Hi, my stepper motors won't go backwards?

[james555]

I have been making a 3d printer from scratch and using ramps to host the marlin firmware/software. For some reason the Nema 17 stepper motors refuse to go backwards. Does anyone know why? I've been using Pronterface to control the motors. While it does work some of the time, it glitches out other times.

[3DXSTREAM]

When you say "refuse to go backwards" do you mean they only go forwards and will not go backwards? Can you give more details? What type of printer? Corexy? Detla?

[GrantB]

Sounds like a stepper driver board failure to me.
If the motherboard has removable stepper drivers, swap the affected motor drive with another & see if the issue moves to the new motor connected.... if it does, then you have your answer.

[3DXSTREAM]

It all depends. On CoreXY machines the firmware and wiring make a huge difference since most of the time the x and y axis work together. Could be a loose connection. But like GrantB says, start swapping out parts. Try the driver, try another motor on that port, check the wires.

[james555]

When on start up the software (marlin/repetier) occasionally works and does go backwards ruling out the chance of a broken stepper driver. However, the majority of the time it starts up and fails to go backwards. When it attempts to go backwards it just glitches out and randomly might take small step back, or or just skip ahead and moves forward a little.

[james555]

oh, and it affects the whole xyz movement. And to answer your question, it's a self made 3d printer using the ramps 1.4 board

[3DXSTREAM]

When I encounter that it is usually a loose wire. It can be at the pins inside the connector not seated properly. Loose connection to the pcb. Or it could somewhere else that you have a connection. Just looking at wires isn't enough. You need to thoroughly check them.

[blue pug poo]

just reverse the polarity, if there is anything i have learned from star trek it is that the solution to most problems is reversing the polarity. if that doesn't work try giving the motors a stern talking to

[3DXSTREAM]

Did you fix this issue?