Error: Short-to-ground on drivers 1

Donnyb99

Hey all,

I've had my Duet 2 Wifi v1.02 for about a year or so now and it has always been rock solid. It it mounted on 25mm standoffs with a 100mm fan blowing over it.

I started a print before heading out this morning and came back to the print being messed up and the Duet Web Interface reporting "Error: Short-to-ground on drivers 1"

I did a little research and let the printer cool down then turned everything off and unplugged all of the stepper motors from the Duet. At this point I checked the temperature of all of the drivers and they were all about room temperature. I also sprayed compressed air over and under the board to ensure there was no debris anywhere.

When I turned the printer back on, within about 10 seconds, the Y stepper driver became very hot to the touch (maybe 60-70C) without even attempting to move anything. When I attempted to move the Z or Extruder steppers, things went smoothly. When I attempted to move X or Y (CoreXY kinematics), I instantly got the same "Error: Short-to-ground on drivers 1".

Is my board done? Is there anything I can do to save it? Can I buy a Duex2 or Duex5 instead of a brand new board to work around the issue?

Thanks in advance

@donnyb99 said in Error: Short-to-ground on drivers 1:

When I turned the printer back on, within about 10 seconds, the Y stepper driver became very hot to the touch (maybe 60-70C) without even attempting to move anything. When I attempted to move the Z or Extruder steppers, things went smoothly. When I attempted to move X or Y (CoreXY kinematics), I instantly got the same "Error: Short-to-ground on drivers 1".

Unclear at which point you reconnected the motors; if the stepper drivers heats up without the motor attached i'd say odds are the driver is done for, if it only heats up with the motors attached, check the wiring for an actual short.

(Compressed air isn't always the best idea as with some parts its possible to just make debris more stuck than removing it, but if you have conductive debris a conformal coating is likely the better option.)

Donnyb99

I tried both scenarios, with the motors connected and without and got the same result.

I figured that the driver was toast. What can be done to prevent this in the future? I had been printed almost nonstop for a week before this happened without any issues whatsoever. Before that, the printer was in pretty consistent operation for well over a year.

Why would something like this happen?

In general electronics will fail, all you can do is keep it cool, avoid static electricity and hope for the best. Static electricity is another reason to think twice before using compressed air to clean electronics. The MTBF rating dropps off relatively quickly with increasing temperature, but for more insight I'd defer to the Duet3d guys.

To address the Duex2/5 question, it would likely work as you describe the remaining drivers working, but depending on the root cause for the initial failure its a game of chance with respect to future failures. I'd check out the warranty terms with my supplier, then try to find someone to replace the €6 driver chip before considering the Duex2. For maximum reliability I'd get a new Duet.