Losing place.

[simon]

My (PRT96, Latest software, late model DELL driving it winXP) has developed a hiccup at random locations. It SEEMS to be on the X axis only, at all speeds.
To test, I drilled a hole at 400,400mm, and ran a cutting file in the air. Then I went back to 400,400, and found the bit went in about 2mm towards 0. There were many hiccups in both directions so this is probably an average over the whole file.
Frank from SB is helping, but I have done all he suggested and to no avail yet. (Turned off antivirus, checked mechanicals, leads, earth, background programs, greased pinions etc) all seems to be good. I have re-loaded software, and firmware, tried different ramps, speeds, files.
Is my control board failing? Or is a motor failing? Anyone with experience of this problem please feel free to chime in. Of course I am just about to embark on a big job using expensive plastic


Simon

[fleinbach]

Simon,

You say you checked mechanicals and greased pinions. Have you checked to make sure pinion gear set screws are tight on the X axis. If just one side is loose it will cause the problem you describe. .

[simon]

Frank thanks for that. I disconnected x motors, all grub screws are tight, however running a file with x motors off the racks, I find that one of them has NO power at all. I can grab it with my (Gloved) hand and stop it from rotating, when it rotates it does so with a jerky motion.
So you have put me on the right track.
Thankfully I have 2 Y motors, so I will cannibalise one of those and see if that helps.

[simon]

Okay, its not the motors. Having swapped the two around, I find the new motor in the original location has no power, same thing. Can it be a blown channel on the board?

Simon

[Brady Watson]

Simon,
Yes...sounds like a blown driver. Keep in mind that the motor can still move (typically with reduced torque or erradic perfomance) and have a blown driver. If you have an Acc channel (#5) you can plug the bad X into that channel and assign it to the X channel in SB3.

-B

[simon]

Thanks Brady, thats the plan.

Anyone remember what the little switch positions are to be on the Acc channel to make it into X2 channel?

[Brady Watson]

It *should* just plug in, unless your machine came with an indexer & they set it up that way from the factory...try it as is with the motors dangling.

-B

[simon]

That channel is currently set up to be a no. 2 Y channel, so I will need to change the switch positions.

Simon

[Brady Watson]

Simon,
I am fairly certain that all DIPs should be in the down position (towards motor cables) EXCEPT #4 Step & #4 Dir.

Type VI into SB3 & change channel 5 from B to X. This will assign the 5th channel on your PRT board to the X motor you plug into it.

-B

[simon]

Ive done it, thanks Brady. I changed the switches and its working fine now. Thanks for all your help.