Broken Me Stepper Motor Driver

#1

After using the XY plotter for a while, I ran into a weird issue. It looks like one of the stepper motor drivers has broken. When plugged into the board, its power LED blinks at a steady clip. It does not turn solid and does not respond to any input from the software.

When it is plugged in, it seems to prevent the other stepper driver from initializing as well. When unplugged, the other stepper driver turns solid and acts as normal. I’ve tried swapping out the cables, plug ports, and connected stepper motors, but the issue seems to be located within this stepper driver itself. Any advice? Maybe I need a replacement, but they’re like $20 apiece? That’s kinda steep.

Thanks!

#2

How did the issue happen? Please take a video of that.
Also take some photos of the motor driver
What is the operating system of the computer?
Which software you used? mDraw?
How did you set the sub-divide? should be HHH for mDraw
Can you detect serial port and update firmware?
When and where did you purchase the XY?
For the motor driver price, I am afraid I cannot help.

#3

My best guess as to how the stepper driver failed:
When manually moving one of the axes with the power off, power is generated in the stepper motor and sent backward down the line to the stepper driver. This may have overloaded one of the components on the stepper driver board.

An inspection reveals no visual burns or damage, but the way it fails to initialize makes me think it’s a broken onboard component. I was just wondering if you guys knew what a blinking LED would mean. I bought another stepper driver and will not spend more time diagnosing this one. If you guys send a box or something my way, I could send you the unit for something more forensic.

#4

I though orion board power is flashing. Sorry, the power on stepper motor driver is not solid but flashing, the reason is the driver cannot get steady voltage. You may switch the two drivers, check if the specific one always gets blinking power light. If yes, it should be the driver issue. You can turn to your retailer to replace (within warranty) or buy a new stepper motor driver.

#5

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.