Problem with Gen6 Stepper Noise and more.

So i almost have my prusa done. i decided to fire up the electronics and the motors and do a test run.
Well the first thing i notice is when the power is on i get a high pitch whine from my steppers when they have power.
they seem so step ok but the noise is loud (my dogs hate me right now because of it) but what is odd is when
the board powers up a little LED next to the Opto plugs blinks with the noise then stops.

Also sometimes when i power it up and connect through Pronterface i get gobble gook characters in
the console and it doesn't connect. the firmware came installed and I'm not sure what firmware its running.

Steppers are Bipolar NEMA 17
Gen6 Board i think later than batch 2

The noise on the steppers can be reduced by lowering the amount of current they are getting. Turn the trim pots for the stepper drivers all the way counter-clockwise and then 1/8th of a turn clockwise. You should be able to hear the difference.

As for the "gobble gook", check that the baud rate of pronterface matches the baud rate in your firmware. I think the default for gen 6 is 19200.

same sounds here! gonna try your fix

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Ryan
Quality Engineer & Hobbyist
thingsandtrains.blogspot.com

made it a little better still very high pitched though! any other suggestions?

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Ryan
Quality Engineer & Hobbyist
thingsandtrains.blogspot.com

My Gen 6 board makes all that noise too and it is a design flaw. I read that someone had soldered a 1nF ceramic cap across R12, on their gen 6 board to reduce it (under potential hardware fixes):
[reprap.org]
If you read this post it says, "20-12-2010: Batch2 is scheduled to arrive in wk1 or wk2 2011. This batch2 gen6 is the same except the high pitchy sound (while not printing) has been reduced/removed."
[www.mendelfactory.com]
I replaced my gen 6 with a gen 6 deluxe and it is silent when the motors are not running. That high pitched whine was driving me crazy LOL.