Right Stepper Motor Not Holding

[Anonymous]

Ok, so we’ve been trying to get this problem worked out for weeks now on several machines. Some using all parts from Marginally Clever, and some using off the shelf parts (the exact same stuff that Marginally Clever sells). Everything seems to be having this problem and we think it’s a firmware issues. (An older set up is not having this problem.)

Whats happening is that the right stepper motor isn’t gripping, and just freely spins.. Meaning that when it’s not actively moving, it’s runs loose. No grip at all. It’ll move just fine when you give it instructions, but it doesn’t “hold” or “grip”. This causes all drawing and movements to be off. Or when you’re not doing anything the gondola just slowly falls down the page.

The left stepper motor holds in place just fine. We can pull on the belt and it doesn’t move. We pull on the right belt and it freely spins.

We’ve tried switching out ALL hardware. We’ve tried going back to earlier versions of the firmware.

Oddly our massive machine on our wall works just fine since we’ve not updated the software or firmware on it for a long time.

This same problem is happening on a CoreXY machine we have as well. Exact same issue. Left stepper is operating fine, right isn’t. Wires are hooked up correctly, the machine moves correctly (since core XY more or less always has both stepper moving), but drawing always gets off over time due to the right stepper not gripping when doing circles and curves.

Has anyone else had similar issues before?

We’re running everything off Mac OS 10.11. Latest JAVA update. Latest firmware and software release.

We’re using an official Arduino and a generic motor shield V1 (from Marginally Clever) as well as steppers from Marginally Clever.

Contacted Dan about it, was unable to provide any help.

[Dan]

What hardware, specifically, are you using? Can you share a picture?

You swapped out all the hardware – even the pulleys and the A4988 drivers?

[Anonymous]

We’re using all parts bought from you. Motor shield and an official Arduino (ok, official Arduino we got from Adafruit).

We switched out EVERYTHING. We have two machines both suffering from the same problem, and a third we built just to see if we can replicate the problem again.

Even without the pulleys we can manually spin the Right Motor, but not the left. It’s not a loose pulley.

[Anonymous]

Hello? Anyone. We’ve built like four machines all from parts bought from Marginally Clever, and nothing is working. This is really darned annoying.

[Anonymous]

I am using an Adafruit V1 board clone and i have the same problem as Joshua, i spend hours with
the Makelangelo software because it just doesnt work. With the latest version you cant do anything the start button is grayed out(not activ) i downloaded an older version and that works but with a new problem 1 motor doesnt hold so your pen moves over the bord and drops all the time. This is the worst software i have ever encountered lost days in figuring out why stuff dont work. And you still got the nerve to ask for money befor downloading.

[Anonymous]

I’m just starting with working on a machine but your post made me try and I’m seeing the same issue – one motor holding and the other not.

Happens in V5 and v7.3.4 of the SW.

The odd thing is that it’s not always the same motor that won’t hold – If I do a manual +10 x then the right motor is lose. If I do +10 Y then it’s the left that’s lose. Seems like only the last motor to move, or something, stays holding. Odd thing is that they both get hot so I don’t understand why one is not holding, because it must be energised.

Ugi

[Dan]

Hi Jan,

Are you using the latest version (7.4.5)? v7.3.4 was the first release of the force-home feature and it is known to have a bug.

We assemble and test all our robots before shipping. That way we know they and the software will work. I don’t see any record of your purchase in our web store so I have to assume you’re running a home made model. I can only guess that you have (from best case to worst case)

1. a loose wire on that stepper motor
2. a wonky power supply
3. a bad motor shield
4. a bad arduino
5. some or all of the above, simultaneously

Please: How could I make “figuring out why stuff doesn’t work” better?

[Anonymous]

Hi Dan

I have just tried it with the v7.5.4 and same issue persists. It switches between motors so it doesn’t sound like a wiring issue – both motors are _capable_ of holding. It’s just that at any one time only one _is_ holding.

Thanks

Chris

[Anonymous]

OK – Update on the motor holding issue.

It is a firmware problem – I installed a version of the Arduino firmware that I could upload with Arduino 1.0.5 (v 1.0.1 of the firmware before the Arduino 1.5x update) and both motors now hold fine.

So, if you have an issue with this 1-motor-slipping problem, try the old version of the Arduino firmware.

Cheers

Ugi

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply Ugi and trying stuff out, can you post a downloadlink because i can’t find Firmware V1.0.1.

[Anonymous]

HI Jan

Not sure where I originally got it from so I’ve stuck it up at:

http://ugilabs.co.uk/Scrap/FWv101.zip

Hope it does the trick.

Ugi

[Anonymous]

PS v 1.0.1 after an update for Arduino 1.5.x is available on the GitHub: https://github.com/MarginallyClever

This may well also work – it’s just that I didn’t have Arduino v 1.5 to test it with at that moment and it wouldn’t compile on Arduino 1.0.5 so I used the still older version in the above link.

Ugi

[Anonymous]

PPS – found the original link to the earlier version:

https://www.marginallyclever.com/other/Makelangelo.dmg

Ugi

[Anonymous]

Argh! Sorry – that was the MacOS version.

Windows version: https://www.marginallyclever.com/other/Makelangelo.zip

Ugi

[Anonymous]

Thanks M8 will look into it later this day, i need to buy a mothersday present 😉

[Dan]

https://github.com/marginallyclever/makelangelo-firmware

Latest version is 1.0.3. I just finished building another 2.5.2, I’m going to check on the one-stepper issue today.

[Anonymous]

The firmware is of the same version as the current one if i am not mistaken. So no improvements here. I changed in the firmware 400 steps to 200 steps and this is a hughe improvement. Still does the problem exists 1 motor not able to maintain position. But because steps are no longer skipped overall printing improved but speed is to high wich causes bad print quality.

What also doesnt work is the sethome button, when clicked also 1 motor holds position and the other not.

At this moment the firmware seems to be the biggest problem. …. and not a lose wire!!!!

[Anonymous]

Forgot hardware i use: Adafruit V1 motor shield clone, 2 steppers from minebea 17pm-m002-008 they seem
to run on 12V arround .4 amps. I cant find data on the internet but lowering voltage and increasing amps makes lose all torque. I think they are similar to the wantai 42BYGHW208 steppermotors.

[Anonymous]

Jan, don’t worry if you can’t get it to work.

I’m using 100% parts from Marginally Clever, and we can’t get it working. In fact we’ve built now 4 machines with 100% marginally clever parts and they ALL have the same issue. (We wholesaled a bunch of stuff from Dan to resell, which means we have around 10 worthless kits now sitting on our shelves. I can’t sell them if we can’t get them to work in our shop. We’d be as bad as Dan then.)

So thats a fun waste of money sitting in a box. Dan’s response when I emailed him was “I don’t know, ask the forums.”

More or less the kind of support you can expect when you buy one of these kits.

[Anonymous]

When we jog the motors whichever one we jog stays locked. The other one is loose.

So the machines work 50% of the time.

[Author]

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