Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
Am currently having the problem where my Y-axis stepper motor is moving only in one direction, in which the build platform would only move towards the LCD but not towards the motor and end-switch.
My current observations and troubleshooting efforts are as follows:
1. Have checked that the motor is working by swapping the X-axis and Y-axis motor cables on the Rambo board. Both motors are working just fine but whichever motor that is plugged into the Y-axis motor driver socket would only move in one direction.
2. When I instruct the Y-axis to move back (Either through "Settings > Move Axis" or Ponterface), the motor would still make a faint whirring sound
3. Opening the Rambo Mini cover, I noticed that when I move the Y-axis back, the right indicator LED would flash each time the instruction to move back is sent. A video showing what's happening can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/leongsh/videos/10154836160536833/
Anyone have any idea how to fix this or is this more like a electronics failure?
[:: EDIT ::]
Changed the video link from SendVid to my personal upload to my Facebook account. Hopefully it wasn't the worst of evils in terms of services.
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
1. Sendvid is NOTORIOUS for serving ads that have malware. Clicking on your link resulted in a malicious "outdated flash player" pop-up and tried to auto-download software to my computer. Absolutely unacceptable to use that service and post it here.
That said, it is possible that you have an electronics failure, but here are some things you can try:
1. Make sure you don't have a bad firmware flash by re-flashing the firmware with the latest version twice in a row.
2. Try a full hard reset (instructions on the PR support site)
3. Contact PR support and advise them of the issue, and the steps you've taken to narrow the problem down.
...that's actually all I have. Since you say that the problem follows whatever motor is plugged into the y-stepper connector on the board, that appears to rule out a belt tension issue or some other odd stoppage.
Please keep us posted as to what you find out, as this is quite the curious one.
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
1. Sendvid is NOTORIOUS for serving ads that have malware. Clicking on your link resulted in a malicious "outdated flash player" pop-up and tried to auto-download software to my computer. Absolutely unacceptable to use that service and post it here.
Oh I didn't know about that. Have changed the link to my Facebook account (though I would imagine some FB haters would scream at me at this point. BTW the video have its privacy setting set to public so it should be viewable w/o an account 🙂 )
Thanks for the heads up. 🙂
---
Anyway, current update of the situation – not good, actually the situation went from bad to worse.
The firmware flashing went badly – running it through the firmware updater and then it just stalled for 10 minutes. Interrupted it with a power reset and now the LCD just show two solid block lines similar to this:
And the Firmware Uploader v2 is no longer able to communicate w/ the printer:
Full log can be downloaded here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AilM0zj_ikNDjvMCsff4XMddg-TD5A
Will write in to their support and see what their response are.
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
It may be worth checking your endstops. There is a setting in the menu Calibration > Show end stops. When I had a faulty probe, which acts as an endstop, the z axis would only move one way, as the endstop was always triggered. So its worth checking if something similar is happening with your Y-axis. Thpugh you may have other issues with the firmware now.
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
I'm very sorry to hear the firmware flash didn't go so well. 🙁
I've gotten stuck before myself (tried to compile my own firmware and it didn't go quite perfectly) and I was able to get it re-flashed after trying a few times. Check your device manager in Windows to see if a different device or COM port is showing up, just in case.
Just as a backup, do you happen to have any other Arduino's around? It can be used to recover other bricked arduinos (and rambo is just a fancy arduino).
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
Update: After leaving the printer alone overnight, it finally seem to want to talk and now the firmware flashes successfully. Not quite sure what happened there, but am just glad that it's back on again.
And thank Sarah for pointing that out: the self-test failed and under close inspection the wire of the limit switch got snagged and the wiring was broken (bad wiring on my part).
Thanks a lot for that! Now I have to hunt down a limit switch ^_^||.
Just as a backup, do you happen to have any other Arduino's around? It can be used to recover other bricked arduinos (and rambo is just a fancy arduino).
Learn something new, thanks :). Didn't own an Andruino myself and I think it's probably a good idea to get one after what had happened.
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
Update 3 November
Resoldered the limit switch and the 3D printer is back to normal again. Thanks for the help 🙂
Re: Troubleshooting Question: Stepper Motor Moving Only in One Direction
Good news.
glad to hear it!
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK