G540 Faulting on X Jog and Y Jog after running with the MDI on Mach 3 - Please Help

All right need some help here and see any one else here has had this problem.

Was running my CNC in manual and cutting my spoil board. I could tell the machine was getting delayed after i put in the next step. And finally it just going into fault. Cant reset and Mach 3 is saying it is Emergency. I can't reset it till i push in my stop all button and reset it. But instantly goes back into fault when trying to job. After sitting a while(maybe cooling) i can run machine again. Does funny thing wont take manual input on the MDI of mach 3 but i can jog. Like it heats or something. Really confused anyone else had this issue willing to take any comments on fixing this issues would like it to run longer for longer projects.

Okay im starting to think my G540 is dead. Barely reaching 2 years and barely used because most of this time i was building and not running it. Any one else had your G540 go dead(nothing hooked up besides E-Stop and Power and will not come out of fault)? Any reason why? Going to buy an other one and been looking up reasons on why but cant find any. I didnt need to add the current resistor because i have 3.5A motors. Little upsetting but enjoy CNCing im still going to go for an other. Any advice from any one? Unfortunately only one year warranty on G540s.

Little more info. Was playing with the machine and only running one motor at a time and when i finally hooked up X and Y together i got the fault(Only X ran well) but when i ran X and Y together it triggered. I pulled X and only ran Y and it triggered every time. Finally i couldnt get a reset on the G540( i think its done)

Hi Mokra

try fitting 3500 ohm resistors to set the current to 3.5A
with the resistors fitted the motors will run cooler since the motor current will be reduced when an axis is idle and may help with your problem
as they may reduce the G540's stepper drivers current set inputs sensitivity to electrical noise

I can't find it now but I remember another post here
some one was having a problem when 4 motors was connected to the G540 - no current setting resistors

any three motors was OK but not four !!
the problem was solved when 3.5K resistors for 3.5A was fitted

check the motor cables only have 4 wires just for the motor and do not have wires connected to pins 1 to 5

depending on which version of the G540 you have
some are more sensitive to electrical noise on the current setting input than others


the other possibility if you are using a switch mode power supply is excessive noise on the DC supply to the G540

John

PS
do you have the charge pump switched on or off on the G540 ?

And more importantly, check and replace the Y axis motor, check the wires first. Finding out that Y axis has problems and keeping on running it, is not helpful, problems do not magically disappear.
On the other hand, i had and i used G540 on several machines, and they never failed ( some over 5 years ), one i did test to extremes and it did not fail, even after connecting 220 Volts to one of the outputs and giving up the smokes, it did run and is running to this day, except that output does not work any more.
Also take the advice given to you and connect the resistors, you will not find 3500 ohm, but you will find an abundance of 3300 ohm resistors, and that will do just fine.
Regards,
Tom

Hi Mokra

from the G540's manual

"The current set resistor may be a 1/4 Watt, 5% part"

"If your motors are rated below 3.5A
you must use a current set resistor across PIN 1 and PIN 5. The resistor is calculated by taking the current in amps and
multiplying by 1000. If your motor is rated at 2.8A per phase you will have to use a 2.8K 5% 1/4W resistor. If your motor is rated
at 3.5A or above you can safely not use a current set resistor; however, your G540 will not go into current standby mode which
will result in increased motor heating.
At this point you should have holding torque on the motors and a green LED lit. If you do not then the motor is wired
incorrectly or is damaged."


using 5% resistors a 3k5 resistor will be 3325 to 3675 ohms

depending on what resistor suppliers you have available

you could use a 3K48 or 3K52 0.1% resistor

but buying 5% parts from the likes of Tandy/RadioShack , 3K3 and 180R wired in series gives you 3K48

in most cases using 3K3 as Tom advises you are not going to notice the 6% reduction in motor current

John

Tom,

It sounds like the G540 should come in for a check up.

The easiest way to check to see if the G540 is working correctly is to connect only your power supply, a jumper wire between TERMINAL 10 and 12 and turn off the charge pump switch on the front of the drive. With only those things done you should get a green LED. If you do, begin plugging in your motors one by one to see if the problem is emanating from one axis.

If the red LED stays on regardless of the setup then I would recommend taking the cover off and removing the motherboard from the G250XR3 drives inside. Plug it in the same way as previously described and see if you get a green LED. If you do, then you will want to plug each G250XR3 in individually (powering off while plugging them in) and seeing if you get a green LED with each one. Eventually you will find one that is causing the motherboard to go into FAULT.

When you find that one you can send it back to us for evaluation and repair.

Please follow this link and complete the form to receive an RMA number:

Product Returns | Step Motor Controls

Most product returns take around 5 business days, but may take longer depending on workload. All drives still covered under warranty are evaluated and repaired free of charge if there is no board-level damage, and include free return shipping within the USA. Some repair charges may apply to drives out of warranty and those with customer induced damage. We will contact you as soon as your drive has been evaluated and if there are any questions from our engineering team.

CoAMarcus - Thank you so much. I didnt realize you guys did repairs. Unfortunately i just bought an other one. Hmm im going to have to try this and see if i can send the other back. Good recommendation on separating them. I now get a green LED. Im going to make an adapter so i can plug them in one at at a time. Thank you all for the ideas. I currently didnt set a resistor because i have 3.5 Amp motors. But i see now it was a very good idea to do it any ways.

John - Yeah i have the charge pump off. I've switched it back and forth and nothing. Also i gave a link to my kit that doesn't have the excessive noise to it does it? I will definitely add in resistors to my new one or fixed one.

Tommylight - Thank you for the advice.

Question to all - You think i should buy some new motors for the new setup? The only thing i can figure out that was the problem was to small of wires to the motors. The DB9 cables i bought had 28awg wire and from some documents i found online if you are running 3.5 amps a minim requirement is 24awg. I might have to buy some connectors and 4 pair wire and run my own wires. Also was thinking be a good idea to put the resistor in the control box in front of the fan? Less wire clear to the motors. Good idea or bad? Think the small wire plus the no resistor installed contributed to my problem? After pulling apart the gecko a slight burned connection on the Z axis is burned. Will upload some pictures.
To all people replied, thank you again for the help. Much appreciated. I really didn't run this Gecko long before it burned up or what ever it did. I think Gecko should update some more requirements on there installation guide if this was the problem. I made sure when i solder my control box i used the right size of wire but didn't think the DB9 cables were two small. Oh well you live and learn. Thanks again.

Kit i Bought
G540 4-Axis kit Stepper Motor | Stepper Motor Driver | CNC Router | Laser Machine | 3D Printers For Sale
Motors i have - Which are 3.5 Amp per phase.
High-Torque Stepper Motor, Stepper Motor, Driver, Stepper Motor kit, DC Servo Motor, DC Servo Motor kit, Stepper Motor Power Supply, CNC Router, Spindle, and other Components. Stepper Motor | Stepper Motor Driver | CNC Router | Laser Machine | 3D Prin

Cables from Amazon i used to run the motors - i verified from C2G(Cables to Go) that they are 28awg wire.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here some pictures

That has to the be the issue. 23% of the voltage goes into that wire i think after a while the G540 took it. My fault for not using the right cord awg.
3.5amps at 48 volts across a 25 ft cord at smaller awg than it needs to be and the result is.
Voltage Drop Calculator
Result
Voltage drop: 11.36
Voltage drop percentage: 23.67%
Voltage at the end: 36.64

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mokra

Question to all - You think i should buy some new motors for the new setup? The only thing i can figure out that was the problem was to small of wires to the motors. The DB9 cables i bought had 28awg wire and from some documents i found online if you are running 3.5 amps a minim requirement is 24awg. I might have to buy some connectors and 4 pair wire and run my own wires. Also was thinking be a good idea to put the resistor in the control box in front of the fan? Less wire clear to the motors. Good idea or bad? Think the small wire plus the no resistor installed contributed to my problem? After pulling apart the gecko a slight burned connection on the Z axis is burned. Will upload some pictures.
To all people replied, thank you again for the help. Much appreciated. I really didn't run this Gecko long before it burned up or what ever it did. I think Gecko should update some more requirements on there installation guide if this was the problem. I made sure when i solder my control box i used the right size of wire but didn't think the DB9 cables were two small. Oh well you live and learn. Thanks again.

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You should really use 22AWG with that type of motor; most manufacturers like Lin Engineering just pop 22AWG on all NEMA 23s to be sure. You should also not be using off-the-shelf DB9 cables as they are typically rated for less current per pin than a stepper motor requires. The only exception is the CNC Router Parts cable but they are custom made for them for the G540 so they have a higher gauge wire inside.

We can pop an application note on our site soon about correct wire gauge and why off the shelf DB9s aren't recommended. We are going to be doing some tech videos as well so this can be one of them. Don't worry though, we will also write the app note; I hate being forced to watch a video on something I could easily just read about.

Go ahead and shoot that G540 over here and we can run it through out tests and get it working like new again.

Thank you CoAMarcus for the reply. Yeah be nice to see that update on there because i am not the only who who has bought off the shelf DB9 Cables for this that is how i found out the mistake i made. I think it might of only burned the one chip that you can remove so it might be an easy fix. I will have two i guess lol. Thanks again