Hello everyone.
I’ve been eyeballing a 3d printer for a while and finally got one, probably the cheapest out there but I’m handy, so hoping to get some decent performance out of it.
It’s anet a8 if anyone cares 
I’m still building it, now closer to the end of this adventure (well - terrible video instructions only, they’ve made a new better video which I apparently discovered too late to avoid frustration).
Anyway, just wanted to say hello to the community
Any tips appreciated, nothing in particular, just if you think that there is something a newbie should know - go ahead and share your toughts, even if you think that it may be obvious.
Don’t stare directly at the Sun
And welcome to the community
@blackcamo_FPV welcome! Ask any questions you have, many here are very glad to help. Pictures always help and you can’t really add pictures to a thread once it is started. By your moniker, are you planning on printing drone parts? I find 3d printing to be a big time and cost saver for easily broken quadcopter parts.
@Alan_Thomason I am of course planning to print quadcopter parts. I’m not really breaking my quads anymore, I’ll rather be printing improvements and designing some stuff. I’d like to upgrade to dual extruder at some point to be able to combine different materials…
@blackcamo_FPV 3d printing is a natural for custom, one off parts; but, 3d printed parts are rarely as strong as injection molded. Unfortunately, there is no contest when you start talking about glass filled nylon compared to 3d printed. I break 3d printed parts on occasion - it just gives me the justification to improve the design and try again.
Arrrrrghhhh. First problem. Z axis worked literally once. Home all- x fine , y fine, z is dead. It worked once so no wiring. Rods are nicely greased and I have no trouble moving it by hand. Read somewhere about pots, tried, but strange thing here, every other pot that I touch with a screwdriver gives me a buzz from it’s stepper, touching this one doesn’t. Bad board? Bad pot? Any ideas? Not the best start 
Be very careful with the stepper drivers. If you short them, you will get problems.
If you increase the power too much on the pot, you’ll probably burn your motor.
Swap out the Z driver say with the X driver and check if Z works.
If so, the driver was burned.
Also you can first try swap just the motors.
Remember to check your reference voltage on the driver first. You don’t want to burn a motor by mistake.
The trim pots on the drivers can also be very fragile - adjust them very carefully and no more often than absolutely necessary.
I have checked all of the pots with multimeter and all of them seems fine. As I played with pots, I was careful to not short anything, got a idea of the range with working x and y motors (so much for ‘no more often than absolutely necessary’). I will swap motor plugs tomorrow to verify if motors are alive. One thing that I managed to verify is that they are both inactive, no matter what state they are in - I can always turn them with my fingers and there is no difference in force required to do so. Sometimes they come alive and (kind of struggling) drive the axis towards home position 10-20mm or so and then stop again.
If they are both acting up and they are both powered by the same driver then you need to look at the driver. The odds of two motors failing is really low. I would try the Z driver on another axis - it’s harder to fry a motor than it is to kill a driver.
thanks guys. I am waiting for the new board but it will probably be a month or so. Motors are fine - I plugged them into y-axis socket and they move as they should and are really solid keeping the position at idle. I have plugged y motor into z driver and I didn’t work, so whatever the cause is- it’s within the electronics.
Now- what on this board would be the likely cause of not enough current being supplied to the motors?
I don’t really understand much about how it works but if directed by someone with the knowledge I may be able (or may be not) to identify faulty component and repair the board. I am pretty good at soldering (smds are not the problem). Anyone can point me on how to troubleshoot it? I examined the board visually - nothing suspicious there, a few solder joints that did not look pretty were re-soldered but it made no difference …