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Ok... Here’s the history....it may be a one off, I doubt it though and I hope it can be replicated by all those W?D and SS owners out there who are in a quandary.

 All Pics Here <http://s1167.photobucket.com/albums/q622/sheanbec/>

I Picked up a ex Italian W?D on ebay... it had been imported via container to Australia. Was told that the reels spun but didn’t match the DMD. Automatically I thought that the techs that looked at it didn’t subscribe to RPG etc and they don’t realise that the reel order was not 123 but 312. I Haggled the price knowing this. I thought that as soon as I changed the reel order I’d be good.

Tested her when I got it and found that whilst the reels did spin, they were eclectic at the best and whilst in test mode two would stutter then stop. After a while the F116 fuse would blow whilst playing or in attract mode.. None of the reels would match either, even after changing to the right order.

Hmm... clean the steppers as many posts in RPG said they were bullet proof.... fallacy. Clean em and they will work many say.... this made me think that it was another issue. So I changed the 399 chips on the reel boards. No change.

For us novices, non geeks, this highlights something that we don’t realise.... many  an IC chip is generic all over the world, just because its from a 16 year old machine and in a pinny doesn’t mean you can’t buy this shite locally. Well FMD if I should have known that an ic is a standard series of circuts that can be exported to many applications. I looked it up in the local electronics sellers book and found that they are common... a cupla bucks and i had three.

Still no joy.

Bugger it I’ll do a search on the motors. I found a few steppers online and I tried to match the voltage and the 200/360 degrees (1.8 per step). I had to measure up the actual size or the mounting recesses and I found a couple of vendors who had the identical looking motors. I still didn’t know the draw though,. I settled for .33 amps 12 volts.

I got one sent to me. One thing that I wasn’t sure of was the configuration of the wires.  I did a bit of research on steppers and settled on the fact that the connector must have each pair of wires related to each phase. The W?D connector has two pairs of wires separated by two blank spaces. I soldered the connectors and fitted them to an 8 way socket (should have bought a 6 way though). No biggy. Fitted it and got a backward spinning motor. Changed the pairs and wooooah...perfect... stopped at the right time reflected the DMD.
One thing that I did to all my steppers before I fitted the new one was angle grind a flat spot in the stepper shaft. This would ensure that the reel wasn’t spinning on the shaft as well as ensure that I wouldn’t need to over tighten the grub screw and break the plastic. I’m thinking grinding is a better choice and easier than filing it by hand.

 I should say at this stage that if you do have a buggered reel hub, many steppers sell with a hub that has potential to replace the damaged area of many a W?D reel. Don’t quote me as I type because I haven’t confirmed this. One other thing that I did trouble shoot was the warp of the reels that rubbed on the opto recesses. To fix this I measured where it needed rewarping and bent the reel up onto the opto, left it for a while, then hit it with a hairdryer to get the original warp out of it, let it cool and sat it back down with less warp in it.

Another observation that I made was what the new stepper was like when I purchased it. My old motors gave no resistance when turning them. The new ones had a significant step noted as it turned. I’m guessing that this is a good indication of the worth of the old stepper. Eventually when I did get the “new” steppers, one was pulled out of a robot by the supplier IOT satisfy my need to not wait for the motor. I’m unsure how long it had been a used motor for but it was slightly less “stepped” than the brand new one when id turn it by hand it definitely had more resistance than the old motors though.

So I refit all the motors and they are perfect . Nice to see”.
Nope........ bloody F116 fuse blows again.

Ultimately I think i have come across a cheap way of replacing the motors but I have a separate issue.

I've ordered a new br5, I'll change that and my fingers are crossed.

Shea

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Oh and the motors are available here  and I hope it earns me some help points : <http://australianrobotics.com.au/products/stepper-motor-with-cable> and here <http://www.robotgear.com.au/Product.aspx/Details/410>
Or at your local robotics shop.
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