Hope someone can help … I’m trying to convert my China EleksLaser laser plotter to use a brand-new Smoothieboard.
The issue: No matter whether I’m testing with Pronterface or the web interface or T2 … the stepper motors erratically only move veeeeeeery slow. So, first one or two jog commands are executed as expected, but then the motors move extremely slow. This is no matter which software I use, no matter whether I pause between clicks in the interface, no matter whether I use the USB or network connection.
I changed to another PSU, disconnected everything but two steppers, to no avail. The configuration for one stepper (42HS34-1304A) below … nothing crazy, current as listed in datasheets I found for the stepper, wouldn’t know what else to tweak (and a few times the motor works as expected anyway).
Is my board defect, or have I overlooked anything?
[[code]]alpha_step_pin 2.0 # Pin for alpha stepper step signal
alpha_dir_pin 0.5 # Pin for alpha stepper direction, add '!' to reverse direction
alpha_en_pin 0.4 # Pin for alpha enable pin
alpha_current 1.3 # X stepper motor current
alpha_max_rate 30000.0 # Maximum rate in mm/min
[[/code]]
Thanks for the hint! Tried that (decreased speed / acceleration and replaced wiring to steppers) … no change for the better.
But: I took a close look at the board and noticed that MOSFET Q9 seems damaged / burnt through. Solder points look bad too (compared to Q8 next to it) so this might have been an issue from the start (I’ve been careful with the wiring so don’t think I killed it). Will try to get a replacement part and see if this makes a difference!
Hi!
I’m having exactly the same issue with my laser cutter. I purchased the smoothieboard + GLCD a couple weeks ago.
It happens both with the normal firmware and the firmware-cnc. Also printing from the SD instead of from ponterface isn’t a solution.
I have also tried to print with lower speeds and accelerations but nothing changed.
Michiel
Interesting … can you check if your MOSFETs look okay? Below is how the Q9 on my board looks (the soldering isn’t mine by the way, it was like that from the start). The replacement part should arrive in a few days, will let you know whether this was the culprit!
(urgh, the forum doesn’t allow me to post images or links … please stitch the link together yourself)
https colon double-slash ibb.co slash d36Ptb
That doesn’t look like a good mosfet to me, but my mosfets look good, so I don’t think thats the problem… Of course it’s worth a try!
Have you tried to run this smoothieboard with an older version of smoothieware? I’d like to give that a try but I can’t find older firmware versions…
Well well, an older firmware does indeed make a difference, although it’s still not 100%. You can download older firmware versions on the Github page: Click on “History”, and on one of the older entries click “<>”, then you see the files as they were at the time. I randomly selected one from May 2016 or so, and the steppers now do behave a bit better. Maybe give it a shot, let me (and the developers most importantly …) know if you find a version that seems okay?
I’s good to hear that it makes a difference! (even if it’s still not 100%) Thanks for the help on the files. I’ll definetely try it myself and let you (and of course the developers) know when I find something.
Also, could it have something to do with the fact that i use the third stepper driver as a slavefor my Y-axis?
cheers
Yes … I didn’t make it very far because of the issue described, so only changes I made were in the steppers config as pasted earlier. I just checked with diff to be sure. Had slaved the third to the second stepper first, but later backtracked to rule this out as source for the issue.