Extruder Stepper Motor Stops Spinning Mid-Print

[bringfire]

Hello,

I am having the following issue. For the past three months, my Up Printer Version 1.1, running Firmware version 6.04 has worked fine....until today.

The problem is that mid-print, the extruder stepper motor will just stop spinning. I have disassembled the head and everything is clean, so there isn't any problem with the gear being gummed up and slipping....the stepper motor simply stops spinning.

When I stop the print and initialize the printer, after it has stopped mid-print, and then try to extrude the filament, the head heats up just fine, but when it reaches temperature and beeps the stepper does not spin.

Only if I turn off the machine and initialize the printer does the stepper work again after the head heats up.

I am using pp3dp white ABS, so no new or exotic filament sizes or types have been used.

Any ideas would be really helpful.

thanks,
aaron

[pleppik]

Do you know for sure that the stepper isn't turning (as opposed to the filament jamming)?

[bringfire]

Yes, both by running the extrude command when the head is disassembled but still hooked up to the ribbon Cable

AND

the spindle of the stepper motor is visible from the back of the motor...normally it also spins when the motor functions properly and rotates, but in this case it does not spin.

[wackojacko]

Try unplugging your USB and try again

www.3dprintingsystems.com

[Billzilla]

Mine does the same thing every now and then.
In the last thread I started, I thought it was the filament getting jammed, but I did a bit more investigation and I noticed that the extruder motor wasn't turning. (I have a small marker pen spot on one side of the shaft so I can see it turning .... or not)

All the connections seem good so I'm at a bit of a loose end as to how to fix it properly.

[wilsonj]

Add me to the list. Mine also stops mid print. I can actually pull the filament out through the motor, and push it back in again. Its like its not getting any power. All plugs are fine. With the cycling of the power it all starts working again.

Really pissed today though as it stopped part way through a 25 hour print.

Are all the machines doing this the newer version that doesn't have the feeder ?

[Billzilla]

FWIW I'm now trying this -

As the platform gets towards 100° I run the extrude test to see if the extruder motor is working, then if it's all okay I start the print.
As soon as the beeping stops and the platform starts to rise, I disconnect the USB cable from the UP! to the computer to make sure there's no weird signals from the computer than can effect the print.
I've only tried that with one print so far and it worked fine, I'll try some more and see how it goes.
I also noticed that all this oddness started with version 1.16 of the UP! software ..... might be a coincidence though.

[wackojacko]

WilsonJ are you using the supplied white plastic? If you are, make sure that your drive gear is clean. Remove the two outside screws of the heads heatsink and then pop off the drive gear cover, then brush off any ABS power from the drive gear. Always check this if you are going to do long prints.

[wackojacko]

Always unplug from USB during printing.

[wilsonj]

Hi Wackojacko,

thanks for the reply. It isn't a filament issue though. The motor goes dead. Its even cold to the touch, which suggests its no longer powered.

I suspect the problem was due to the usb being plugged in though. I just finsished a 10+ hour print with no problems without the usb connected.

Cheers