Stepper Motor's and Microsteps

Was comparing M503 settings with another owner of the same printer that I own and was surprised regarding my X and Y steps per mm. Our E and Z settings were within the the ballpark (E was actually the same) of each other. While my X and Y steps/mm were nearly half of what his were.

His:
X:80.3, Y:80.3, Z:1600, E: 97.2

Mine:
X:44.485 Y:44.368 Z:1556.17 F:97.2

Our only guess was that somehow my stepper drivers for the X/Y axis’ weren’t running at 1/16 microsteps. I updated the firmware last week thinking that might somehow magically solve the problem - but sadly it didn’t. I pulled a new config file, updated with my small changes (current to stepper, max speed, flows,etc), along with the new firmware - again no change in what my steps/mm needed to be.

Mind you my prints are coming out great - my test cubes are generally within ~0.05 of the intended size. I am more curious to see if I’ve done something wrong or if I missed something during my setup…

Imported from wikidot

What controller boards do you have, and what controller board does your friend have ?

I own the 5x - and I didn’t ask him what he has. I’ll do that - but I imagine that he’s got at least the 4x. Our printers have dual z axis motors so the 3x isn’t really an option.

My understand is that both of these models have the same stepper drivers.

Yep, they have the same stepper drivers.

I see no way either firmware, or the board, would cause this problem.

A microstepping problem would cause one of you to have 40 and the other to have 80, not 44/80 …

Also, microstepping is fixed on a Smoothieboard, it requires soldering on the board to change it, I doubt that’s what happened.

Are you sure you have -exactly- the same machine ? Which machine is it ?

Cheers.

I think you are on to something. I queried a bit more - he happened to be online right now. Should have asked him these questions when we first noticed the difference.

  • pulley size
  • headed board size

turns out he upgraded his to a 16T pulley - effectively doing the same thing to the math that 1/8 vs 1/16 micro-stepping would do.

i am sorry for the trouble. my own stupidity is now on full display - wish there was a “remove this thread because the person asking it is a moron” button.

Nah don’t worry about it, this is a normal problem, not a moronic problem :slight_smile: