Motor won't stop spinning

Hardware
1

I’m not exactly sure what I did, but I tried to send the sled to 0,0 using the gcode command in Ground Control v. 1.02. My left motor now continuously spins as long as it has power. Things I’ve tried that have no effect: The stop button; unplugging the Arduino; removing the firmware from the Arduino; reinstalling the firmware to the Arduino.

Ground Control seems to think the sled is in the home position, but the red sled location shoots off every time I set the current position as home. Trying to use Ground Control to calibrate the chain lengths or test the motors results in the left motor making grindy clicky noises as it tries to spin and follow the command at the same time. The left motor then fails the test. The right motor works fine.

Does anyone know what I can do to fix this?

2

@CrazyPieGuy Welcome to our group.

I would try dumping the GroundControl.ini file. Rename it. What OS are you running?

Thank you

3

I’m currently running Windows 10, with Ground Control 1.02 portable. I can’t seem to find an ini file anywhere. Do you know where it’s located?

Also the motor keeps spinning even if the Arduino is unplugged from everything, as long as the shield has power, so I’m not sure Ground Control is the problem.

4

If the motor is spinning without the arduino plugged into the shield, that is a
defective shield

5

Dang that’s a bummer. The machine was working fine. I used it to build the permanent frame, then I spent a day making test cuts, and it didn’t break until I issued a bad command in Ground Control, which would lead me to believe it’s a software issue with the shield. Is there a way to flash the shield?

6

There is no software on the shield to flash, it’s purely a couple of H-bridge
motor controllers, all the logic comes from the arduino.

7

Normally the left motor plugs into the socket labeled MP3; try plugging the right motor in there, if the right motor exhibits the problem, the chip which drives MP3 is probably damaged.
You could confirm by removing the power cable and the Arduino completely so that only the driver board and the motors remain, and then plug the 12V power into the driver board again. If a motor runs it would be because of a damaged driver chip.

8

I unplugged the shield from the Arduino, plugged in the right motor to MP3, then plugged in the 12v power. The right motor started spinning.

Does that mean I didn’t break the shield and it was just coincidental timing, or can I break the chip through Ground Control?

9

Did you have both left and right motors plugged in, and the one in MP3 ran? With no Arduino board I would not expect either motor to run. It sounds like there is a damaged chip.
Overheating is one way a chip can be damaged. It happened to me when I failed to notice that one of the heat sinks had gotten knocked off.

10

I had both plugged in while the left motor was running, I only had the right motor plugged in for this test. My heat sinks seem to be on fine, but it was at the end of about 7 hours of cutting so overheating is a possibility.

11

Another way to burn one up is to let the sled try to climb up to the level of the motors, or let one motor pull against an immovable object for a minute or two. It pays to keep watch on things while the machine is running…
I don’t know how you are at surface mount component replacement - I’ve had a go at it and while it’s possible, a replacement board is available and reasonably priced.

12

Didn’t do either of those as far as I am aware, but I was not watching the whole time. It was operating fine right up until I stopped the mill. Then once I tried to recenter the sled the motor never stopped.

13

On Windows 10 the GroundControl.ini is in the User directory. It is established that this is a shield problem. What direction do your heat sinks face? Can you send a picture of how the electronics are mounted?

Thank you

14

Out of curiousity, what was the “bad command” that you issued?

16

I tried “GoTo” “0.0”

@Bee https://i.imgur.com/EaGxH1d.jpg

17

I still think there is hope that it’s a software thing. If it does turn out that the shield died coincidentally right as you sent it a funky command we’ll send you a new one because that shouldn’t happen.

Here are the things I would try:

Run the Test Motors/Encoders function in Ground Control by clicking Actions - Test Motors/Encoders. This will test the hardware.

Wipe the Arduino’s EEPROM by clicking Actions -> Advanced -> Wipe EEPROM. This will erase everything from the Arduino’s memory giving you a fresh slate.

Erase your Ground control.ini file (or change the name). This will erase everything from Ground Controls memory

Is the X,Y position reported in ground control changing as the motor spins?

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18

@bar, if he only plugs in the shield and power, the motors spin, without the
arduino even plugged in to the motor shield

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19

Good point, that does sound suspicious. The pins are just floating at that point so it would be possible for it to decide to keep spinning, but that might be a long shot. I still think the tests are worth running tho

4 Likes
20

“Run the Test Motors/Encoders function in Ground Control by clicking Actions - Test Motors/Encoders. This will test the hardware.”

When I did this last night, the motor stopped spinning, made some clicking noises as the test happened, failed, then went back to spinning. I just tried again, and the motor stopped spinning and started making one degree rotations approximately every second, and now does that instead of spinning.

Last night the right motor tested fine, but now instead of spinning it makes some beeping noises and possible moves a tiny amount, but fails the test.

“Wipe the Arduino’s EEPROM by clicking Actions -> Advanced -> Wipe EEPROM. This will erase everything from the Arduino’s memory giving you a fresh slate.”

This did not stop the motor from spinning, nor did it stop the 1 degree increments.

“Erase your Ground control.ini file (or change the name). This will erase everything from Ground Controls memory”

This did not seem to do anything besides reset Ground Control

"Is the X,Y position reported in ground control changing as the motor spins?

The X,Y position was staying at 0,0, but the red location thing is moving along with the motor."

“I still think there is hope that it’s a software thing. If it does turn out that the shield died coincidentally right as you sent it a funky command we’ll send you a new one because that shouldn’t happen.”

Don’t worry about it, I already bought another one, I now just don’t want the same thing to happen again.

1 Like
21

This is really well and truly weird.

All I can tell you is that you didn’t do anything wrong as far as I can tell. I’ve never seen anything like that happen before, and I’m sorry. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s just a fluke catistrophic failure of the shield.

The fact that the behavior spread to the right motor has me a little worried because those should be completely separate systems running off of different controller chips and having both fail at the same time seems suspicious. Is it OK if I send you a new Arduino too just to be on the safe side?

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