<p>I bought what I thought was going to be the printer of my dreams a few years ago but have had no end of trouble trying to get it to work. My current issue is that I constantly get layer shifts and if seems to be because the stepper-motors are incredibly week. I frequently can't even home the axis or level the bed without the motors slipping. I have tried everything I can think of but nothing seems to work.</p>
<p>Here's a video of me stopping the stepper motors with my fingers:</p>
<p><div class="youtube-embed"><div>
                <iframe width="640px" height="395px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ugfsfAESzEw?start=0"></iframe>
            </div></div></p>
<p>Is this normal?</p>
<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>For more details I've been having a discussion with the manufacturer in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/SecKitCoreXY3DP/permalink/6953670144758948/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this facebook thread</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T09:51:07.840Z
No, this does not seem normal. Do you have sensorless homing enabled?
Sujal Singh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T11:31:25.520Z
I have optical end switches installed for X and Y axis, and the seem to be working fine.

The motor-skips/layer-shifts happen intermittently all the time, usually while printing a model. I'm experimenting here during homing so as to eliminate variables to do with heat, extrusion and clearance and so forth but the slipping happens all the time.
Slartibartfast
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T11:41:46.840Z
Note, the drivers are TMC2208 is that makes any difference.
Slartibartfast
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T12:42:21.797Z
I highly doubt that the stepper motors are at fault here, try rotating the steppers when they're stationary (not turned off), I suspect you'll be able to feel a good amount of torque then. This seems to me that your firmware is detecting a stall and stopping the motor so check your firmware logs when you try to stop the motors. If you find this to be the case, I think you can tune the threshold at which the firmware kicks in and instructs the motor to stop.
Sujal Singh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T13:38:18.793Z
Do the steppers get enough current from the stepper drivers? Usually about 70 - 80 % of the max current.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T14:53:22.010Z
I increased the "run_current" of just the X stepper in Klippers printer.cfg file from 0.700 to 0.900 but couldn't feel any difference, so I increased it again to 1.200 but still it was trivially easy to stop the motor with just my fingertips. However, when I compared it to the Y stepper there was a slight difference.
Slartibartfast
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T14:53:33.030Z
I  then set the X Stepper back to 0.700 and increased the Y Stepper to 1.200 and again, although it was still very easy to stop with just my finger tips there was a slight difference between the two steppers, this time with the Y Stepper being slightly harder to stop, so I figured it must be having some effect. I was reluctant to set both stepper as high as 1.2, so I set both to 0.900 (up from 0.700) and tried another Benchy but again it shifted after just a couple of layers:
Slartibartfast
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T14:56:38.883Z
I've just read that "Whatever you do, do not remove the disconnect the motor leads from the drive under power. That could damage the drives output stage."

I wasn't aware of this before so could well have done this at some stage. Is there a way to check if this is the problem?
Slartibartfast
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T15:20:41.820Z
If the motors were underpowered, why wouldn't it continue to rotate once you remove your finger (assuming there is still distance left to be travelled for the current command).
Sujal Singh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-17T01:56:48.977Z
Yes, that seems odd to me, but I don't know if this is normal or not.
Slartibartfast
<stepper><layer-shifting>
How strong should NEMA17 motors be?
Slartibartfast
# How strong should NEMA17 motors be?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-04-16)

I bought what I thought was going to be the printer of my dreams a few years ago but have had no end of trouble trying to get it to work. My current issue is that I constantly get layer shifts and if seems to be because the stepper-motors are incredibly week. I frequently can't even home the axis or level the bed without the motors slipping. I have tried everything I can think of but nothing seems to work.

Here's a video of me stopping the stepper motors with my fingers:

Is this normal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

For more details I've been having a discussion with the manufacturer in [this facebook thread](https://www.facebook.com/groups/SecKitCoreXY3DP/permalink/6953670144758948/).

**Tags:** stepper, layer-shifting

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: No, this does not seem normal. Do you have sensorless homing enabled?  
> **username_0**: I have optical end switches installed for X and Y axis, and the seem to be working fine.  The motor-skips/layer-shifts happen intermittently all the time, usually while printing a model. I'm experimenting here during homing so as to eliminate variables to do with heat, extrusion and clearance and so forth but the slipping happens all the time.  
> **username_0**: Note, the drivers are TMC2208 is that makes any difference.  
> **username_1**: I highly doubt that the stepper motors are at fault here, try rotating the steppers when they're stationary (not turned off), I suspect you'll be able to feel a good amount of torque then. This seems to me that your firmware is detecting a stall and stopping the motor so check your firmware logs when you try to stop the motors. If you find this to be the case, I think you can tune the threshold at which the firmware kicks in and instructs the motor to stop.  
> **username_2**: Do the steppers get enough current from the stepper drivers? Usually about 70 - 80 % of the max current.  
> **username_0**: I increased the "run_current" of just the X stepper in Klippers printer.cfg file from 0.700 to 0.900 but couldn't feel any difference, so I increased it again to 1.200 but still it was trivially easy to stop the motor with just my fingertips. However, when I compared it to the Y stepper there was a slight difference.  
> **username_0**: I  then set the X Stepper back to 0.700 and increased the Y Stepper to 1.200 and again, although it was still very easy to stop with just my finger tips there was a slight difference between the two steppers, this time with the Y Stepper being slightly harder to stop, so I figured it must be having some effect. I was reluctant to set both stepper as high as 1.2, so I set both to 0.900 (up from 0.700) and tried another Benchy but again it shifted after just a couple of layers:  
> **username_0**: I've just read that "Whatever you do, do not remove the disconnect the motor leads from the drive under power. That could damage the drives output stage."  I wasn't aware of this before so could well have done this at some stage. Is there a way to check if this is the problem?  
> **username_1**: If the motors were underpowered, why wouldn't it continue to rotate once you remove your finger (assuming there is still distance left to be travelled for the current command).  
> **username_0**: Yes, that seems odd to me, but I don't know if this is normal or not.  

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## 0 answers

