Drifting printhead with external motor drivers

Forum » Smoothie Firmware / General » Drifting printhead with external motor drivers

Started by:

Panda1337
Date: 25 Jun 2018 08:39
Number of posts: 3

Summary:

I switched to external stepper drivers because the internal ones had too little power at higher speed--> lost steps. However with the external ones it seems that there is also some sort of drifting.

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Drifting printhead with external motor drivers

Panda1337 25 Jun 2018 08:39

Hello there,

I am currently using the Smoothieboard 5X with a core XY setup. When I use the internal stepper drivers the motors loose steps at the speeds I want to move at. I added some external stepper drivers to increase voltage and amps. Now I cant even hold the print head with my hand because the motors are so powerfull. However it seems that there is a drifting of the print head. It looks very similar to lost steps but in my opinion it cant be since the motors are so powerful. I also tried several different external drivers and it happens with all of them.
I am using a rasperry Pi with octoprint and ethernet communication. I first used USB but it seems that randomly the communication would crash. Ethernet is stable.
When printing a cube very slowly with internal drivers at 30mm/s I get a straight cube. With external drivers I get a 45°shifted cube
can anybody help?

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Unfold Drifting printhead with external motor drivers by

Panda1337, 25 Jun 2018 08:39

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Re: Drifting printhead with external motor drivers

arthurwolf 30 Jun 2018 10:32

So, skipped steps definitely happen even with external drivers. What model drivers and steppers do you have ?

About coms, how long was the USB cable between your raspi and the smoothieboard ? It really should work fine. How is the smoothieboard's logic powered ? What about the raspi ?

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arthurwolf, 30 Jun 2018 10:32

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Re: Drifting printhead with external motor drivers

Ninja-Robot 29 Apr 2019 16:11

I had a similar problem. My prints were coming out skewed on an angle like I was losing steps, but I'm running servo motors that can't skip steps. It turned out to be my pulse length was to long. I was using a 4 microsec pulse and my driver was skipping a step on ever direction change skewing my prints. I shortened the pulse length and the problem went away. I'm not saying this is what's happening to you, but it might save someone some frustration.

Last edited on 29 Apr 2019 16:11 by Ninja-Robot Show more

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Unfold Re: Drifting printhead with external motor drivers by

Ninja-Robot, 29 Apr 2019 16:11

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