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.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    NEMA motors should all have the same wiring, it’s part of the standard in the nema specs, might be off on voltage, which would make sense. Check the specs on your motor and pull out a volt meter and check/adjust its voltage to match the new motor’s needs.

    As long as both have the same number of wires, that is.

    This is, of course assuming the physical connections are all dandy. (It’s possible something came loose in the conversion?) you’ll have to open its case up any how to get the volt meter on the tuning pot anyhow. (Positive to the pot, negative to ground somewhere. I’d drop a guide but specifics change with boards.)

  • sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net
    2·
    9 months ago

    I use a tevo tornado which is similar in many ways to an ender3 and added a direct drive extruder. I ended up needing to change the wiring for the stepper motor because it just sat there jerking around but not moving. I don’t recall if I used a meter to measure resistance or if I just swapped wires until I got it working but it prints perfectly today and has for years.

    To do it I think I had to use a small screwdriver to push in the little barb that holds the pin in the connector (on some you can lift a little plastic tab on the connector to pull it out) then I could just push it back in place. Make sure you don’t disconnect your stepper while powered, it can toast your controller.

      • sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net
        2·
        9 months ago

        Glad I could help! I know it’s really frustrating when you’re right at the 99% mark and it’s like “why isn’t this working?!”

    • callcc@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      I checked the pinout with a multimeter yesterday and the don’t seem to be the same. I’m pretty sure this is the issue. Thanks for mentioning pinout as a source of issues.