pancake stepper weak

Discussion in 'Titan' started by gueee78, Sep 30, 2018.

  1. gueee78

    gueee78 Member

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    I purchased a titan with pancake stepper and v6 hotend including volcano upgrade. It worked pretty well for some time, but then I changed the filament to a polymaker polyplus white and all of a sudden I'm struggling with heavy underextrusion.
    I took the whole thing apart, checked everything over and over again and it seems that the stepper doesn't have enough power to push the filament through the hotend anymore. I switched from v6 standard to volcano to see if it changes something.

    I was clueless, so i pushed filament through the heated nozzle by turning the gear manually and it could be turned easily and extrudes, but the pancake stepper doesn't push it, it excessivly looses steps.

    I even checked ref voltage on the driver, so far everthing is fine.

    Does anyone know how I could find out if the stepper is broken?

    cheers gueee
     
  2. Old_Tafr

    Old_Tafr Well-Known Member

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    Did you change back from polymaker polyplus white to see if all was well again?

    i.e. does the stepper motor turn in other circumstances other than using polymaker polyplus white?

    Can you drive the motor without any filament, e.g. from Octoprint if you use that?

    Does the motor get warm or hot or baking hot?

    Did you change the hot-end temp to suit polymaker polyplus white? Maybe it needs a higher temp and does not extrude as it isn't properly melted?

    If the motor is working and maybe you need more heat and it still does not work then maybe increase the stepper motor voltage a little as this is an obvious reason for the motor stalling. There are other posts on setting voltage and this seems to be an art rather than a science.
    Can you say what motor it is (part number) and what voltage you are using?

    There are a few larger motors that will fit the Titan, in fact I think it started that way and things moved to a smaller (and therefore likely to be less powerful) motor to make things lighter and so with less inertia. A new motor is relatively inexpensive and simpler than troubleshooting a motor that is sort of working. Testing is relatively simple, but... creating a setup that mimics the actual use and also where you could measure anything other than the voltage setting is difficult and far more costly in time and materials that another motor.

    I'm sure there will be other answers on testing the motor.

    My first check would be increase the voltage a little and then a little more, just watch out eventually for it getting too hot.

    This post has some useful info on what the voltage setting should be....
    https://forum.e3d-online.com/threads/another-titan-aero-clicking.3087/
     
  3. gueee78

    gueee78 Member

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    Thanks for your answer!
    I did change back to any other filament I have, with no success.

    The motor gets barely warm.

    I raised the temperature for polymaker to 210°C in the first step and in 2° steps up to 230°C checked with a laser temp probe.

    I checked and changed the motor reference voltage according to the datasheet of the stepper and the driver.

    I'm using a genuine E3D pancake stepper 0.9° per step, I checked the coil resistance and the current flow, everthing seems fine, but I can stop the motor by grabbing the shaft and put slight pressure on it, I cannot do the same with the OEM bulky stepper. (it's an 1.8° per step btw)

    the funny thing is that it worked before. I'm kind of clueless, anyway I'll purchase a new stepper to exclude any damage of the stepper I'm using.
     
  4. Old_Tafr

    Old_Tafr Well-Known Member

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    If the motor is only slightly warm and you can stop it with your fingers then it as you surmise, either it's broke OR it needs a bit more power.

    If it is broke then no harm in increasing the power a little and seeing if it turns nothing lost here as A. It's broken anyway and B> you have another on the way.
     
    Ephemeris likes this.

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