z motors do not step together
I am encountering a problem where the two z stepper motors do not step together. Most of the time they work in tandem, but sometimes only one motor will step and sometimes they will step in opposite directions. This makes it impossible to accurately calibrate the printer. The behavior appears to happen randomly, but fairly often.
Does anyone know how to fix this? I flashed the latest version of the firmware and checked the connections on the RAMBo.
Thanks
Re: z motors do not step together
Hi Joshua
Couple of things:
1. Check the connections on the RAMBo; make sure they are firmly seated
2. Check the cable routing; ensure the motor cables are not pulled tight anywhere and that they are not crushed/shorting by cable ties or the RAMBo housing.
3. Try flashing firmware version 2.1. Version 2.2 lowers the stepper motor current to make them quieter and may be an issue for you.
Other that the above, I think you will have to contact support - use the "live chat" on the shop pages.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: z motors do not step together
Thanks. The problem went away on its own for 3 days and then resurfaced again randomly. I ensured that 1 and 2 above are true and flashing firmware 2.1 did not fix the problem. Based on more experimentation, it seems that the z motors only move against one another in the first 20mm going up and then again in the first 20mm going down. I will contact support to see what they recommend.
Re: z motors do not step together
Did you ever figure out a solution to this as I'm having the same problem. Printing is extremely inconstant and print head almost always has a down hill angle on it even after repeated reassembly/calibration.
Re: z motors do not step together
Hi
As we haven't heard back from Joshua, I presume he contacted support and they managed to resolve his issues.
Contact them via live chat on the shop pages.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: z motors do not step together
I took your advice and contacted the customer support via the Prusa webpage. I submitted a few pictures and a video to help understand what my issues are. I hope to hear back Monday.
Re: z motors do not step together
OK great. Will you please let us know the outcome?
Thanks
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: z motors do not step together
Hi guys, everytime this happen it is most certainly broken motor lead or the connector.
Do a visual inspection.
Lead can be easily fixed with soldering iron and heatshrink 🙂 It usually gets broken with tightening the zipties too much.
Also sometimes crimped end of the connector can pop out of the housing, check if it is secured properly and push it back into the housing.
And check the order of the leads in the housing for a goof measure. It happened we got then in wrong order couple of times.
Re: z motors do not step together
Thanks for the response, yesterday I decided to break out my multi-meter and test that motor. Sure enough I had on open circuit on the orange wire, the odd thing is the insulation was completely intact where the break was. No harm as I was able to fix it up real quick and have been printing ever sense. Hope this helps anyone with problems in the future. I would recommend using a meter to test the circuit and not just visually inspect the harness.