Y axis grinding

[fishtrap]

The Y axis just began making a grinding sound and the motion is very rough. I switched the Y stepper over to one of the X terminals at the controller and it was smooth as glass. As per Geralds suggestion in another post about a similar problem, I looked for the heatsinks and corrosponding controllers, but did not find any. I have a PRT96 that is about 7 months old. I'm suspecting that the issue is in the box and not the motor. Help!!!
Jim Crawford

[fishtrap]

BTW... I plugged one of the X motors into the Y terminal and it also ran rough.

[cnc_works]

When one of my X motors began making a similar noise, it turned out the driver was going bad. Didn't take long to fail completely. I ended up substituting the spare driver just to keep up and running, but will eventually have to send the board back to SB for repair (estimated at $100 to $125) of the bad channel because I am planning on installing a second Z so will no longer have a spare channel.

Donn

[fishtrap]

Pardon my cluelessness but what is involved in substituing a spare driver?
-Jim

[harold_weber]

Jim, I've sent you a separate E-mail with a photo of the portion of the circuit board inside the ShopBot control box where you will need to set some little switches. Then you will be able to drive your Y-motor when it is plugged into the Accessory Channel. It is probably a good idea to make sure all the wire ends are tight in the connectors before trying another driver, because if a loose wire has damaged your original driver, it can also damage the new one as well.

Regards,

Harold Weber

[fishtrap]

Frank at tech support walked me through switching the aux channel to the Y. Board going back on Monday. Problem solved.