XL Buddy Board - Stepper Driver Failure
Notice to all XL owners. Robert Cowan over on youtube recently had his XL break and during the post-mortem he diagnosed the Z-axis stepper driver (singular) had failed. He replaced the IC and revived the board, but it requires special equipment and skills. I highly recommend everyone go watch his video.
There have been numerous threads about the XL electronics running hot. A sealed enclosure with no active cooling and not even passive heatsinks has been a cause of concern. There are several designs on Printables to add vents and fans.
But an added complication is the driver IC that failed on Robert's machine was the Z-axis, which has two motors driven off a single driver IC. The stress on this chip is likely to have contributed to the failure.
I've previously taken a wait-and-see approach but the evidence is almost overwhelming. If you care about the longevity of your Prusa XL you should be looking at some cooling for the Buddy Board. I'm going to install heat sinks and a vented cover with cooling fan ASAP.
Frankly a little disappointed and I hope Prusa addresses both issues - the singular Z-axis stepper driver and the electronics overheating - in XL V2.
RE: XL Buddy Board - Stepper Driver Failure
I'm going to write something controversial here;
this is my own opinion.
I have experienced numerous stepper motor and driver board failures on Prusa printers when i have used WIFI or external print managers like Octo-print.
these failures are much more then coincidence.
any time i stick to SD or USB and just manage things directly at the printer i never have an issue.
I believe that there is a combination of problems that the Prusa controller is too slow and the firmware is not optimized well.
this leads to what i call stuttering the stepper motors controllers are waiting on the main controller to send complete instructions but they are delays, over time this allows the stepper motors to run hot, go over voltage then either burn out a coil or the speed control bridge transistors burn out.
because of my experience over 8 years with prusa products and also issues with connect and the wifi conductivity i will from time to time test it on a prusa but it always results in problems and i stop and revert to SD or USB drives. other printers i have not had issues with, but i never tried the prusa clones.
if you have experienced some really weird failures you may just want to evaluate what i wrote above.
the convenience of this type of connection to the printer has never had good luck for me.
that said the XL has tons of problems and i'm really tired of fighting with it.
“One does not simply use a picture as signature on Prusa forumsâ€
RE: XL Buddy Board - Stepper Driver Failure
the singular Z-axis stepper driver
Prusa mk3 and mk4 also have two stepper motors for Z axis and just one driver. and the work ok....
RE: XL Buddy Board - Stepper Driver Failure
You can check my thread also... I am having plenty of difficult to explain XL issues:
See if we can workout what is going on.