<p>As I said in the title there is some issue with my z axis steppers. They will make a humming sound and vibrate a little but won't actually spin. I'm fairly sure this is an issue with the firmware (but I might be totally wrong) since they turn when the wires are switched with the ones for the Y axis and swapping the driver board for a spare had no impact on them. Any help would be appreciated. I am using RAMPs 1.4 and marlin firmware.</p>

[{'answer_id': 5004, 'author': 'ZuOverture', 'author_id': 8847, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/8847', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Try connecting Y-motor to your Z ports. If Y-motor will behave like Z-motors, then there's problem with your Z ports, be it hardware or software. I'm not a RAMPS user, but have heard that there is voltage regulator for every motor port. Sounds like your motors may be underpowered.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 5011, 'author': 'Rodrigo Fulanito', 'author_id': 8999, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/8999', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Hello it's seems to be the voltage regutaltor on the steppers drivers for the nema motors. Check to adjust the voltage with a multimeter connecting the red pin from the multimeter on the voltage regulator on the driver and the black pin on the GND pin on the ramps 12v connector.</p>\n\n<p>Also make sure that you have connected the jumpers to setup the microstep resolution: </p>\n\n<p>Full step,Half step,Quarter step,Eighth step,Sixteenth step</p>\n\n<p>Best regards.</p>\n\n<p>Rodrigo</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 5023, 'author': 'cmm', 'author_id': 2082, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/2082', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Let's tick off the factors you have already checked for.  </p>\n\n<p>It isn't the driver board, because the Z driver board drives the Y motors.  It could be the Z motor itself (or the cable), which you could test by plugging the Z motor into the Y driver board.  If only one of the two motor coils were being energized, it would cause vibration but generate no motion.</p>\n\n<p>@ZuOverture suggests it could be the drive current setting on the motor driver board.  Possible, especially if the Z motor requires more current.</p>\n\n<p>It is also possible that the output pin from the Arduino Mega board may be bad, or not connecting well.</p>\n\n<p>To investigate, find the step and direction inputs to the stepper driver board.  Use a voltmeter, logic probe, or oscilloscope to verify the signal levels.  If the signals don't jiggle when moving the motor, then follow the wires and check at each point along the way.</p>\n\n<p>You could also plug in a replacement Arduino, which you have programmed with the firmware, and check if that works.</p>\n\n<p>If the Arduino pin is bad, you can keep it in your junk box for future projects.</p>\n\n<p>Looking at the firmware angle, one would check the speed and acceleration settings for the Z axis.  When in doubt, try slower speed and lower acceleration.  Z-axis performance doesn't make much difference in the printing speed.</p>\n"}]
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