Can a "good" stepper motor blow the stepper driver?

I know it's a vague title but I've been having problems with GEN6 boards. I've just had my 2nd one stop working with the X axis. When the board is new I'm able to move it around and level my bed. By the time I run my PID tuning and try to load a file it stops working. I never move it by hand. I've checked all the wiring and it looks ok. If I swap the Y and X I can move it being controlled as Y. It doesn't get hot. Its got nice big heat sinks on the driver and a fan.

I'm not convinced this is a coincidence that 2 X axis drivers go bad within minutes of use. But I don't know where to start in diagnosing it.

If the motor gets disconnected while the driver outputs are enabled (even at idle when it holds position), then the driver has most chances to burn. Maybe the connector of the X motor has a bad spot, gets heated at some point and then doesnt make electrical contact properly. Or maybe you disconnected the motor while driver outputs were enabled. After some time of with no movement, the outputs get disabled, there is a setting in firmware which changes that period. Also could use a button like "motors off" and that (should) get their outputs off. But its much safer just to disconnect everything and wait few seconds for all caps to discharge, and do motor changes only with when electronics are *not* powered.

I have never moved any of the connectors while it was plugged in. I unplug it each time I make a change, but perhaps some caps were still charged? But now I have 3 boards with no X axis movement. 2 OEM and a Geeetech replacement. They all worked with my config for about 2 - 30 minutes. They all failed after my calibrations but before I could print anything. If I put the X connector on the Y axis header it works (and the Y axis then does not work). It sure sounds like a bad stepper driver but what would cause 3 of them to blow out so quickly? I was told the OEM boards were pre-calibrated for the VREF. I checked it on the Geeetech board before I ever connected a single thing. I started it at 1v and worked up to about 1.2. That was working fine even when a little torque was required. The wiki mentions 2v VREF, which I thought was a bit much to start. I have a suspicion it is the stepper motor itself.

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s10blazed
I have never moved any of the connectors while it was plugged in.

It may not require movement on your part. A loose connection either at the connector, the wire's crimp to the connector, or even inside the motor could theoretically be enough to cause damage. It's not like steppers are THAT expensive. Get a new one and replace your X axis motor and see if the problem continues. I'd do that after I double checked to make sure all the connections were tight.

I do plan on replacing it. But before that I want to switch this motor for another motor (extruder for example) and run it a bunch of times and see if I can blow another driver. I had checked all of the connections prior to hooking up this new board since the previous one was damaged. Then after the 2nd time, I hooked up an old board with thermistor problems and it blew within minutes too.

I blew mine without visible cause. No changes done.

So now I am rebuilding with Ramps on Arduino Mega, which is much cheaper than Gen6
However , also the opto's needed to be replaced due to the other wiring on the Gen board.
But opto's are cheap stuff. Finally, my Gen6 stepper connenctors do not fit on the Ramps. So that needed re-wiring.

I refrain from crimping my connectors myself. I purchase factory crimp wires and solder them as extention to the original wires.
This to prevent loose connectors.

Thomas

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www.3daybreaker.blogspot.com

Orca V4.4 rebuild to Ramps with Mk8 and E3D, as well as a Rostock Delta Mini and an OLO in backorder :-)