[syo]

Hello

I recently got my first co2 laser machine.
After setting it up and turning it on a few weeks ago, there was an immediate problem with loud noises and some restricted movement on the y-axis.
At first, this happened only some of the time and I was able to do some engraving although 50% of the time the engraving would be spoiled by times when some steps were skipped.
Now however, this is happening all the time and the laser is unusable.

I have contacted the factory in China several times but still no solutions. We've tried changing the jumpers on the driver, oiling the rods on the axis but neither changed a thing.

When the head is moved (and especially when the head goes to 0-y) there is often an noticeable electronic buzzing sound as if the button was still depressed. Like the motors still have load.
Please see (and especially listen to) the attached video.

https://youtu.be/u1GQZQwXJrU

Thanks for considering this. I will appreciate any help!

syo

[mnothstein]

Can you move the head all the way back while turned off? Check the belt tension on the Y motor & try to grease your gantries.

[CNCMAN172]

Is this a belt drive X and Y axis. If so you might want to carefully remove the Y axis belt. Then power it back up and try just moving the motor without a load. If the motor is noisy you might have a driver that went bad and is not driving the motor correctly. If the motor is quiet when you run that test then the issue is something in the gantry transport.

Russ

[syo]

Is this a belt drive X and Y axis. If so you might want to carefully remove the Y axis belt. Then power it back up and try just moving the motor without a load. If the motor is noisy you might have a driver that went bad and is not driving the motor correctly. If the motor is quiet when you run that test then the issue is something in the gantry transport.

Russ

Thanks both of you for your responses.

Yes, Russ, the machine is completely belt driven.
I will perform the test as you suggest. Hopefully I can narrow it down to something we can fix.

Last night, on the suggestion of the technician, I played with the vendor parameters in RdWorks.
I thought I had fixed it before I went to bed. Everything was running smooth and the loud buzzing was gone.
This morning however, I started it up and the same banging, buzzing mess.
Very frustrating this.

But I will report back after I get a chance with the belt later today.

Thanks again!

syo

[syo]

Ok. Well yesterday I spent over an hour with a technician remotely accessing my settings and didn't get anywhere (plus another hour of answering Skype questions).
They didn't want me removing the belt yet for some reason.

So this morning we swapped connectors. x connector on the y driver and vice-versa.
Now the x movement became erratic and noisy and the y was purring like never before. Such a relief to my ears and a relief to finally get to the bottom of things.

However now the technician is saying while it is maybe a driver, he doesn't think so because the green light is on, on the driver. That maybe it is a bad wire somewhere instead.
Does this make any sense?
I checked the connectors. That the wires were making good contact. They were.

I hope we can get this settled soon. I really need to get this running.
Hopefully soon...

syo

[syo]

Finally fixed the problem.

It was a bad (underpowered) power switch supply.
Everything is running smooth and quiet now.
What a relief...

Now I have a problem with the y axis not engraving in the proper scale. x is fine but the y looks to be about 15 too large.
But I guess this should be for another post...

Syo