Comments on: Back.. But now ANOTHER stepper board is fried??

By: Flashing Beacon ·

Flashing Beacon · — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:25:49 +0000

i use those copper tipped soldering iron but after a month or two, my soldering iron tip would just break ‘

By: nuttzy

nuttzy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:19:24 +0000

Problem solved!…. kinda….. maybe….

Keep plugging away!

By: jkeegan

jkeegan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:00:30 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHEfm_NU_vY

By: jkeegan

jkeegan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:32:15 +0000

WHEW!!

Ok, first, apologies for not replying earlier. I’ve had no time to work on the RepRap until now (but I did read all of your comments).

Just now I desoldered the screw terminal I’d connected and tried running 12V and GND wires directly to the power pads (making sure they went through the holes and presumably made contact on both the top and bottom of the board). THAT worked! So my soldering of the screw terminals must have made no connection on the top of the board maybe? Not sure.

By “worked”, I mean that when the board was connected to a powered motherboard via ribbon cable AND had the 12V and GND connected from the power supply, I’d not only see the green power LED but also LEDs near the ABCD motor connector light up. (no motor connected). Previously, I’d have only the green power LED light up.

More later. Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone!

By: Brad

Brad — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:35:18 +0000

I have the same problem with one of my boards.
Now I modified the replacement board and only one pair of leds work, ie the motor can only go in one direction.

By: Renoir

Renoir — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:26:20 +0000

Hmm. I’d think it’s unlikely to be anything to do with the soldering itself – there are no nearby components and the power supply plug is not sensitive.

I’ve built a few of these boards from scratch, with minimal skills, and managed OK – so they’re not terribly sensitive to static.

The biggest problem I had was testing – there is a single ‘enable’ line from the control socket (pin 5 on the ribbon cable socket) to the arduino/controller board, and if that is not ‘high’ then there will be no lights and the board appears ‘dead’ except for the power light.

Interesting – checking the specs, for stepper drivers version 2.2 pin 5 (enable) is high for on, low for off.
For stepper drivers version 2.3 pin 5 (enable) is LOW for on and HIGH for off. This ought to be a configuration option somewhere in the firmware/settings.

My guess would be to check and re-check the testing setup. Leave stepper motors unconnected (rely on the lights) and run a test with your working board. (flashing lights). Turn all power off, unplug your working board, and plug in a ‘broken’ board – using exactly the same setup – same wires, same connectors, same position on the bench, etc. and run the same test. (in scientific terms, you change one variable while holding everything else exactly the same). Repeat for all stepper boards, even the ones you thought were broken before.

This will tell you whether your assumption (the board is broken) is right, or whether it’s a more subtle bug somewhere else (like a broken ‘enable’line on one ribbon connector, or a single broken output on the main reprap board. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted looking to fix a problem in the wrong place…

By: nophead

nophead — Sat, 22 May 2010 11:23:29 +0000

The obvious difference between the two photos is that you did not have the motor connected in the first shot. Do the LEDs light up when it is not connected?

Are you sure the enable line is in the right state.

By: James Glanville

James Glanville — Fri, 21 May 2010 23:10:04 +0000

Very odd, it almost certainly isn’t the soldering iron – unless the pads are lifting up, there are no components to destroy there. Could you have disconnected the motors with the board powered up? This tends to break them, just wondering if that’s the problem?