Stepper motor noise/grinding/travel issues

Hi All. I'm having an issue with our CNC machine. Originally a Marchant Dice but it's becoming a bit like Trigger's broom now.

The stepper motor drivers were burnt out so I've replaced those. A lot of the connections were loose inside the control unit so I've tightened all of those up. There doesn't seem to be any loose connections but don't take that as concrete!

My first question is - is this sound/grinding noise, in the video, familiar to anyone? If so can they shed any light on what it may be?

Its been happening intermittently over the last few months but as of the end of last week, the machine ground to a halt (pardon the pun).

On the video in the link below what you're watching is me moving the y axis using the shuttle express , slow then medium then fast. It works fine going slowly , makes awful noise when moving at medium speed, then won't move at all and makes a terrific noise when the jog dial is at full throttle!

Youtube Video link here

Any help is much appreciated.

Hi,
the video did not post. It sounds like your stepper motors are missing steps.

All steppers make whirring noises when operating, but that noise gets much MUCH worse when they get to the point of overload. My guess is that is what you are hearing.

Try running the machine very slowly, say 10%. Do the steppers work and produce anything other than the normal whirring noise?
Now try the machine at 50% speed. What change?
Now try at 100%. What change?.

If I'm correct then the machine will work well at slow speed but fail at high speed. That would suggest you have bought high inductance steppers and/or are using too low a voltage to drive them.

Craig

Hey Craig,

Thank you for the response. I've swapped out the newer stepper driver for one of the originals (the one that didn't burn out!). It's working fine for now, although with the new stepper drivers I've had to recalibrate the steps per which threw me completely to start with.



when you say "high inductance steppers" do you mean the driver? I bought the DM542 as a direct replacement for the M542H thinking they were the same?