woodturner
09-26-2009, 05:23 PM
Looking for input please. I have not run my 'bot (alpha 5x10, 4 yrs. old or so, virtually no use on it, two spindles and an air drill) for several months then decided to use it for some prototype work. Meaning, one or two parts, make changes, run one or to more. This included some very small plastic parts clamped in jigs, run very slow. That's the background.
For the past two weeks it has been predictable for the most part. A few lost positions or not responding to a "S" stop command. Not unusual for my machine which seems to suffer a lot of inexplicable glitches. Now, in the past two days more weird happenings. The "Z-Zero" routine loses communication and shuts down, then works fine 3 or 4 times in a row, then stops again. I'm running a file and it stops moving in x&y but the bit is still turning (trying to start a fire) and I run to stop it, but it won't take the command, lost communication. USB is checked and is tight.
Also, to run a small part I move the head to the part blank and give it new X&Y&Z positions. Then when I run the file, it jogs to the wrong place because it arbitrarily changed the X and Y. I then have to re-set it again and it runs fine.
These have all happened several times. Today, I started a file that was "posted" to run head #1. When I hit the start button, it turned on spindle #2. Then I cancelled and it shut itself down (software). When I re-booted, It gave me error messages of speeds set below limits. I don't know how they dropped out like that, but when I tried to re-set them, it just gave more errors. I had to shut it down again, and had to fight it to get into the VS and raise the speeds to acceptable levels before it got into the error message loop. Then, I ran the same (untouched) file again, and it started the correct head and ran fine 4 times.
For what it's worth, the machine is running three phase, hard wired to a grounded disconnect, which is hard wired (via "home run") to panel. No dust collector was being used, nor was vacuum pump. In fact no other machines were running in the shop. Just lights.
Other than gremlins, I don't see a pattern to trace. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
For the past two weeks it has been predictable for the most part. A few lost positions or not responding to a "S" stop command. Not unusual for my machine which seems to suffer a lot of inexplicable glitches. Now, in the past two days more weird happenings. The "Z-Zero" routine loses communication and shuts down, then works fine 3 or 4 times in a row, then stops again. I'm running a file and it stops moving in x&y but the bit is still turning (trying to start a fire) and I run to stop it, but it won't take the command, lost communication. USB is checked and is tight.
Also, to run a small part I move the head to the part blank and give it new X&Y&Z positions. Then when I run the file, it jogs to the wrong place because it arbitrarily changed the X and Y. I then have to re-set it again and it runs fine.
These have all happened several times. Today, I started a file that was "posted" to run head #1. When I hit the start button, it turned on spindle #2. Then I cancelled and it shut itself down (software). When I re-booted, It gave me error messages of speeds set below limits. I don't know how they dropped out like that, but when I tried to re-set them, it just gave more errors. I had to shut it down again, and had to fight it to get into the VS and raise the speeds to acceptable levels before it got into the error message loop. Then, I ran the same (untouched) file again, and it started the correct head and ran fine 4 times.
For what it's worth, the machine is running three phase, hard wired to a grounded disconnect, which is hard wired (via "home run") to panel. No dust collector was being used, nor was vacuum pump. In fact no other machines were running in the shop. Just lights.
Other than gremlins, I don't see a pattern to trace. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!