My touchscreen is broken (form submitted), so I can’t do the Z-axis test from there, however I’ve tested both via OctoPi and Ponteface and my Z-axis won’t move at all (not even a peep from the motors).
Checked:
- Jumpers are installed
- Red stepper is correct
- The joiner is correct (red wires the same on both ends)
- Tried flashing the firmware again and still no love
- Z-axis probe works fine
- Tried swapping stepper drivers
- When the printer is off, by-hand, the Z-axis motors twist and the gantry moves freely
Any ideas as to what’s wrong?
Update: Following some discussion back and forth via email, it appears my screen is faulty (capacitive layer doesn't register touch) and the control board (CB) has a faulty Z-axis interface.
Went through the following for the touchscreen:
- Screen displaying and updating (hotend temps) once flashed: Yes
- Checked ribbon cable: Fine
- Checked all screws: Fine
- Checked pins on both screen board and MB: All fine
Replacement screen being sent.
With the control board:
- Checked for signs of damage: Nothing
- Checked pins: No damage / bent pins
- Tested extruder connection:
To do this, if you don't want to waste filament / heating the hotend, hold the lever arm on the extruder in the open position and while holding select extrude in Ponteface - you should see the centre gear rotate confirming it works.
- Testing Z-axis using extruder connection:
Having confirmed the extruder worked, I moved the parallel joiner from the Z-axis pins and connected it to the working extruder pins. Once connected, I selected extrude in Ponteface and checked that both Z-axis motors moved. They did and this confirmed that Z-axis interface is faulty.
End result - faulty z-axis connection - new CB being sent.