X-Axis Problem

[mwpfeifer]

Haven't had the need to post in quite a number of years but am currently in need of some help/suggestions. I have an older PRS Buddy 48 approaching 20 years old, I am the original owner so have some significant experience with this unit.
The problem started yesterday with an intermittent X-Axis in that it would stop moving in random positions, Y & Z functioned correctly. initially I shut everything down and restarted and it worked for awhile then X would quit again. After going thru the shut down and restart a few times X pretty much quit. I did finally notice that when the X Axis quit there had been a "clunk" similar to what the steppers make when the control box is turned on. (I'm guessing this was when data flow to the X stepper failed.) I have checked the unit values and they are correct. I turned the unit off and swapped the X & Y cables and confirmed the X stepper motor is working normally. Some number of years ago the primary X-1 motor controller module quit and at the direction of SB the X stepper cable was moved to the X-2 control module and appropriate SW reconfigured. this was possible as the SB Buddy only has one X axis stepper motor but, I believe the "motherboard" is the same as what was used for the bigger 48x96 units.

My control PC is running XP Service Pack 3 and am using ShopBot S/W Version 3.6.44 which has been working great since it was installed.
Mike

[erik_f]

I don't think if you have a Buddy it could be 20 years old. I want to say the first year was 2007-8. If yours is old than that, you might just have a PRT Desktop. The PRS boxes had red Gecko Drivers inside them. On the older machines, I believe the drivers were soldered on to the board. So if the x ran fine when you swapped cables with another axis, did you try running the other axis with the x channel? If so what happened? If you have the Gecko Driver box...I would try next to swap the drivers (the red aluminum jobs inside the controller). Make sure your control box is UNPLUGGED. The drivers don't pull up from the board, rather, will pull off the pins if you are wiggling them off parallel with the board if that makes sense. See if the problem follows the Gecko Driver. If you don't have Gecko drivers then I don't think you can remove them.
Erik

[mwpfeifer]

Erik,
I don't check the forum very often so apologize for not responding in a timely manner. You were correct regarding the age of my buddy, I got it new in July of 08 so it's 12 not 20 years old. Time sure flies when you are having fun! The problem turned out to be one of the Gecko drivers as you suspected. I contacted SB directly and we trouble shot over the phone (awesome customer service!!!!) Had the replacement driver in about 3-4 days.
Mike