Replicator Z18 - Stepper motor / driver issues

[Arafat Terron]

We have a Makerbot Replicator Z18 at work. Some days ago it started showing issues, like not getting properly to home and making noises when the cradle was moving. We moved the cradle manually, in a diagonal way and it didn't make any noise, but when moving it in the other diagonal it made the noise (when moving in diagonal, only one of the servos spins). We removed the belt from both servos and tried to spin them manually. The one on the right span without issues, but the one on the left made some noise, like if a single step was engaged. We proceeded to unplug that (left) stepper and now it spins without issues. We followed the wiring to see if there was a driver board that we could replace and found out that the driver circuitry is integrated into the main board.

In the pictures you can see the mainboard of the Z18 and one of them is marked with what appear to be some burned out resistors. One of them might be the source of the problem while the other might be close to fail soon. I also added some diagnostics using the tool in the printer depicting that an axis is not working properly.

We are still contacting Makerbot to see if they can provide a replacement board or service ours. If that is not possible then we will have to contact an electronic technician and see if he/she can replace the damaged components.

I hope this information helps somebody else with the same issue or if some knows any solution, that would be helpful. Thanks.

[Ryan Carlyle]

You can try replacing the 51 ohm resistors that are burnt out, but without knowing exactly what they do or why they burnt out, it may not do you any good. Hard to say whether the attached 4954 drivers are bad or not.

Best bet is Makerbot tech support, sadly.