HIC i3 - extruder motor or controller issues? HELP wanted

[Chip Luck]

HICTOP Reprap Prusa i3 printer has been working fine for about 3 months after learning it, calibration and firmware updates (currently Marlin 1.1.0-RC4). Last night I was re-calibrating e-steps for final firmware update to EEPROM as I have done before now most my calibrations are completed. Well, I accidentally hit the [move 100mm area] instead of the 1mm move on the manual control using Repetier Host. Even with a pre-heated hot end the extruder motor of course tried to fee 100mm of filament right away, first time I have heard the filament grinding and it took a few seconds to power off the printer.

Problem now is I cannot calibrate the e-steps, it's all over the place and the original e-step now under extrudes by 6mm (it was close to 1-2mm). It appears the motor now appears to be jerking or 'banging' on startup/acceleration as you can hear and feel it and also appears to have some backlash even with the motor removed and just feeding cold filament without the hot-end (no load or end pressure). When it steps, it is kind of 'rough feeling'. This original motor has been working fine with the original e-step value and never paid much attention to it, until now. Again the motor moves, just not smoothly nor reliably as it used to prior to commanding 100mm. If that feed did cause this, I sure hope this will be a example to others to be careful during e-step calibration.

Question: is determining if the motor is bad, or somehow the controller/motor driver got fried? I have no spares... and yes, I'm fairly electrically/engineering literate. Meter, o'scope, etc. Pin out's of controller and motor are in order.

Thanks in advance.

Chip

[Chip Luck]

Currently it 'appears' that the controller is faulty. When the X-axis and e-step motors are swapped cable wise AT the controller connectors, the X-axis motor (now e-step) appears to 'chunk' and miss steps, the e-step (now X) seems to work fine. It is also noted that when the X (e-step) motor stops moving, the e-step motor is no longer locked by the controller in a fixed position, it's like a 'disable motor' command has been issued and moves freely all the while the X motor is still held in position. Interesting.

Has anyone blown a controller board by locking up a stepper motor? I would assume it would possibly cause an over-current on the driver and cause it to fail, but this one has not completely failed as the motor still moves, well... sort of.

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[martin-bienz]

Has anyone blown a controller board by locking up a stepper motor? I would assume it would possibly cause an over-current on the driver and cause it to fail, but this one has not completely failed as the motor still moves, well... sort of.

yes, similar things happend to one of my stepp-sticks a while ago (I know that I drew to much current). So the stepper went into half step / or 1/4 step-no-power, wierd behaviour-mode. After replacing the driver, all is well.

[Chip Luck]

Thanks, looks like I will have to replace the whole control board as it has the driver built in. Wonder if I could modify and cheat a little for now by enabling dual-extruders in firmware thus enabling the non-used E1-motor driver and moving E0 (extruder 1) to that connector. At least until I can get a replacement.

HICTOP control board - Rev 'MPX.3'

[martin-bienz]

well, you probably can if you know the pinout and the steps etc. should work. good luck!