Driving a Stepper Motor with a Mini-Rambo Controller

Question

I have been working with the MiniRambo Controller to try to drive 3 stepper motors using the AccelStepper library. The stepper motors are NEMA 17s with the following specifications:

I am trying to avoid using Marlin Firmware because I want to first make a 2D printer (i.e. a "drawbot") using my own code before upgrading my build to be a 3D printer. Thus far, I have the following for code, where the pin mappings were taken from the Marline firmware and checked against the schematic on the wiki linked above.

#include "AccelStepper.h"
#include "Wire.h"

#define X_STEP_PIN             37
#define X_DIR_PIN              48
#define X_MIN_PIN              12
#define X_MAX_PIN              -1
#define X_ENABLE_PIN           29
#define X_MS1_PIN              40
#define X_MS2_PIN              41

#define Y_STEP_PIN             36
#define Y_DIR_PIN              49
#define Y_MIN_PIN              11
#define Y_MAX_PIN              -1
#define Y_ENABLE_PIN           28
#define Y_MS1_PIN              69
#define Y_MS2_PIN              39

#define Z_STEP_PIN             35
#define Z_DIR_PIN              47
#define Z_MIN_PIN              10
#define Z_MAX_PIN              23
#define Z_ENABLE_PIN           27
#define Z_MS1_PIN              68
#define Z_MS2_PIN              67

#define E0_STEP_PIN            34
#define E0_DIR_PIN             43
#define E0_ENABLE_PIN          26
#define E0_MS1_PIN             65
#define E0_MS2_PIN             66

#define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_XY_PIN 46
#define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_Z_PIN  45
#define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_E_PIN  44
#define LED_PIN             13

#define ELECTRONICS "RAMBo13a"

AccelStepper stepper(1, Y_STEP_PIN, Y_DIR_PIN); // 1 = Driver

void setup() {  

  analogWrite(46,166);

  stepper.setMaxSpeed(200);
  stepper.setSpeed(50);
  stepper.setAcceleration(10);

  stepper.setEnablePin(Y_ENABLE_PIN);
  stepper.setPinsInverted(false, false, true); //invert logic of enable pin
  stepper.enableOutputs();
}

void loop() {
  stepper.runToNewPosition(0);

  stepper.moveTo(500);
  while (stepper.currentPosition() != 300)
    stepper.run();
}

Currently, my motors will move on very rare, seemingly unpredictable occasions. When they do move, they tick once and then stop moving. Since I still see some of this behavior from time-to-time I don't think I have burnt out my drivers - but who knows. The MiniRambo uses four A4982 stepper motor drivers.

I calculated the value to analogWrite to my PWM pin by referencing the Marlin firmware which states the following for the MiniRambo:

#define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_XY_PIN 46
#define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_Z_PIN  45
#define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_E_PIN  44
// Motor current PWM conversion, PWM value = MotorCurrentSetting * 255 / range
#ifndef MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_RANGE
  #define MOTOR_CURRENT_PWM_RANGE 2000
#endif
#define DEFAULT_PWM_MOTOR_CURRENT  {1300, 1300, 1250}

Another semi-important piece of information is that I am powering the MiniRambo with a 24V/14.6A power supply.

Any help getting my motors to spin would be greatly appreciated! Further, if you know of a way to test my motor driver to see if it burnt out, I would like to hear about it! When explaining, please keep in mind that I am totally new to the space and not very familiar with much of the electronics (more of a software person). Thank you in advance for your help :)

Driving a Stepper Motor with a Mini-Rambo Controller

0 Answers0