My E0 Driver just went pop

Jacotheron

This stepper driver should have detected such a fault and prevented itself from popping. These drivers are quite smart with all of their safety features (open circuit detection, short circuit detection, over voltage detection etc), when compared to the typical stepper drivers used in 3D printing.

Benny

@jacotheron 100% thats what did it everything has been working for months all i did was take connector out of motor and plugged it in 1 next to it

dc42

@benny said in My E0 Driver just went pop:

Hi mate, ive ordered new chip, hopefully i can sort it, I now no what caused it.
I swapped motors but kept same cable and the pins were 1-3 2-4 not 1-2 3-4 like old 1.
I should of checked but didnt realise that was a thing.

Sadly there are two different pinouts of stepper motors with integrated connectors. If it's any consolation, I've blown a stepper driver in exactly the same way.

Benny

@dc42 I feel slightly better knowing you have done it too.
I'm just glad it was just the driver not the whole board, no printing till after Xmas probably a good thing as it drives everyone mad.

sigxcpu

So are the drivers protected against open/short-circuit or not?

dc42

@sigxcpu said in My E0 Driver just went pop:

So are the drivers protected against open/short-circuit or not?

In theory yes, and RRF sets the short circuit protection threshold to the most sensitive level. In practice it seems that the drivers often fail when there is a short circuit.

My tests indicate that the drivers normally survive a sudden open circuit. There is a video about this on my youtube channel.

sigxcpu

Thanks @dc42, already seen your video, but I'm still confused.

Sadly there are two different pinouts of stepper motors with integrated connectors. If it's any consolation, I've blown a stepper driver in exactly the same way.

What can be the wrong wiring method of a stepper mottor to trigger a driver suicide?

I see only one way in which wiring can be wrong: coils are not AABB but another combination (BABA ABAB ABBA or BAAB). In my experience this generates a motor buzzing with almost no movement.
Another unlikely option is to have 2 or more of the 4 motor pins shorted, but that should be taken care of by the driver protection.

Is there any other bad motor pinout that I fail to see?

Btw, the 1-3-2-4 happened to me twice when using some old copier motors with the same exact 6 pins socket on them like modern ones. The result was buzzing with no movement.

dc42

I've had the same buzzing several times when I've not connected the motor phases correctly, on both older Duets and on Duet WiFis. I though nothing of it until I blew a driver on a Duet WiFi. Now I always check the motor phases before connecting them.

sigxcpu

Never bothered with that so... good to know

Thank you again.

Benny

@dc42 whats the best way to remove old driver ?
Thanks Ben

dc42

@benny said in My E0 Driver just went pop:

@dc42 whats the best way to remove old driver ?

Two ways:

I use an electric hotplate and hot air SMD rework equipment. Put the board on the hotplate and heat it to 120C (I use a multimeter thermocouple attachment to monitor the temperature). Allow the board temperature to stabilise, then use the hot air tool with a large square nozzle to heat the driver chip, and a vacuum pickup tool to remove it.
You could use ChipQuik or similar low melting point solder. I suggest using a vacuum pickup tool again, they are very cheap on eBay.

If you are in the US then I think forum user W3DRK still offers Duet repair services.

Benny

@dc42 thank you for your reply hope you have had a good Christmas.
Do i need hot plate or will it work just as well with just hot air ?

dc42

It will take longer with just hot air, because the PCB acts as a heatsink for the driver chips.

Hint: remove the plastic parts from nearby Molex connectors first to protect them from the heat, using long nosed pliers. This is easier to do if you heat them first with hot air at 150C.

Veti

there are some good videos on youtube
Louis Rossmann does many repair videos where he explains what he does while reparing macbooks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr1UVPsExiE

Benny

@dc42
Changed driver having problems with B phase, alert pops up says B phase may be disconnected but motor works.
Any Clues what I've done wrong ?

BPisLife

One of the best ways I found removing a large QFP chip with thick ground connections is to little rally cut the pins off the package then desolder the remaining pins. This needs to be done carefully as to avoid delaminating the copper from the PCB but this is another method.

dc42

@benny said in My E0 Driver just went pop:

@dc42
Changed driver having problems with B phase, alert pops up says B phase may be disconnected but motor works.
Any Clues what I've done wrong ?

Check that all the driver OB pins are soldered down. There are 8 of them.

Benny

@dc42
The problem I'm having is bridging, through lack of experience, then using wick to remove bridge and probably the solder under pins. Trying to find the balance

dc42

Some of the driver output pins are paired, so bridges between those pins are harmless. See the TMC2660 data sheet for details.

Benny

Yea the doubles are easy its the single small ones between them.