Today I was running a series of badges (20 per sheet)No problem been running a few the past week. Today when it finsihed the first sheet I removed and installed a new sheet ( location is repeated with a jig used to hold the material in exact same place on table) I reloaded the template and when it went to Z axis to locate table it just kept pushing into the table, I hit e-stop on computer, went to jog and tried to Z plus to raise the router, it kept pushing into the material no matter what direction was pushed! It actually pushed the router out of the holder!!!!! I had to kill the power, I mean totally unplug the power, reboot and at that moment it would raise. Now when running the badges I have a repating problem. When running circles it has an error (a bump on both top and bottom, and if text is in the circle it is repeated there too!) the badges are 2.5" circles with text (numbers mostly) in the center. Imagine a 45* angle accross the circle it where the bump or jump is happening. This was not an issue before the malfuncion of the z axis??? I will try to load a picture tomorrow so you folks can see what I mean. I noticed that if I grab the bit and see if it has slop the entire gantry moves a bit? I never checked this before so do not know if it is normal...Please help, I have an order of these badges do by Thursday to a customer...
Best regards!
Curtis
HELP!!! Repeating problem!
Moderators: al wolford, sbk, Bob, Kayvon
Re: HELP!!! Repeating problem!
Hi Curtis,
I have a couple of ideas. Fortunately, I haven't experienced the culprit that caused this (the unable to stop movement).
First a comment on the culprit - the Shark can be viewed as being sensitive to connection to the computer. For example, if you send it a jog command in y, hold down the key as if you want to move it a few inches, and disconnect the usb cable, it will continue to move in y. It never received the release / stop command. Your culprit may be something along these lines - a momentary bad / lost connection. Frankly a little debris in the keyboard could have resulted in a button press being sent after you released. I'm not saying you caused it, but from your description, hitting the red button / killing the power stopped it. And, after you restarted the controller, it all worked (and for whatever reason re-established the connection to the computer).
One last comment on this - still anecdotal in that I haven't spent a lot of time duplicating it. I have poor power here where I live. The voltage is irregular, and occassionally spikes and even has less than 1s power outages. I use a power conditioner with a small battery backup with my shark and computer. (I also do this with my home theater and computers in the house). The intent is not to provide a battery backup for a great length of time, but to provide power conditioning and continuous power through these episodes. When I first got my Shark, I hadn't yet received the power conditioner, and did have 2 instances of weird / runaway behavior from the Shark. I haven't experienced that since adding the power conditioner to the system.
Your event probably loosened the coupler from the motor to the lead screw (spiral rod). There are two screws on this coupler. I've been told that Next Wave uses Gorilla Wood glue (NOT the Gorilla Glue - the Gorilla Wood Glue) to secure these from vibrating out with use. Using red or blue paste isn't a good idea as you may never get them off if needed. Make sure the power is off on the control box, and give this a look. Any axis shake is an indicator that the motor/lead screw coupler is loose.
If after tightening these, you still have a little variance across the cut, the incident may have also loosened up the Z axis leadscrew nut. This is connected to the lead screw at the bottom of the z gantry, and is difficult to see without lowering the gantry to the maximum (do this by hand with the power off on the control box), and looking from the back side. The leadscrew nut has a lip on it, and it is attached to the HDPE bracket with 3 screws.
You should be able to reach in there with a flat tip screw driver and determine if this is loose or not (press on the collar). If it's loose, you'll need to take it off. The easiest way I think to do this is to remove the bottom plate from the gantry. There are 4 bolts.
Once the bottom plate is removed, you can manually lower the gantry (control box power off), working the leadscrew (spiral rod) until the leadscrew is past the leadscrew nut. At that point you should be able to slip the rest of the gantry off of the support rods. I haven't done this with the gantry mounted to the table - so if there isn't enough clearance to remove the z gantry, you may have to unmount the entire gantry from the table.
From a separate post, there are at least a couple instances of loose screws on the leadscrew nut collar. If they are loose, there really is no tightening and reassembly, as they'll just work themselves back out (HDPE is very slippery). I'd drill through the screw holes and use a #8 bolt and self locking nut. Different tables recommend 3/16" bit for the hole (for a #8 bolt) - but you may want to try something slightly smaller so that the bolt is snug and perhaps has to be screwed through the plate.
There are a couple of posts that are related, I think, to the leadscrew nut. Only recently has Next Wave been able to narrow this down to the leadscrew nut contributing and perhaps being the sole culprit to this condition. In Eric's case, one of the 3 screws was loose. In my case, one of the 3 screws was at an odd angle. You may be able to see from the picture above how the screws were replaced with 3 #8 bolts and self locking nuts.
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=499
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=295
Hopefully either or both of these ideas gets you back to where you started before the incident.
I have a couple of ideas. Fortunately, I haven't experienced the culprit that caused this (the unable to stop movement).
First a comment on the culprit - the Shark can be viewed as being sensitive to connection to the computer. For example, if you send it a jog command in y, hold down the key as if you want to move it a few inches, and disconnect the usb cable, it will continue to move in y. It never received the release / stop command. Your culprit may be something along these lines - a momentary bad / lost connection. Frankly a little debris in the keyboard could have resulted in a button press being sent after you released. I'm not saying you caused it, but from your description, hitting the red button / killing the power stopped it. And, after you restarted the controller, it all worked (and for whatever reason re-established the connection to the computer).
One last comment on this - still anecdotal in that I haven't spent a lot of time duplicating it. I have poor power here where I live. The voltage is irregular, and occassionally spikes and even has less than 1s power outages. I use a power conditioner with a small battery backup with my shark and computer. (I also do this with my home theater and computers in the house). The intent is not to provide a battery backup for a great length of time, but to provide power conditioning and continuous power through these episodes. When I first got my Shark, I hadn't yet received the power conditioner, and did have 2 instances of weird / runaway behavior from the Shark. I haven't experienced that since adding the power conditioner to the system.
Your event probably loosened the coupler from the motor to the lead screw (spiral rod). There are two screws on this coupler. I've been told that Next Wave uses Gorilla Wood glue (NOT the Gorilla Glue - the Gorilla Wood Glue) to secure these from vibrating out with use. Using red or blue paste isn't a good idea as you may never get them off if needed. Make sure the power is off on the control box, and give this a look. Any axis shake is an indicator that the motor/lead screw coupler is loose.
- Z Axis Connecting Rod Screws
- Z Leadscrew Mounted on Gantry
- Z Gantry Bottom Plate
From a separate post, there are at least a couple instances of loose screws on the leadscrew nut collar. If they are loose, there really is no tightening and reassembly, as they'll just work themselves back out (HDPE is very slippery). I'd drill through the screw holes and use a #8 bolt and self locking nut. Different tables recommend 3/16" bit for the hole (for a #8 bolt) - but you may want to try something slightly smaller so that the bolt is snug and perhaps has to be screwed through the plate.
There are a couple of posts that are related, I think, to the leadscrew nut. Only recently has Next Wave been able to narrow this down to the leadscrew nut contributing and perhaps being the sole culprit to this condition. In Eric's case, one of the 3 screws was loose. In my case, one of the 3 screws was at an odd angle. You may be able to see from the picture above how the screws were replaced with 3 #8 bolts and self locking nuts.
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=499
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=295
Hopefully either or both of these ideas gets you back to where you started before the incident.
Re: HELP!!! Repeating problem!
Curtis,
When this happens to my CNC Shark Pro, the first thing I check is the wiring to the z-axis stepper motor (especially the pins in the connector). Next Wave explained that one of these wires carries the signal for direction. A different wire tells the motor how much to turn. If the direction wire is loose and becomes disconnected, every command sent to the stepper motor feeds the router down. I probably should have replaced the connector by now, but so far wiggling the pins back into the connector body seems to be enough (for a few months).
PJ
When this happens to my CNC Shark Pro, the first thing I check is the wiring to the z-axis stepper motor (especially the pins in the connector). Next Wave explained that one of these wires carries the signal for direction. A different wire tells the motor how much to turn. If the direction wire is loose and becomes disconnected, every command sent to the stepper motor feeds the router down. I probably should have replaced the connector by now, but so far wiggling the pins back into the connector body seems to be enough (for a few months).
PJ
Re: HELP!!! Repeating problem!
OK,
My problem was the set screw under the table on the Y axis had come loose. Used the gorillia trick and that seems to be hodling it now....As for the repeating problem it has not happened again. But none of the wires/connections appear to be loose. The box and computer are rigid mounted...heres to hoping
Thanks for the help guys
My problem was the set screw under the table on the Y axis had come loose. Used the gorillia trick and that seems to be hodling it now....As for the repeating problem it has not happened again. But none of the wires/connections appear to be loose. The box and computer are rigid mounted...heres to hoping
Thanks for the help guys