[Lethrahn]

My machine has a weird tick where it will turn all of the motors off at random points in the code
very annoying as i run large projects and i like to run them overnight so i have them in the morning
from a ton of diagnostics, trial and error, and cleaning it looks like it has something to do with the control box which runs gecko drives

[Lethrahn]

any information would be greatly appreciated

[manyhats2007]

You're going to have to provide much more detail.
Machine type?
Type of cutting you're doing? (2.5 d? 3d? material? feeds and speeds? bits?)
What exactly are you noticing?
motor types? how many?
what drivers?
Powersupply?
Break out board?

Also, it is not a great idea to leave some machines unattended for long periods of time.

[Lethrahn]

You're going to have to provide much more detail.
Machine type?
Type of cutting you're doing? (2.5 d? 3d? material? feeds and speeds? bits?)
What exactly are you noticing?
motor types? how many?
what drivers?
Powersupply?
Break out board?

Also, it is not a great idea to leave some machines unattended for long periods of time.

k2 (seems to be out of business) 3 axis 4 servo motor 8'x5'cnc routing table 2.5 d control box uses gecko drivers, using mach 3 software. its running right now so i cant check the breakout board yet
i mainly cut high density foam
what are you asking about the power supply?

I've run through a program that had a lot of these stops without load( just the motors running themselves on a table) and there were still stops, which makes me think its not a mechanical issue, these were all brand new motors with brand new encoders as well

when it stops what happens is that at points in the code the machine almost acts as if it has hit one of the kill switches
it shuts off the motors but the router stays running in place the code will also continue to run as if nothing is wrong.
I've checked through the codes and even gone so far as to remodel a few
it sometimes even does this on extremely simple passes such as evening the top of the board off

i agree its not the best but i have it cooled and thats how my company wants it run :/

[manyhats2007]

It troubles me that mach3 keeps going even though the motors stop. Hopefully someone more knowledgable could chime in.

2 things that come immediately to my not very experienced mind are static discharges (common problem when cutting foam) and temperature. Is it cold in the room that the machine's computer is in? Do you know the gauge of your motor wires? Are they shielded? If so, is the shielding properly grounded?

[Lethrahn]

It troubles me that mach3 keeps going even though the motors stop. Hopefully someone more knowledgable could chime in.

2 things that come immediately to my not very experienced mind are static discharges (common problem when cutting foam) and temperature. Is it cold in the room that the machine's computer is in? Do you know the gauge of your motor wires? Are they shielded? If so, is the shielding properly grounded?

we thought it could be the static from the foam too so we reran our vacuum system with grounding and static grounding conduit
the table and all components are grounded the wires are 12 guage
but like i said i completely disconnected the motors from the machine so that i could rule out mechanical error

[manyhats2007]

What about the temperature of the room?
Do you notice that these errors happen after a certain amount of time into a job, or is it completely random?

[Lethrahn]

What about the temperature of the room?
Do you notice that these errors happen after a certain amount of time into a job, or is it completely random?

the temp is pretty normal we have fans to pull out the hot air that lead directly outside

its pretty random

the motors normally run fairly cold actually

[Lethrahn]

this keeps happening and its a very big problem

[Lethrahn]

i have a video of whats happening that can help
can that be posted straight to this forum or would i need to set up a link through youtube?

[manyhats2007]

I would post a link to the youtube video

[Lethrahn]

I would post a link to the youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge6R...ature=youtu.be

[Lethrahn]

just a video showing that the motors all stop
though the router and code continue running

[bhurts]

You need to look at your drives when this happens and see if they have faulted. Do you have a estop that notifies mach when it trips?

Ben

[Lethrahn]

You need to look at your drives when this happens and see if they have faulted. Do you have a estop that notifies mach when it trips?

Ben

how do i check if it has faulted?
i have an e stop but it isnt tripped when this happens

[john-100]

Hi

I've not looked at all the Gecko servo driver manuals but the one I looked at random indicates terminal 5 is at 0V when a fault is detected

what driver are you using ? and what power supply are you using ?

unless you have a fault detector / E stop circuit inter- connecting all your servo driver error outputs

I'm assuming you are using a switch mode power supply ,
I suspect the "tick" noise you hear is from the power supply
a momentary loss of power could cause all drives to fault - the manual should say what the LEDs indicate



John

PS

how are you controlling the servo drivers ?

1 , using a PC printer port and Breakout Board - what board ?
with some BOB's the step & direction signals pass through an octal buffer
the loss of the enable signal to a buffer IC will stop 4 axis at once

or 2 , a motion controller like the smooth stepper ?

[Lethrahn]

Hi

I've not looked at all the Gecko servo driver manuals but the one I looked at random indicates terminal 5 is at 0V when a fault is detected

what driver are you using ? and what power supply are you using ?

unless you have a fault detector / E stop circuit inter- connecting all your servo driver error outputs

I'm assuming you are using a switch mode power supply ,
I suspect the "tick" noise you hear is from the power supply
a momentary loss of power could cause all drives to fault - the manual should say what the LEDs indicate



John

PS

how are you controlling the servo drivers ?

1 , using a PC printer port and Breakout Board - what board ?
with some BOB's the step & direction signals pass through an octal buffer
the loss of the enable signal to a buffer IC will stop 4 axis at once

or 2 , a motion controller like the smooth stepper ?

in all honesty i'm new to cnc machines and ours came prebuilt so im sorry if i dont understand certain questions

we are using 4 gecko g320x drives

i dont know what power supply we have it looks like a standard power cable leading from the wall. is there a way to check? (by the way sorry for the miscommunication i didnt mean tick as in noise just another way of saying annoyance)

i think the controller is using a breakout board but i'm not sure what kind, is there a way to check that too?
the software we use is mach 3
the info page for our machine (CNC Router | KG9850RK | K2CNC) says the control box uses k2mc software as well
if you need any more info or pictures of our setup dont hesitate to ask


Follow up: the power cord has a small power module just inside the casing
250v 6a

[john-100]

Hi Lethrahn

I've had a look at your machine at -
404 - File or directory not found.

and it has a motion controller connected via a USB connection

not being familiar with the K2MC software
I don't know if it should stop with an error message displayed or if it will carry on oblivious as you machine does in the video

the Gecko G320X drives have 4 LED status indicators
( shown on page 6 of the G320x manual - http://www.cnczone.com/forums/gecko-...ml#post1651064 )


next time you run the machine and it fails
have a look at the fault indicators on the drives - you may have to run with the control box open to see them

John

[Lethrahn]

normally when it detects an issue such as one of the limit switches being tripped it stops all process and it has to be manually reset

i did a test run ,with an old file that it stopped on like this, without a bit and it tripped like it did before
i checked all the led indicators and all of the axis drives had sensed an issue and turned red
this is very confusing to me as the led,s trip when a limit switch is hit but that cuts all action. so this somehow gets to the drives but then stops there. very confusing

[Lethrahn]

would pictures of the control box components help?