Z axis stalls

Having problem with the Z axis, started out intermittent. The Z axis stalls or slows down with the stepper motor chattering. When it slows down you hear the stepper motor chatter. When it stops you don't hear anything from the stepper motor. I use the arrow buttons to move the Z axis up and down, intermittently it will slow down or stop in the down movement, some times I can move it up with the arrow button. Sometimes I just wait a little and it works again for a little while. The display shows the Z axis is moving but it's stopped not moving. At first I though it was mechanical perhaps the ball screw but with the Z axis not moving and the numbers moving on the display and the stepper motor being silent I now think it's either the stepper motor, the gecko drive or it not getting the step pulses from the controller. Any thoughts on what parts I should buy first. Yesterday it failed 3 time and I crashed into the part I was cutting then it ran for 6 hours straight without a problem. This morning I did test with the arrow buttons and it failed intermittently more time than I could keep track of, now the machine is down. Please give me your thoughts everyone.

Thanks Joe

Hi Joe,

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This morning I did test with the arrow buttons and it failed intermittently more time than I could keep track of, now the machine is down.

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Well the good news is that should make it easy to figure out.


One possibility is a bad motor cable. Sometimes cables that continuously flex eventually fail in an intermittent manner. If the cable momentarily breaks while moving it can cause a stall.

Another possibility is that the axis load increased due to something like binding and the motor torque is insufficient to avoid a stall. But normally the motor would then stall and vibrate rather than being silent.

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Originally Posted by mirocha

Having problem with the Z axis, started out intermittent. The Z axis stalls or slows down with the stepper motor chattering. When it slows down you hear the stepper motor chatter. When it stops you don't hear anything from the stepper motor. I use the arrow buttons to move the Z axis up and down, intermittently it will slow down or stop in the down movement, some times I can move it up with the arrow button. Sometimes I just wait a little and it works again for a little while. The display shows the Z axis is moving but it's stopped not moving. At first I though it was mechanical perhaps the ball screw but with the Z axis not moving and the numbers moving on the display and the stepper motor being silent I now think it's either the stepper motor, the gecko drive or it not getting the step pulses from the controller. Any thoughts on what parts I should buy first. Yesterday it failed 3 time and I crashed into the part I was cutting then it ran for 6 hours straight without a problem. This morning I did test with the arrow buttons and it failed intermittently more time than I could keep track of, now the machine is down. Please give me your thoughts everyone.

Thanks Joe

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You can switch the two motors of X and Z axis, so you will be able to find out what was wrong.

Thanks for your help the stepper motors are connected to the control panel with plug connectors, it was easy just swapped two plugs. Switching the z and x cables moved the problem from the z to th x, that's great means this not a mechanical binding issue, not a motor problem and not a cable issue. I replaced the gecko g210 driver and tuned the stepper motor all seems good will wait and see it was an intermittent. Basic trouble shooting switch motors see if problem moved how did I miss that! Thanks for the help