I just got an old Ender 3 for cheap and wanted to replace the crappy extruder with a nicer bowden extruder of my (now) direct drive Kobra Max. When I connect the new stepper, nothing moves. It’s a longer stepper and a different manufacturer. Is the wiring different or VREF wrong or are there other reasons why it wouldn’t move? The driver is good, since the old stepper is still working.

Thanks for any help!

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    To clarify what I meant, the Pinouts are all standardized- or should be. OP shouldn’t have any issue slotting in the old wires (unless it’s a different wire count, of course.)

    If it is a different number of wires OP will certainly be having a hard time adapting it… (that becomes a firmware issue; and I just don’t want to know the headache a creality main board will cause with that.)

    • ShepherdPie
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      10 months ago

      Pinouts aren’t standardized in my experience. You get 4 wires but the color and position can be different. OP can easily use a multimeter to find the two pairs and then use different combinations to find the correct placement (1A,1B,2A,2B - 1A,1B,2B,2A - 1B,1A,2B,2A - etc)

    • callcc@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      Ok, so wire count is the same. I guess the remaining problem is current limit then?

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        probably, unless you’ve managed to get a bad connection or something- just something to look at when you’re opening it up to get to the pot. try and see if you can check the voltage specs on the new part, compare it to where its at. It’ll save you a lot of grief if you know where it should be before hunting around for it.

        • callcc@lemmy.worldOP
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          10 months ago

          Afaik steppers don’t care about voltage. It’s about current since it’s all inductors inducing magnetic fields.

          • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            Nearly all stepper drivers deliver a constant current to the motor, or at least, it tries. While the nominal voltage needed for a stepper is essentially “irrelevant”, setting the correct voltage determines the current available for the stepper, by the driver. This gets a little different to work out since the current is generally “clipped” or “chopped” as part of the function of the driver. (Ohms law is only really applicable to a stepper motor when it is not moving, btw.)

            A minimum voltage is still required to overcome back-EMF.

            Without going into the maths, your voltage settings determines your available current, basically.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Steppers require a certain amount of voltage to maintain position, too little and it looses position/starts shifting, too much and it overheats and stutters.

            Generally, steppers will only draw what they need, and not more. 3d printers usually have current limiting switched if something goes weird.

    • callcc@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      Pinouts are not standard (at least in practice). I’ll downvote your post for it to not appear on top.