You’ll maybe have a stepper motor wire which is partially broken, due to repetitively bending in a certain location.
I I bought some ribbon wire and replaced my y axis wire when this happened to mines.
Im not sure of any source for an electronic diagram / manual.
Hi, i think it’s needed to check the flat cables indeed! I had the same situation with one of our brand new machines. Just check and replace them. Most probably this week change everything.
Or it could be the amplifiers for the XYZ positions but since all 3 directions are affected the cable seems the likely culprit. Try to move the cable around and to adjust the XYZ to see if the cable is the issue
You won’t be able to get the schematics - customer support can help you get a new cable. Do you have the contact info for Makerbot Europe?
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A refresh of my phone revealed other answers pointing to the cables, a known and common problem with earlier Replicator 2’s, particularly the XY cable. It is $30 USD if I recall correctly.
It could be the X cable. If so, there is a great DIY solution that many (including myself) have done.
It may be one of motor wires broken. Usually problem for Y axis. Try visually find broken area, cut and reconnect all 4 wires.
Hope it’s help, my Replicator have same problem.
Well I didn’t pay for but the guy before me did so I have he 2,000 USD support and all package on my printer… I have a direct line and the techs are helpful chase they know you forked out over $2000 for their services… I’ll call over there and see if I can’t get a wiring diagram
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Looks to be a pretty neat repair, thanks for the link.
The consensus here seems to be wiring problem, in which I agree. Any machine with moving parts or items which are connected to them are the first things to check, always.
Mightyboards are fairly straight forward. You will not find any schematics if that is what you are hoping for. If you describe your issue and post a pic of your Mightyboard we might be able to narrow down the search for you.
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Also if you are getting the stepper motor twitch this is most likely either a bad micro switch (check for bent arms!) or the wiring went bad which is fairly common on Makerbots.
WOW! I am very impressed with the response from this site! I wish Makerbot was like that. Thank you all for your input. Here is what I have so far, 2 blown motor control boards. Now I am not through yet. I have found no issues with broken wires yet. After swapping my X-axis motor control board with the Y-axis, I tried to jog it and it will only jog (shaky at that) in one direction. I pressed both directions but it will physically travel in one direction. This tells me there is a power issue somewhere on the motherboard. Trying to find it now.
Now for those of you who might be reading this and have not purchased a 3D printer, you need to make sure you understand the fundamentals of drives and controls to be able to troubleshoot a piece of equipment like this. I have not received any support from Makerbot (US) directly. The only support that I have received was in these comments below form the Makerbot (EU). I did go ahead and submit my credit card online for the pay-per-case as that is the ONLY way Makerbot (US) will even think of helping you. I am not happy with this as I would have been more than happy to pay for what I needed after the resolution and after my printer was back in operation. I do not find this to be good customer support and for that, my next 3D printer will most likely NOT be a Makerbot. This decision is based on a few things that I have learned during this major outage.
1. There is not enough troubleshooting information on their website therefore is does little good in this situation.
2. Makerbot wants money first before customer support (glad my customer is flexible with this)
3. Makerbot will not provide electrical drawings to troubleshoot things like this
4. After this issue, the power is not designed properly otherwise a fuse would have blown
5. Gantry style machines are all over the place and they are designed with high flex wire to prevent the wire from breaking
with all of the motion. Why has Makerbot designed in a failure point?
Now I don’t really mean to bash Makerbot too bad as this is the only 3D printer I have had. I am looking to purchase another one in the fairly near future depending on business needs. I run a small business, I being the only employee, that I utilize 3D printing for rapid prototyping for custom automation applications. I even use my 3D printer to make some components if it warrants it. I could go out an purchase a DIY kit and tinker with it for next to nothing. I need a machine that is dependable and reliable as I just don’t have the time to invest in “tinkering” to make it work right. That is why I bought a Makerbot. It has been a good machine after the learning curve of course, but if the support is next to nothing, then I don’t have a use for it.
Anyway, I am rambling on and I need to get back to figuring this thing out.
More to come…
Thanks! I would appreciate it but I don’t think you will get anywhere. I will be more than happy to help if needed. Thanks again
Okay if you have truly burned out 2 stepper drivers (not normal unless you unplug stepper motors while they are engaged) then you really have something strange going on! People talk about having issues all the time with all types of 3D printers but they really are not that difficult to repair. It is Makerbots right (totally sucks) to not distributed schematics to their boards. Look at all the clones of their devices out there. Yea their tech support sucks really bad but their are plenty of forums and even a Google group that are very active to help. You can pay for Makerbot support but until you get through all the first line support people to someone who really knows what they are doing you will be wasting a lot of time with “Did you reboot your printer” and “Pull the power cord and wait for 30 seconds” one of my favorites BTW! You need to either get active in the forums or Google groups or find someone with savvy electronics skills and talk to them on the phone. BTW power supply issues on the motherboard is highly unlikely as Makerbot Replicators have external power supplies. That brick you have to plug in supplies all the voltages for you electronics and stepper motors. Seriously save your money and hair pulling with front line support! There are many people more than willing to help solve your issues even people who would get on the phone with you!
Thanks for the input. I did a lot more research and found that Makerbot have, and has had, a design flaw in their motherboard. The 5v regulator faiks and allows 24v to go to all of the 5v circuits; therefore burning them out. This has been going on since 2012 and possible prior. They have had several board updates but they have not resolved this problem. Now with their customer support being a slow and grass growth, this means expect to have you printer down for weeks to fix this problem. I am going to explore alternative solutions to this but most likely will try to offload my Makernot to a comparable model from another manufacturer. It is going to be extremely hard the wash this bad taste out of my mouth!!
My interface for the Rep 2 no longer works. Could that be a burnout some where? I don’t see anything funky on the board.
Other than that, my Makerbots have been trouble free for 18mo’s. I agree the troubleshooting procedures are not very helpful beyond rudimentary operation. More needs to be offered.
Makerbot is aware of their customer support problems. They have a new chief and from what I understand, improvements are coming. With MB taking serious hits on its reputation (since the launch of the 5th Gen., Z18 and Mini) they’ve got a lot of making up to do. I’ve been pretty lucky with customer support; just my experience. I’ll remain a customer of theirs unless they simply fail on the quality of their support.
For folks that do like to surf for 3d tech talk and tips, there are some very good MB knowledge out there. But for the plug and play customer, it’s beside the point.
Cheers.
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I would like to give everyone a very BIG caution about stepper motors. Stepper motors can act as generators. If you spin them when the power to the system is off, the steppers can generate high voltages. If you grab the print carriage with the power off and quickly move it, the potential exists to damage the stepper driver chips.
In other words don’t move the print carriage in either X or Y direction by hand with the power off. If you do make sure you do it very slowly. Voltage output appears to be a function of speed. A faster move can or will generate higher voltages.
adande
May 16, 2015, 4:05pm
22
If the “twitch” also makes a loud annoying noise, I had the same thing. You need to take off the right side of the Makerbot. Once you do this there is a metal bar holding wires back. If you take this bar out and let the wires dangle it should be fixed. My wires were so messed up that I had to cut them and rewire. If this is your problem i can send pictures to help.
PDXDDD
June 29, 2015, 11:13pm
23
GAAAAH!!! I was very happy when Makerbot said they would ship my parts two weeks ago but at first I only received one of the parts I asked for. so I asked for the part again. they shipped the wrong part an end stop wiring harness and not the extruder harness. I think it would be much easier if Makerbot just shared the wiring Bill of materials for the machines they sell to make the support easier. just think of all the printing I could have been doing and filament I would be purchasing… Rep 2x been down for over 6 weeks now waiting on wiring parts.
Also this is the 3rd time i’ve replaced the harness, and basically I only use one side of the machine so that means this connection has failed six times. also I have received the end stop cable twice now when asking for the Extruder harness!!! who wants one?
