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Intermittent stepper motor and servo response
I've assembled by Egg-Bot and have been able to use Inkscape with the Egg-Bot extensions to manually control my unit as well as print. But sometimes the Egg-bot will stop responding. It doesn't happen in the middle of a run. I'll use manual control to rotate both steppers and lift and drop the pen to ensure it is all working. But when I click on Apply on the Plot tab, sometimes nothing happens. The green LEDs on the EBB are solid green or flashing and the red LEDs are flashing like they are sending commands to the steppers and servo, but nothing is moving. I'll cancel the print and select Enable Motors on the Manual tab and click apply then try manual control again but now nothing happens. I've cycled the power, disconnected the USB cable and reconnected, checked all wires leading to the steppers and the servo. The last time this happened I shut everything down including my computer and restarted and then it all worked. Anyone had this problem before? I'm using Windows 7 and the latest version of InkScape, USB driver, and Eggbot extension (I just downloaded it today).
It's driving me nuts since I can't predict when it will happen. Most of the time it works fine. But when it glitches, I haven't figured out why or how to recover reliably.
It's driving me nuts since I can't predict when it will happen. Most of the time it works fine. But when it glitches, I haven't figured out why or how to recover reliably.
Comments
I've been troubleshooting and haven't been able to narrow it down since it is an intermittent problem. Can someone tell me if the following assumptions are correct:
Following the circuit diagram, it look like:
Green power LED lights when EBB is connected to the computer (USB) and disconnected from the power adapter.
Green power LED lights when EBB is connected to the power adapter and disconnected from the computer.
When Inkscape is sending commands to the EBB:
Red LED lights when commands are being sent to the individual steppers. The red LEDs will still blink on and off during this process even if the power adapter is not connected.
The steppers hum when they are active but not moving.
Like you, I also suspect something is wrong with the power connection to the board. The plug on the power supply, the socket, or the connection between the socket and the board.