Stepper motor problem

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Don Chernoff replied on Thu, Aug 25 2011 6:52 PM

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Schwarz:

Hi all....

We have a problem with our Multimode 3 v. 5.30r3.sr3. Although the stepper motor moves by the manual switch it is not moving anymore by controlling it with the Nanoscope software. We hear some noise in the stm base but the screw is not turning.

Did anybody have a similar experience?

Normal 0

Software Check: Microscope - Calibrate Z - motor direction - should be "reverse" for multimode.  If motor direction = "none", this can cause a problem.

Hardware check: remove the scanner.  Try turning the screws.  Although there is some variation between scanners and between screws on one scanner, the screws should not be very hard to turn.  If a screw is hard to turn, it should be cleaned and re-greased.

Hardware check:  check the cable connections that are accessible to you. If one pole of the stepper motor is not properly energized , it is possible for fast motion to work and slow motion to stall.  We have seen this on a Dimension system where the GUMP board had a bad pin or pin connection.

Don Chernoff

Advanced Surface Microscopy

donc <at> asmicro.com

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Schwarz replied on Fri, Aug 26 2011 6:05 AM

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Thank you for your contribution but we still could not fix it neither we understand the origin of the problem. Your third point matches it more than the others.

I quickly try to describe the problem.

We encountered a very strange problem with our base. Since we tried to control the stepper motor by our matlab and basic
written programs the motor does not work properly anymore. The noise of the motor is similar than before but it doesn't turn. Strangely, the motor
turns when using the manual switch on the base but it doesn't with the single step control of the Nanoscope software or by our software.

Moreover we measured the TTL signals at the output of the DI Signal Access Module and one of the channels them has only 2V instead of the usual 5V.

Best regards

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Ben Ohler replied on Fri, Aug 26 2011 10:50 AM

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It sounds as though either the motor or the motor drive electronics may have been damaged.

Please check with our Service group. Contact details by region can be found here.

Regards,

-Ben

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Schwarz replied on Fri, Aug 26 2011 2:07 PM

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Okay. If we use the Signal Access Module to inject the TTL signals to control the step motor. What size of a glitch can the stepper motor chip of the base or the Nanoscope controller handle?