Hi,
I am running a stepper motor (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13656) with an easy drive board + Arduino UNO board, the motor is controlled by a computer. The motor was running well for maybe one year, but now it is not rotating and just vibrates. I am trying to figure out what is the problem, is it from electronic boards or the motor! here is what I have done so far but couldn’t find where the issue is:
I tested the motor by a 9 VDC voltage, by changing the voltage between different wires on the motor you can see it is moving by one step depending on which coils I have connected to the supply.
I also looked at the boards, (the grounds are connected between two boards) nothing obviously wrong is observed on the boards except high temperature (~100 C) on the easy drive board (small board with Red color) which might be normal for IC or Capacitor. the input voltage to the easy drive board is 22 V (DC), I also checked the connectivity through the circuits (nothing was shortened) also there is output from the boards (except I don’t know what numbers are expected ?)
I was wondering what else I could do, or how I can make sure what part is making this problem?
Thanks.
Hello and thanks for your post!
Has anything changed between the time the motor was working and now? If you’ve disconnected the motor from the driver, make sure you have the coil pairs connected to the driver correctly. If you have them connected incorrectly you can see the behavior you’re seeing. I believe that particular motor has it’s coil pairs on red/blue and green/black but a multimeter would confirm that.
Another thing that could be causing you trouble is if you’re not providing enough current to drive the motor or if you’re sending steps too quickly. Make sure your power source can supply at least 2-4 amps and try slowing down the steps to the motor. You might also try turning the CUR_AJD up a little bit to give the motor more current.
If those don’t work, it’s possible the driver is damaged. Try swapping in another to see if that resolves the issue.
Thank you for your response,
Nothing has changed between the time the motor was working and now. I had seen that if I send the steps quickly, the motor will start to vibrate and doesn’t rotate, but now it is set to a number that I am sure it works (sending steps slowly). For the motor, I applied VDC in this order, and each time it was moving one step (1.8 deg.) forward: 1) Black (+)/Green (Gnd) 2) Blue (+)/Red (Gnd) 3)Green (+)/Black (Gnd) 4)Red (+)/Blue (Gnd). I don’t know is this test enough to say the motor is fine!
The only test I haven’t done is measuring the current into the coils, should I measure the current for each wire going into the motor and expect 2-4 A?
Thanks
If you’ve tried turning the current up a bit and the motor is still not working, the only thing I can think of that would be causing trouble is if the driver has been damaged. You might want to try replacing the driver and see if that helps.
TS-Chris:
If you’ve tried turning the current up a bit and the motor is still not working, the only thing I can think of that would be causing trouble is if the driver has been damaged. You might want to try replacing the driver and see if that helps.
Thank you Chris,
I ordered new boards and used them with the same motor, but it did not work (motor was not doing anything), so I decided to replace the motor. Now I am using the new motor, but same (old) boards, now the motor starts to rotate normally, but after a few seconds, it stops and vibrates. Do you have any idea what is the problem, or any solutions!
Thanks
Sadly, I’m kind of out of ideas other than the Easy Driver sounds like it’s just too small to drive your motor. I’m not sure why your setup worked a year ago though. It’s possible the old motor needed slightly less current to run or the original Easy Driver was somehow able to supply slightly more current.
The only thing I can think of would be to use a smaller, lower current motor or use a driver that can supply more current. I’ve used the Big Easy Driver with that motor before with success. You might need to try that.
