[pete from TN]

Hey guys,
I just recently put the mill back together after tearing it down for some measuring. It has since been exhibitiing an annoying problem. My Y axis movement is real noisy and jittery. When the axis moves you can see the fault light on the gecko sorta try to light up but when you stop it goes back to off completely. It never gets red and only very occasionally faults. The axis does sound like crap tho and it is very noisy and vibrates quite a bit under rapids. I took the X and Y axis power and signal leads off and swapped them and the problem does switch to the X axis from the Y and back again so the problem is probably not in the motor, encoder, or cabling. It is most likely in the control unit. I have looked over the wiring and checked out everything I can and found no loose wires and as I said the Y axis IS working just sounds like crap. It was working fine up until I left for vacation and was actually making some noise before I took it apart for the measurement of the belt drive system. I have not found anything obvious and the wiring is as it has been undisturbed. I have tried to readjust the servo tuning and cannot make it go away. Not sure what the hell is going on but it is REALLY annoying and I have parts to make that will bring me some cash..... any ideas or advice would be most appreciated. Thanks and peace


Pete

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Pete,

I'd first try swapping the STEP/DIR signals between the X/Y axes. If the problem moves, then there's a problem with your PP or BOB. Otherwise, it's the Gecko. Sounds to me like the Gecko.

Regards,
Ray L.

[pete from TN]

Do you mean I should take the step and direction leads that go from the breakout board to the respective geckos and swap them? I thought that is basically what I had done when I swapped the power and signal leads to the motors from the control box but I guess maybe not.... To be honest with you for some odd reason the Y axis gecko has always been the hardest to tune on this machine and I had been noticing that any movement of the axis would kinda sorta light the fault light on the Y gecko but it has always worked fine and sounded fine... perhaps the gecko is bad after all.... any thoughts?....and thanks for your input....

[pete from TN]

Just got back inside and swapped the leads from the breakout board to the geckos X for Y so that now my X axis jog keys move the Y axis and vice versa. NOW the Y axis STILL sounds like crap despite being commanded by the X axis computer commands. THe Y axis jog key moves the X axis and it is smooth. Does this mean that my Breakout and computer are okay and my gecko or the wiring from it to the DB9 connector are bad? Any ideas? peace


Pete

[Flenser]

Can't you just swap the Geckos?

[pete from TN]

I swapped out the X gecko for the Y gecko and the problem followed it so I guess that means that my Y gecko is actually bad.... Not really sure what the hell happened here, it was working fine and I did not have any crashes, I cannot have any non vise crashes now that I have a limit and home on every axis now.... Oh well what can ya do.... Gotta save some cash now to get another one... Bummer is that I got some paying jobs here now that I could use to pay for it if it was working.... figures huh.... Oh well thanks guys for the assistance... peace

Pete

[Flenser]

You want to borrow one of mine? It's not like I'm using it at the moment.

Jeff

[pete from TN]

That is a very kind offer. It never ceases to amaze me how kind people on this forum are and how willing to help everyone is. I am gonna try to use some of the money I am getting for the little side job I am doing right now that I should be getting paid for this week to buy another gecko. Unfortunately I used my pseudo free one from Gecko when I crashed my machine a little while back. The funny thing is I am not really sure what happened to this one. It was working fine before I left for vacation and I left the machine and most of my house without power while we were gone. When I returned it was making the funny noises...... Crazy really..... anyways, thanks for the kind offer but I am gonna try to refrain from burning up other peoples geckos from now on..... thanks very much tho.... peace


Pete

[Flenser]

I thought the pseudo free Gecko repair/replace deal was one per drive. Is it really one per customer? I guess that makes sense, though.

[pete from TN]

Not entirely sure it is not really tho.... it is not clear why this one is having problems but from what I am seeing it is the gecko.... peace