[mredburn]

I was running a cut program and noticed it had gone into emergancy mode active. When I checked the back of the controller the fault light and all the lights by the individual axis connections are blinking red. Have I shorted something out?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ZUcOn-22k

[mredburn]

CHecked the emergancy Estop button, checked the power supply for voltage, pulled the motor connectors off and re plugged them back in. 2 days later I walk out to the shop and turn it on to and it works. fault light is back to green and the axis lights are solid red. Im running a cut program on it now. No Idea what caused it. I will probably pull it and send it back for inspection. The box and the back of the controller were not hot to the touch when it did it either.

[mredburn]

The program did not cut properly, shortly after starting the A axis stopped working. The A drive motor just grunts but doesnt turn. Swapped out motors with a spare same results. Switched the A and X axis plugs on the controller and the X axis motor grunts and the A axis spins as it should.

[LeeWay]

It sounds like a shorted motor wire.
Try a new cable.

[mredburn]

Not a cable at all. when i switched motors the first time on the A axis I used a different cable. And when I switched the X and A axis plugs at the controller the x axis then growled instead of turning and its a different wire than the A axis wire.

[LeeWay]

Do you have the pins all set the same way? Active high or low, I don't recall which it should be. Growling still sounds like s shorted motor wire somewhere. It could be in the drive itself, but you will have to let us know what you have tried and checked.

[mredburn]

I have been cutting on this machine and controller for far more than a year. It ran fine for over 6 hours the day before on a 4 axis cut program. Because i can take the A axis cable and swap it with the X axis cable. THen activate the x axis drive which is now driving the A motor with the keyboard and the A motor turns fine with no growling and activating the a drive which is now driving the X motor and the motor growls its not the cables. I have contacted gecko and will be shipping it back. i will let you know what they say. I have talked with Jeff Birt who built the controler and he has indicated he had this happen one other time right out of the box.

[LeeWay]

That was a detail I wasn't aware of. Loose wires, pins and intermittent shorts are usually found during new or used installations. You have been using this awhile, so pretty much dismisses loose connections etc. I did kill one of my 540's. I was using a lower quality switch that failed and shorted out. Bad news for the 540. The good news is that Gecko repaired it free of charge. They will probably give you a fast turn around on it and treat you the same way. They do that for most guys.
I keep a spare 540 on hand just in case. I can't have that kind of down time for one thing and it certainly makes trouble shooting a lot easier.
Good luck with it.
Oh and I have never seen them flash like that. I have seen the LED either green or red, but never flashing. That probably indicates a fault somewhere in the drive.

[mredburn]

My fault I should have mentioned it was not new install. I have opened two g540s (I have another that had issues with the Y axis I have that needed repair that I havent yet sent in) and replaced the A drive module,( If that is the correct term) with an X drive module. Since I dont know the age of the other g540 I was told to use the X unit. It is now up and running and cutting a rotary cut program of the piece that it was supposed to be cutting when it failed. No excessive heat felt on the back of the controller or the A axis motor. We are 21 minutes into the program and it has rotated 185 degrees. The actual cut seems to match the program. I will know when it finishes if its right.

[LeeWay]

Excellent. Now send that other one in quickly.

[Mariss Freimanis]

Your power supply is cycling on and off. There is nothing in the G540 that can blink the LEDs.

Mariss