I 'THINK' my motor drivers are dead

[just_doug]

Last night I installed new software from Openbuilds and it was running fine.  Got downstairs today and was going to demonstrate to my daughter and son-in-law and nothing moved.  Tried T2laser with the same result.  No motion.  I reinstalled the default t2 firmware just to make sure it had not gotten corrupted, still no motion.  The screen says motion is happening (coords are changing) but its fibbing.  Does this sound like bricked motor drivers?  If so, I need a new controller.  Any suggestions?

[Zax]

Not likely both motor drivers and the laser died, it will be either a bad power supply (most likely) or the input capacitor / switch.

[ggallant571]

What is your controller? The Openbuild firmware may not have been GRBL, try the version from T2. As for the little driver boards, I buy them in bulk. They seem to not like me.

[just_doug]

Laser runs just fine.  Except it just sits there and doesn't move, that is.  As I stated I reloaded the T2 default firmware just to be sure.  But it was running fine last night. I loaded a Gcode file that runs fine on BenCut and T2 and it ran it off no problem.  The only thing I can think of is by default their software locks the steppers, so it sat there all night with the motors locked while I was sleeping.   I need to get hold of another controller board.  Any suggestions?   Obtainable in country?  I dont want to wait two months and would like a little better quality than the clone I had.

[Zax]

That's possible but at no load the holding current shouldn't cause them to fail (even overnight), of course I don't know how they were setup or what that software / firmware does. T2Laser and my default settings will automatically power down the motor drivers unless you select the "hold position" setting which enables continuous hold.

Is this an openbuilds controllef If it uses the standard A4988 drivers you should be able to get those or DRV8825 replacements fairly easily.

[just_doug]

Now this is most odd.  On T2, when I went to Control Laser/ Settings/ Advanced/ the Hold Position item was checked, however the motors were not locked.  When I unchecked it, I heard all the motors do their little 'thunk' and they all locked in place.  So that seems to be reversed.  I reinstalled (again) the default 1.1e that comes with T2 but no change.   I loaded a small DXF file and ran it.  T2 thinks it is running ( the coord numbers on the screen change to show where it thinks the carriage is ) and the laser turns on and off when its time to burn a line, but none of the steppers actually do anything.
  ggallant, I have not a clue What board it is.  Its just a standard clone that came with Benbox.. It has been running grbl 1.1e on registered versions of both T2laser and BenCutLaser for well over a year now.  The software from Openbuilds is called OpenBuildsCONTROL and is meant for standard grbl CNC and laser control.  It has a few nice jog and homing features (seperate X, Y and Z zero features) and speed control functions.  It does not generate code though, only reads a pre-generated file. 

As a side note BenCutLaser will no longer connect, if that means anything, though it has been running a little flakey the last few weeks and a fresh install might do it some good.

[Zax]

When you connect, T2Laser reads the controller (Grbl parameters) and sets the menus based on the machine configuration so perhaps the other program changed the values, although that wouldn't explain why it was acting backwards - if indeed it is, as whether the hold is enabled or not it will initially have holding current. It just powers them down after about 30 seconds I think with the default settings.

So I'm confused, you do hear and feel the motors are energised. That would indicate they have power yet they aren't working from the jog arrows?

As an aside, you can easily setup custom button in T2Laser to zero X and Y separately - although I am not sure when that would be needed. The Z-home is already separate.

[ggallant571]

Have you adjusted the current limits. They are the small philips head trim pots on the stepper motor driver. Too low and the motors will not have enough energy to move, too high and they overheat.

Can you post a closeup picture of the controller board?

[just_doug]

NEWS FLASH!!!!   Went into the Openbuilds program and found the 'restore defaults' button for the grbl.   I now have control again!!!  Odd, because I figured re-flashing from T2 would overwrite it.  It wants to home to the right though, even when I have the lower left set as the start point.  I will have to figure out what setting No. that is.

Thanks