Problems with motors

[orest]

I just built my 301 and after checking all connections and voltages, I am having trouble with the axis and extruder motors. This occurs regardless of which software I use, EasyPrint3D or Repetier. I have the latest firmware. The problems are:

1. When I request a single step motion, the motors keep moving and don’t stop.
2. If I request the extruder motor to move, my axis motors move instead. The extruder motors don’t activate.

The connections are all good, as with the extruders, the fans work fine. I can control the bed and extruder temperature fine. Also, all of the voltages on the motor driver chips are 3.34V.

I am totally baffled. I built a Geeetech i3B pro 4 years ago and never had these problems.

[orest]

I have an update. The motor drive voltages on my board were all 0.6 V. At that voltage, one of my drives was skipping. I increased the voltages to 0.7V on all drives, including the extruder motors. On the drive that was skipping, I moved the voltage to 0.8 V.

This solved all of my problems. The axis drives run smoothly, the endstops work and the motors go in both directions. When I activate the extruder motors, they move instead of the axis drives as should be.

The lesson is that the drive voltages are critical.

[orest]

One more lesson learned is to make sure that the endstops correspond to the proper drive motor. For example the x-endstop should correspond to the x drive motor. On the 301 this is tricky since the board connections for both motors and endstops are single connectors that have all 3 axes in one connector. For me this caused motors grinding into the endstop and made it look like a motor problem. Once I fixed this, things are running smoothly.

[Gingko]

so nice that you can share experience with us! :D:D

[orest]

I’m glad to do it. These are things that I wished I had when I build my first printer 4 years ago.

[jcsmar]

hi all
first time user of 3d printers maybe i should have gotten a less complicated one. i had a problem with the limit switches and lined up with the motors, it all went up to home however i still had one side stopping short.
today all drives drove the head up all switches activated but motor still working?
and i cant get the head to move down at all now. I have used both software EasyPrint3D and Repetier and still the head does not go down it keeps going up.
can anyone explain how to change the voltage i read about this problem however there are no details on how to do it.
well any assistance would be great..
John

[Gingko]

hi all
first time user of 3d printers maybe i should have gotten a less complicated one. i had a problem with the limit switches and lined up with the motors, it all went up to home however i still had one side stopping short.
today all drives drove the head up all switches activated but motor still working?
and i cant get the head to move down at all now. I have used both software EasyPrint3D and Repetier and still the head does not go down it keeps going up.
can anyone explain how to change the voltage i read about this problem however there are no details on how to do it.
well any assistance would be great..
John

1, I think you might check the wirings of endstops first.
2, If wirings are OK, you can try to change the settings of motor direction with LCD->Control->Print Setting->X/Y/Z DIR
3, You can search in forum about how to adjust the voltage of driver.

[orest]

I had this problem for a long time, until I realized that the endstops and axis motor drives must correspond to each other. In other words the x endstop turns off the x axis motor. If the correspondence is not there then one or more motors will keep running even when they hit an endstop. I checked resistances of the end stops and found that they all functioned properly. Thiis problem prevents proper homing of the printer and results in the motors moving in only one direction. This also happens with my i3b.

One more thing. Because the end stop connection to the board is one connector, you may have to move the endstops at the top of the printer.