Racking gantry w/ 3.6.5?

[rsorensen]

Yesterday I loaded up version 3.6.5 and went to surface a project I'm working on here. I noticed I'm starting to get a lot of comm failures but what really caught my attention was a new sound coming from the 'bot when it would traverse in the X direction. Watching closer I thought I saw some racking of the gantry, and looking even closer I confirmed it. It appears that the X motor on the Y=0 side of my gantry is driving the whole thing and the other X motor is dragging.. or something like that. Where do I start chasing this one down?

My 'bot is a PRS standard with the 4G, 96x48. Things were working fine until the new control software and I'll probably go back to the previous [before the change I was running 3.4.x] version to see if I can't get this project out the door.

[rsorensen]

Update: The machine is a PRT, not a PRS!!!

[thewoodcrafter]

Sounds more like a mechanical problem, not a software problem.

With the power on to the machine can you move the far side of the gantry a little bit by hand?

If you can, you either have a dead stepper or a dead output on the controller board.

Software will not cause that.

[jerry_stanek]

When I tried the 3.6.x software I had the same problem where the gantry wasn't moving smoothly. But that was on my old PR with the 4g upgrade.

[rsorensen]

OK, I checked the far side of the gantry and no detectable movement there.

[zeykr]

First power off your control box and back on and check if motor works.

Next Switch your X wires at the control box. Does problem move to other motor. If so, problem is in control box - gecko or something. If not, problem is in motor or more likely wiring from control to motor. Look closely at the wago connectors and maybe reset the wires in them. They seem to be a common source of trouble like this.

[rsorensen]

I switched wires [X1 to X2 and X2 to X1 at the control box] and the problem didn't move. I pulled the wago connector on the motor and reseated it, no change. I reset all the wires in both connectors at the motor and then at the control box, no change. Do I have a bad motor?

[myxpykalix]

Before you go and change out the motor, i would go and revert to a previous version and see if the problem persists, if it does you can at least rule out a software issue. Thats a cheaper fix then a new motor, especially if you don't need it.

[ken_rychlik]

Take the motors themselves off and switch them.

Then you will know for sure.

When I tested some, I plugged them into the wire for the y axis and just ran a y move to make sure they worked.

Kenneth

[rsorensen]

I've tried switching software - reverted to 3.5.6 and then back to 3.6.5 with the same results. I dropped both X motors from the rails and tried turning the motors by hand. With the control box on the X2 motor [on the Y=48 side] turns by hand with some resistance, the X1 motor [on the Y=0 side] doesn't turn. With the control box off both turn freely. It seems like the X2 motor is bad.

To confirm, I plugged the suspect motor into the Z port and did an MZ move and the motor turns but slower than the X1 motor with a MX move. Now I'm confused - if the X2 motor is bad then why does it appear to be working when I do this? There's something I'm missing here!!