my whole other thread is about--I posted two separate threads thinking I was having two problems but the more I dig into it the more I'm realizing they're related.
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What was the solution to this? I am having the same issue. Works for 1/2 the first layer then skips/vibrates and throws the x axis off by varying amounts. Tried changing the belt tension and checking the roller set screws, no joy. I took the motor out and apart, nothing unusual. Bearings are smooth and tight, winding look good. Carriage is smooth and tight. Tested without the belt installed, same behavior.
It really helps the next person to complete threads like this.
Thanks in advance.
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If you dismantled the stepper motor then you now need a new one. They are magnetised after assembly and once they have been apart they will have very little power.
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Odd, I just put it back together and plugged it in and it seems like the same power as before I went into MAcGyver mode. Not saying you're wrong, I appreciate the advice.
I installed it and it moved to home without a problem. Waiting for the bed to warm up now.
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What really happened is a software adjustment I made, nothing at all to do with hardware. I was in RepG and moved the slider for the XY timing too high. Today I installed a new stepper motor and it just hummed and would not move at all.
Reset the slider to 1 and now it is printing very well on the original motor.
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Hey Raimond,
So as a last-ditch effort to figure out the problem with my printer, I swapped the X and Y stepper motor wires. Oddly enough, that fixed the problem--it didn't cause the Y motor to have the problem, it just actually fixed the whole printer. I have NO idea how or why that would even be the case but there you go. Might be worth a try, sometimes just taking things apart and putting back together is healthy for the machine.
edit: oops, didn't see you had fixed your problem already. Anyway, for the sake of posterity, ^that is how I fixed my problem. You may want to post the specifics of what software adjustment you made to fix your problem so that when people come back here looking for solutions there's a couple things for them to try.
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1 Attachment(s)
I agree that these problems need to be documented and saved for those in the future having similar problems. They can find the answer much quicker than we did.
Attachment 6560.
Here is the adjustment I made to the XY speed, that started the issues I was having.
I tried to print ABS and started having problems again. The only thing that changed was the temps. More detailed troubleshooting and I found two of the motor wires to have an intermittent break. While it was printing I could move the wires and cause it to start skipping. Release them and it would stop. Removed about a 4" section in both wires about 2" from the motor connector, and it is again working without issue. I added a section of heat shrink tubing at the connector and then changed the layout of the wires and let them hang down from the motor with a loop back up to the top support. I then put a section of plastic split loom covering on it. Much less flexing of the wire harness now.