Only 1 stepper moving on each axis

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Troubleshooting
1

Only 1 stepper on each X and Y axis is moving when I use the LCD and control knob to test before cleaning all the wiring up. Have tested that all the stepper do work. I have not tried Repetier-Host to move anything as the mpcnc is out of my house away from my pc and I don’t have a long enough usb cable or laptop.

I bought Rambo 1.4a, LCD and Individual wiring kit for Dual end stops from V1 Shop

I would like to know if I have to flash the Rambo board to get all steppers to work? ( 2 each side )

Also if I make a stepper move X amount of mm and press the end stops by hand to test the stepper just keeps going until it reaches X amount of mm.( end stop not stopping anything ) Any help there would be great too.

Think I have wired it as per the instructions. (Z) not connected in pics as I know it works.

Cheers for any help guys and girls

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2

Is the board flashed with the dual firmware or the standard firmware? If it’s dual, then you need to wire the steppers to individual stepper ports.

3

Hmmm. It’s pretty haed to set up dual endstops without a computer. It sounds like you don’t have dual endstop firmware. But even if you did, adjusting the endstops is still done with a computer.

You can wire your steppers in series. That would get you moving.

You can take the board and power supply out and bring it to your computer, reflash it, and check it out with repetier, but you won’t be able to adjust the squareness with software.

4

I got the board from V1 shop and wiring kit for duel end stops. I would have though the board would be flashed as such and at least the steppers should all be working.

I shouldn’t need to wire them in series as the board has and is wired to a port for each stepper. X stepper to X port, Y stepper to Y port. X2 stepper wired to X2 port, Y2 stepper wired to Y2 port.

I would have also thought the end stops should still work ( even just to test them ) without being connected to a computer.

Something must be wrong and I will now need to learn how to flash this board I paid $$$ for that should have come ready to use.

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5

I’m guessing Ryan (@vicious1) should have installed dual endstop firmware. If you could connect it to a computer, even without flashing it, we could tell for sure what firmware was on it.

I (and this is just me personally) don’t think dual endstops should be used without a computer. I consider dual endstops to be an advanced feature and it doesn’t make sense to me to not have a computer involved. But I don’t work for Ryan, so it may noy be his intent. I also use a computer for everything. I have several, and I have raspberry pi’s and other similar boards in my shop space. When I’m milling, I’m using a comouter to do other things in the same room.So maybe I just have a different perspective.

I also don’t know how he decides which firmware to install on a board. It might have been a mistake, or it might have been a confusing way to order it, IDK.

I might also still be wrong about the reason it’s not moving. If you get it connected to repetier, you can send the gcode “M119” and it will report the number of endstops.

6

Just to be clear, I completely sympathize. It sucks. And I wish it had just worked for you from the get go. I hang out here for free and fun. I am totally willing to help you through this. We will get you through this.

7

You could try swapping the X and X2 cables at the rambo. That would pretty much narrow it down to the rambo.

8

The endstops are for homing, not for stopping it mid movement. To test the endstops, you’d need to home the axis.

9

I will find a way to connect it to the pc and have a look. Thanks for the advice

I will let you know how I go.

10

What is your order number, that will help me to know what should be one there (it could be wrong but it helps).

11

Thanks for looking into this for me Ryan, the order number was #7989

12

Okay you bought a standalone board, so I normally ship that as series. You did buy the dual wires so I should have shipped a dual flashed board, does the board box have an S or D on it? Either way it sounds like you need to flash it to dual just in case.

13

No S or D on the box so I think the board was sent as series setup.

I have flashed the board as per the instructions on your firmware page.

So far so good, with both stepper on each axis working as I would think they should.

Thanks for the help guys, I will probably be back here for more soon enough lol.

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14

Ok it didn’t take long to get the next problem.

Connected all steppers and End Stops to board and the steppers all move as I would expect.

The new problem is homing XY from the LCD, X axis homes fine and does its thing to the End Stops. Y axis only moves about 10mm and stops, nowhere near the End Stops.

The firmware is the latest as far as I could tell from GitHub. MPCNC_Rambo_T8_16T_LCD_DualEndstop is the Branch I got from the drop down in GitHub.

Any Ideas on this guys ??

15

Well, the next thing I would say is to send an M119 from the computer to see what state it’s detecting on the endstops.

If they were triggered though, I wouldn’t expect the to move at all. If only one was triggered, then it might move the other one 10mm before stopping.

Definitely check the wiring on the endstops and check if both Y1 and Y2 are moving when you home them.

16

Here’s another idea (sorry, I’m a software engineer, all my diagnosis comes with software :D).

If you have an android device (phone or tablet) you can buy a USB-OTG cable and run this app. It would act like repetier host and let you run commands and jog the motors.

I haven’t tried it, but it would be a cheap solution if you had an android tablet already. Or older tablets are pretty commonly available used.

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