Losing communication on Z (please help)

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Thomas.s.
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 5:22 pm

Losing communication on Z (please help)

Post by Thomas.s. »

Hello everyone,

This week I started loosing full communication of the Z axis.
During a roughing tool path z stopped moving up and down. I stopped the machine and it would not move manually. Tested power and there was power going to the motor. When switching the wires y still would not move Z up or down. I powered down for about thirty seconds rechecked all the connections and still nothing. Tried resetting the controller to 4004 and 4003, still nothing.

Left it off for about 5 minutes powered it up, now everything works fine. Ran maybe 2 more projects with no problem at all. Then today it happens again. Went through all the pervious steps with the same results until I powered down for about 2 - 3 minutes and now everything is working fine again.

My control box is secure under the machine with minimal dust and I keep a fan blowing all the dust and chips away.

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what could cause this? Or how to trouble shoot it further?

Any input would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Tom

Rando
Posts: 757
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2015 3:24 pm
Location: Boise, ID
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Re: Losing communication on Z (please help)

Post by Rando »

Tom:

It sounds like there's an intermittent in the Z-axis cabling. To test it, try connecting the X- or Y-axis motors to the Z-axis output, and see if it will jog. If it doesn't move, then it's going to be a problem with the driver board inside the controller. But, if the X/Y DOES move when you jog in the Z (and that axis is connected to that output), then it means that the cabling, or possibly the motor.....or more likely a connection inside the motor, is at fault. Yes, those can be intermittent, and will often be that way at some position.

One thing to be very careful of: check the pins of the Z-axis cabling that plugs into the controller box. Make sure none of them are broken or bent. These CNCs use two pins in the connector to carry the stepper current, so if one gets broken, all the current is going through one pin, and literal fires have been known to start.....

If you have an ohm-meter or continuity tester, connect that onto the male connector pins to find....there will be two sets of connections that show as shorted. Use clips to attach the meter leads, and then bend and twist and tweak the wires in the cabling, especially near the motor, near the connector, and if there is any splicing going on. Pull, tug, do a reasonable job to make the intermittent occur. Note that this could also be an issue with SHORTING in the cabling, as that might cause the "no you can't for a good long while" issue...the short would cause the driver board to overheat, and possibly go into thermal-shutdown until that driver cools. Possible, but not the most likely scenario.

Hope that at least gives you some places to check.

Rando
=====================================================
ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)

Thomas.s.
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 5:22 pm

Re: Losing communication on Z (please help)

Post by Thomas.s. »

Rando,

Thank you for the informative reply. I think I possibly have found the issue and will post it in case anyone else has this problem. A few weeks ago I started saving my toolpaths all at once. Since doing that my controller reset to 100, got that back to 4003. Then all those problems I was talking about started happening.

I went back to saving files to usb one at a time and have had no issues since and have done about 8 projects since then with no problem at all.

Hopefully that’s all it is!

Thanks again!

Rando
Posts: 757
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2015 3:24 pm
Location: Boise, ID
Contact:

Re: Losing communication on Z (please help)

Post by Rando »

Dang....are we not all collectively and completely fardking tired of that piece of crap pendant?

Glad it's working again for you!

Regards,

Rando
=====================================================
ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)

markjonesranger
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:47 pm
Location: Ozark Mo
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Re: Losing communication on Z (please help)

Post by markjonesranger »

Also guard against running the vacuum hose over the pendent. The static electricity can blow your controler card and also make the pendant go blank. Once I started making sure I didn't get the vac hose next to the pendant no problems.

Shark is a great machine. Over 300 projects with it and the few issues I have had over the past 3 years have been quickly resolved with their tech support.

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