Bad Driver Board?

So my printer has been making more and more noise on the Z-axis, seems like this axis is a popular problem point. So I’ve checked and re-checked the level of the printer overall, and of the X-axis. The acme screw on the left side (by the box) is tighter than the one on the opposite side, I’ve lubricated it and it helped a little, but the opposite side still spins more freely and I can’t figure out why…has anyone ever experienced the actual threaded piece screwed to the top of the X-axis holder going bad? I’ve tried unscrewing it and it threads up and down nicely by itself, but when weight is applied to it it decides to act up…

And on to the main problem, I think my Z-axis part of the board died last night. Was doing a 12-hr print and woke up this morning to the extruder resting on the bed and ABS literally EVERYWHERE. Using the screen to move the Z-axis the stepper motors studder and barely move…if at all. At this point I was thinking it was the acme screw that was bound up somewhere and that’s when I started tearing it all apart and found the above mentioned anomalies with it. With both sides un-coupled I again tried moving the stepper motors and even with no load, the barely turned and would sometimes even take a few steps backwards and then forwards again, and very loud. I initially though I had burned up the motors somehow, took one of them apart and the inside looked fine so to test it I plugged it into the X-axis wire and moved it and it stepper perfectly smooth and quiet with no issues…I plugged the Z-axis wire into the X-axis motor and I got the same result as I initially got with the Z-axis…very noise, bad stepping and stepping in both directions…

I haven’t really seen much about the Rambo board to help me troubleshoot this, fuses look good and capacitors aren’t bubbled so i’m not sure what else on the board could be bad but I’ve narrowed it down to it’s somewhere in the driver board…Any recommendations?

What kind of printer do you have?

Taz 6, bought used.

I have seen the same behavior on multiple printers. In each case, a new Rambo board fixed the problem. The drivers do fail more often than they should.

You can order the Lulzbot config board directly from Ultimachine. The Taz six might be using the 1.3L or 1.4L board. They have different headers so, check what your machine is using before you order.

Went over to Lulzbot today and bought another board (nice to live close to the manufacturer) and yep, that solved my problem. In changing it out I found out that the grounding screw inside the enclosure didn’t have a nut on the end and the ground wires were just sitting on the screw…knowing electronics, I get a feeling that could have been the cause of the board failure.