Motors only vibrate but will not turn

I have recently tried to hook up my motors to my RAMPS 1.4 board, but was confronted with the problem of the motors vibrating instead of turning. At the time, I was using Sprinter. I have recently switched over to Marlin and I am still having the same issue. The motor drivers that I am using are the Pololu md90h series. I read onlone that my problem might be that my drivers can't handle the uStep value that I am passing in, but as far as I am aware, Pololu use a 1/16th uStep value. I am completely lost, any help would be appreciated.

Why does the motor stall during no load testing?
The motor needs inertia roughly equal to its
own inertia to accelerate properly. Any
resonances developed in the motor are at their
worst in a no-load condition.

What are the options for eliminating
resonance?
This would most likely happen with full step
systems. Adding inertia would lower the
resonant frequency. Friction would tend to
dampen the modulation. Start/stop velocities
higher than the resonant point could be used.
Changing to half step operation would greatly
help. Ministepping and microstepping also
greatly minimize any resonant vibrations.
Viscous inertial dampers may also help.

How to wire a stepper motor: [www.automationtechnologiesinc.com]
Use a LED to identify wire pairs, (3 links): [www.youtube.com] [www.youtube.com] And [forums.reprap.org]
Tips for beginners: Stepper Motors, bipolar series gets up to speed faster than parallel [www.youtube.com]
Determining what wires to pair up on a stepper motor. Match coils for 8 wire stepper. [reprap.org]
Calibration of stepper motors [www.youtube.com]
How to measure Stepper Motor Voltage [forums.reprap.org]
POTs Calibration – RAMPS 1.4 [bootsindustries.com]
Tuning and Speeds – Adjusting the Machine's Axes for Maximum Speed, (Kit Supplier) [solsylva.com]
Common Questions and Answers About Step Motors [web.archive.org]
Characteristics of a stepper motor/driver [www.euclidres.com]

Is it possible that the motors don't have enough torque to move when connected to the printer? You may only need to adjust the potentiometers near the motor controllers to increase the voltage supplied if that is the problem.

See [www.reprap.org]

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

The motors are under no load, I do not have them in the printer yet.I have tried giving them full current, the result is the drivers heat up and become very hot. The motors react the same as before. Also, the motors maximum load is about 8.5 pounds. I know I have the motors wired properly, as I have gotten wiring diagrams from the company that explain which wires to connect when using bi-polar mode

Quote
surfacelane
I know I have the motors wired properly, as I have gotten wiring diagrams from the company that explain which wires to connect when using bi-polar mode

You don't. Colors are unreliable.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Two most common problems are:

1) Miss wired steppers.

Ignore all color based guides.
Steppers contain two coils. You need to find which two wires make up a coil. Plug one coil into pins 1 and 2 and the second into pins 3 and 4 of the stepper connector. It doesn’t matter which way around they go, the motor will just turn the wrong way which can be corrected in firmware or turning the plug around 180 degrees.

2) wrong voltage.

For reasons I cant understand people keep plugging 5v into the 12v 5amp power plug. This wont hurt the electronics, it just wont be able to move the steppers.

The colors on the diagram matched my measurements with a multimeter, so that's not the problem. The power supply that I'm using is a 12 volt, 30 amp power supply from amazon. I measured the voltage coming off of it and it reads 12 volts dc. I'm very confused on why I'm having these problems, I've looked up the problem on Google, all of the problems that other people were having does not match why I'm having problems. Thank you any way for every ones replies to my post.

what steppers are you tiring to use? is there a URL for them?

Also check your ramps board actually has the micro stepping jumpers installed on it (3 jumpers under the pololus)

Quote
surfacelane
The colors on the diagram matched my measurements with a multimeter, so that's not the problem.

Excellent.

A simple, helpful strategy is to swap drivers and/or motors. Connect the not working motor to another axis and look wether it works there. Replace the driver with one from another axis. Look wether the problem follows or not, this should give you an idea on which part doesn't work. Never forget to power down before disconnecting motors or stepper drivers. Running a controller with just one or two motors/drivers connected is perfectly fine, though.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

While I was playing with stepper motors I tried connecting them with random order of wires and I observed that when I connected them with both two phases separately flipped they behaved same as your motors now it's because one phase is moving rotor of motor left and second right, but after I flipped one phase they started to behave normal because both two phases were moving the rotor to same direction maybe it's your problem too.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2014 03:39AM by sttaaannnnoooo.

I don't know if you ever solved your problem with your stepper motors. However, I had the same problem and was able to determine the solution. See below:


After DAYS of searching for the cure to my stepper motor problems - stepper motor just vibrates/won't spin, I finally found the ANSWER!!!

Thanks to Triffid Hunter - see below:

Original question from another builder:

Getting ready to wire the arduino to the steppers.

what color goes to what pin?

Triffid Hunter:

1) as long as you get the pairs correct, exact order doesn't matter. 

2) to find a pair, short out two wires. if the motor becomes harder to turn by hand, you found a pair! The remaining two wires are the other pair

3) if the motor runs backwards when you wire it up according to this simple method, simply plug it in the other way, or invert the direction in your firmware configuration.


4) the pairs' wires are adjacent in the plug, ie:
 x    x    x    x
[pair 1][pair 2]

5) this method will work for all 4-wire steppers.


The arduino has the stepper motor pins labeled as 2B, 2A, 1A, 1B in that order

I was incorrectly wiring the stepper motor coils to the corresponding LETTERS A & B instead of the NUMBERS!!!

I was wiring them as follows:

1A - 2A to one set of coils and 1B - 2B to the second set of coils - WHICH IS WRONG!!

So the correct wiring for the stepper motors is:

1A - 1B connects to one set of coils and
2A - 2B connects to the second set of coils

Hopefully, this will help others out there! Now I'm just waiting on the rest of my parts to arrive so I can build my first 3d printer! I'm sure I'll have a lot more issues to resolve along the way, but at least I'm not alone.

Thanks man

Hi can you please give me help on how exactly you changed this? so the pair of wires should be side by side in the connector? How did you remove the connector and then reattach it?

does anybody know how to do microstepping? I'm currently using nema 17 on full step & having the same problem. at some point motor rotates while sometimes it completely stops, making noise with vibration every time. Wiring is correct as far as i know because motor starts rotating as soon as i upload the test firmware. So, if anyone have solution please help !!

Hey yogesh.dp Were you able to resolve this issue I am having an identical problem with my stepper motors?

answer to mircostepping, since he cross posted the question many many times.

[forums.reprap.org]

Hey there ,
Iam doing 3d printer as my project I did all mechanical work(frame x y and z axis)
But when I checked that axis after connecting with ramps it has some issues
1st issue is when I plug in usb with out connecting power supply lcd display works fine but
When I connect power supply a white screen cover the display screen .
2nd issue is I bought some motors from eBay and some from other site .The motors which I bought from eBay rotates during no load condition but when I connect threaded rod not even z axis rotates .and the motor which I bought from other site is not at all rotating its just vibrating will the problem I tried adjusting potentiometer still same vibration can anyone help me to sort this problem please

Problem1: The white screen could be wrong contrast adjustment. Do you see a potmeter on the back of the LCD?

Problem 2: You have to switch two wires of the steppers that hums / vibrates. Either switch red / blue or black / green.

I have just started having a similar issue as what this title of this thread describes. Only difference from mine and the OP's issue is that my drivers (A4988) were already connected to the my ramps 1.4 mega 2560 (MKS Gen_L V1.0) and the printer was printing fine for a while then tonight one of my Steppers started to just vibrate. Basically a back and fourth jerking movement. This stepper was my Extruder. I decided to check the stepper so I switched it with one of the axis and it did not do what it was supposed to there. When I ran the homing all the steppers moved hit the endstops dropped down then went back up like normal but then the one with the driver I switched went back don and then back up and kept trying to go up. This is on a Kossel Mini.

So I am wondering if that driver has gone bad. It just vibrates when in the extruder slot yet moves and goes crazy when in a axis slot. I went ahead and ordered a new set of A4988 drivers as the don't cost much but I just wanted inquire about the issue here as well to find out if it is indeed bad. So does it sound like the driver is just bad? I think it may be.

Sounds like a bad solder or cracked trace on the driver.
If you don't see anything you could fix with a solder iron or heatgun, just replace it.

Hello ,

Same issue. Even tuning the driver( Pololu driver A4988) is not solving problem. Power supply 12v. Connection of motor looks good to me (0.9 degree Nema 23).


Thank you!!

Driving a NEMA23 with an A4988 is quite tricky, if not impossible. It's like driving a 40ton truck with a lawnmower motor...
Also running it on 12V doesn't make things easier.
What's the rated current of the stepper?

Hello,

it is .9deg Nema 23 Stepper Bipolar 2.8A 1.26Nm

if not A4988 then will DRV8825 Driver be helpful as without cooling it can provide 1.5 A per coil and could be used to a maximum current to 2.2 A.


Thank You!!

#define X_STEP_PIN 54
#define X_DIR_PIN 55
#define X_ENABLE_PIN 38
#define X_MIN_PIN 3
#define X_MAX_PIN 2

#define Y_STEP_PIN 60
#define Y_DIR_PIN 61
#define Y_ENABLE_PIN 56
#define Y_MIN_PIN 14
#define Y_MAX_PIN 15

#define Z_STEP_PIN 46
#define Z_DIR_PIN 48
#define Z_ENABLE_PIN 62
#define Z_MIN_PIN 18
#define Z_MAX_PIN 19

#define E_STEP_PIN 26
#define E_DIR_PIN 28
#define E_ENABLE_PIN 24

#define Q_STEP_PIN 36
#define Q_DIR_PIN 34
#define Q_ENABLE_PIN 30

#define SDPOWER -1
#define SDSS 53
#define LED_PIN 13

#define FAN_PIN 9

#define PS_ON_PIN 12
#define KILL_PIN -1

#define HEATER_0_PIN 10
#define HEATER_1_PIN 8
#define TEMP_0_PIN 13 // ANALOG NUMBERING
#define TEMP_1_PIN 14 // ANALOG NUMBERING

void setup() {
pinMode(FAN_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(HEATER_0_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(HEATER_1_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(LED_PIN , OUTPUT);

pinMode(X_STEP_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(X_DIR_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(X_ENABLE_PIN , OUTPUT);

pinMode(Y_STEP_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(Y_DIR_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(Y_ENABLE_PIN , OUTPUT);

pinMode(Z_STEP_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(Z_DIR_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(Z_ENABLE_PIN , OUTPUT);

pinMode(E_STEP_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(E_DIR_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(E_ENABLE_PIN , OUTPUT);

pinMode(Q_STEP_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(Q_DIR_PIN , OUTPUT);
pinMode(Q_ENABLE_PIN , OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(X_ENABLE_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Y_ENABLE_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Z_ENABLE_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(E_ENABLE_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Q_ENABLE_PIN , LOW);
}





void loop () {

if (millis() %1000 <500)
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
else
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);

if (millis() %1000 <300) {
digitalWrite(HEATER_0_PIN, HIGH);
digitalWrite(HEATER_1_PIN, LOW);
digitalWrite(FAN_PIN, LOW);
} else if (millis() %1000 <600) {
digitalWrite(HEATER_0_PIN, LOW);
digitalWrite(HEATER_1_PIN, HIGH);
digitalWrite(FAN_PIN, LOW);
} else {
digitalWrite(HEATER_0_PIN, LOW);
digitalWrite(HEATER_1_PIN, LOW);
digitalWrite(FAN_PIN, HIGH);
}

if (millis() %10000 <5000) {
digitalWrite(X_DIR_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(Y_DIR_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(Z_DIR_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(E_DIR_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(Q_DIR_PIN , HIGH);
}
else {
digitalWrite(X_DIR_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Y_DIR_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Z_DIR_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(E_DIR_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Q_DIR_PIN , LOW);
}


digitalWrite(X_STEP_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(Y_STEP_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(Z_STEP_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(E_STEP_PIN , HIGH);
digitalWrite(Q_STEP_PIN , HIGH);
delay(1);

digitalWrite(X_STEP_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Y_STEP_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Z_STEP_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(E_STEP_PIN , LOW);
digitalWrite(Q_STEP_PIN , LOW);

}

Upload this code and even if then motors are not working then its the problem of ur motors and if it works then it is the problem of ur power supply