I have two 12VDC stepper motors connected on M1 and M2, 12VDC power adapter connected to VBB, board is connected via USB-B, and the configuration file is the same as what is available from this website. All of the LEDs are on, LED2 and LED3 are blinking, the 3.3V LED is orange, and the VBB LED is red.
Imported from wikidot
Well this all sounds correct, but not sure why you would tell us all this and not mention a problem.
( also are you sure your motors are 12VDC ? That’s uncommon and unlikely to be good, voltage ratings on stepper motors is different from what voltage they should be powered at )
Oh whoops, my mistake. Forgot to mention the problem.
The problem is that despite the hookup and after connecting with the smoothieboard with Pronterface, the motors don’t move.
And the motors’ specs do state 12VDC. The DigiKey P/N is 1568-1105-ND.
Since it sounds like 12VDC is not good for stepper motors, should I go to a higher voltage? 24VDC perhaps?
The stepper voltage rating ( which is related to it’s inductance ) is ( mostly ) unrelated to the power supply voltage used to power the steppers.
The general idea is that you want motors with the lowest possible inductance/voltage rating, and 12v is very high/bad, typical is lower than 6v. Essentially those motors you are using are not motors for CNC applications. 24 would be way worse.
This is an excerpt from the reprap irc channel :
<arthur-_> ideal stepper?
<gthx> ideal stepper is (for reprap and similar small CNC using 12-24V microstepping drivers): NEMA17 size, 1.5-1.8A or less, 1-4Ω winding resistance, 3-8 mH, 62oz.in (0.44Nm, 4.5kg.cm) or more of torque, 1.8/0.9 deg/step (200/400 steps/rev respectively). Examples: Kysan 1124090/42BYGH4803, Rattm 17HS8401, Wantai 42BYGHW609
Where 12-24v is the power supply, and the stepper voltage rating isn’t even mentionned ( they use the inductance directly ).
However, this isn’t probably related to your problem, it’s just something that’ll make your machine suck.
About the motors not moving at all, I’ll want to see your config file ( on pastebin.com for example ), and a video of your screen and machine while you try to make them move.