You can also test the printer by holding down the feed button and turning the printer on, and waiting for the first flash to let go. Then it will print either a test pattern, or a diagnostic page. Assumes of course that you are using direct thermal rolls, or that you have installed the roll of thermal transfer ink in the printer.
When the motor started running backwards I suspected you would find a bad stepper motor or stepper driver. Had this failure eat my lunch several years ago. You can get the same symptom with an break in one wire in a stepper cable which can be a maddening intermittent problem. Thanks for doing an autopsy on the motor, that was an interesting failure.
Cheap construction method to make a motor me thinks. Could've let go from jams or people pulling the roll through against it's will. Other steppers I've seen have a solid metal rotor. Nothing more annoying than having to wait so long to get parts, especially for things like this where a business likely needs it urgent.
Yep, that probably wins the annual prize for the most unusual stepper motor fault!
It certainly was an odd fault.
Now that was interesting, was not expecting stepper motor being physically broken. Nice fix and probably happy client.
You can also test the printer by holding down the feed button and turning the printer on, and waiting for the first flash to let go. Then it will print either a test pattern, or a diagnostic page. Assumes of course that you are using direct thermal rolls, or that you have installed the roll of thermal transfer ink in the printer.
Thanks for the info
Great work! From the beginning my bet was on the broken gear, I also would not expect the stepper to be broken, especially in this way.
Thank you!
Yes it was an interesting failure!
When the motor started running backwards I suspected you would find a bad stepper motor or stepper driver. Had this failure eat my lunch several years ago. You can get the same symptom with an break in one wire in a stepper cable which can be a maddening intermittent problem. Thanks for doing an autopsy on the motor, that was an interesting failure.
Indeed interesting fault. Thanks for the very high level of details on the bad stepper motor.
Nice video. Interesting fault.
It was a new one on me, which is great.
Glue failure!.......I wonder how many others in the batch/series of motors have failed also.
Yeah it was surprising.
Cheap construction method to make a motor me thinks. Could've let go from jams or people pulling the roll through against it's will. Other steppers I've seen have a solid metal rotor. Nothing more annoying than having to wait so long to get parts, especially for things like this where a business likely needs it urgent.
This is what teck do it :-)