[antoineg]

Hello


I have purchased the nema 23 diy electronics CRP] and things were going well with my cnc set until a few weeks ago when one day I plugged my machine in to realize that every time I jogged the machine in any axis there was a rough noise (rubbing and squeezing) coming from the motors and they behaved unpredictably. I unplugged it overnight and when I fired up my machine the next day all motors moved smoothly. I thought I was out of the woods but today the same phenomenon happened today. Any insight as to what might be causing this? Is this a problem emanating from MACH 3 or is there some sort of interference going on?


Any suggestion would be much appreciated




Antoine

[ahren]

Antoine,

Are you running your electronics over a parallel port? If so, the issue could be related to your PC, especially if it has updated lately or if it has other software on it. Make sure all virus scanners and other background tasks are turned off, as these can interrupt Mach 3. You can also try increasing the pulse width to 5 under config->motor tuning -- this effectively forces the PC to send longer step and direction signals to the driver. However, you might want to consider an Ethernet Smoothstepper to eliminate the PC as a potential culprit. This will also allow you to use a newer PC, and doesn't restrict your to 32 bit versions of Windows.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[antoineg]

Thanks Aaron


I thought you might point to that as the potential source of the problem. I'm at a point where I think I will order the smooth stepper from you guys. If my computer has a parallel port can I still use the smoothsteppper with it? Would I have to erase Mach3 and re-install it it? Do you think it would be a better idea to find an updated computer with windows 64bit instead?

Thanks for you help

Antoine

[CitizenOfDreams]

It's hard to tell without being there, but your issue sounds more like an electrical problem with the motor driver than a software problem with Mach3. Are you using one power supply to power all 3 steppers? In that case I would start with checking it, both for voltage and ripple.

[ahren]

Antoine,

The Smoothstepper can pretty much drop right it, and works on pretty much all Windows operating systems -- no need to change PC's or uninstall Mach. This isn't a guaranteed fix, but it's likely to be the culprit and will future proof your setup if you need to switch PC's in the future.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[ger21]

Run Drivertest.exe in the Mach3 folder, and see what the results are. You should see a very flat line, and a steady kernel speed.
If the results are good, then it's probably something else.

[ger21]

Also, you might consider a UC100 instead of the Smoothstepper. It's cheaper, and will plug right into your system.

[antoineg]

Yes I am using one switching power source for all 4 motors but that I have set it up as recommended on the cncrouterparts. I think many people are using the same power source and electronics as I am, in other words, one power source for all four motors and I haven't heard as this being as issue. My motor driver is the lead shine mx 4660 and I have set it according to their wiring recommendations. What is ripple?

Thanks
Antoine

[antoineg]

Thanks for your insight Gerry


I know nothing about the UC 100 as far as reliability. Has it worked well for people? Do you know if there are any problems with it?

Thanks
Antoine

[CitizenOfDreams]

I'm not saying that using a single power supply is a problem - it's perfectly fine. I'm just saying that the problem could be in that power supply. Ripple is the amount of unfiltered AC voltage in the output of a DC power supply. Bad capacitors (due to aging) is the most common cause of increased ripple.

[ger21]

The UC100 is a very popular option, and it works very well.

[antoineg]

AH ok thanks...I'm fairly novice at this as you can see...

I will look into this as well but the power source is brand new so hopefully it has nothing to do with this....

[manofmanyhats]

Thanks for your insight Gerry


I know nothing about the UC 100 as far as reliability. Has it worked well for people? Do you know if there are any problems with it?

Thanks
Antoine

I started using a uc100 after having problems with random faults on my g540. I really like it.

[bonesbr549]

AH ok thanks...I'm fairly novice at this as you can see...

I will look into this as well but the power source is brand new so hopefully it has nothing to do with this....

Being a novice as well , this is why when I got mine I went plug-n-play with their solution. Good luck.

[ger21]

I unplugged it overnight and when I fired up my machine the next day all motors moved smoothly. I thought I was out of the woods but today the same phenomenon happened today.

That fact that it's intermittent could point to some software interfering with Mach3, or a loose connection in your wiring maybe.

[antoineg]

Ok so i've tried everything listed below. I verified to connections from the switching power source to the driver-looks fine
There were no loose connections anywhere along the the path between the driver and the motors.
I then verified the voltages coming from pin 2-9 and i'm getting adequate voltage change on each pin.
I re-installed mach3 and drivers and did the all important re-boot. Things again seemed to work for about 20 mins or so. After restarting the machine... you've guessed it all motor are doing the same thing again.
When I look at the motors spin they make a screeching sound and looks like are intermittently seizing

I am starting to wonder if somehow the driver is not responsible here? Could I have fried my Mx 4660 somehow? Is there a way to verify this?

Thanks
Antoine

[ger21]

Did you run Drivertest.exe as I mentioned above?

[antoineg]

I tried but when I do the program doesn't launch

I tried the special driver too but that didn't make a difference....


Any special trick in getting the driver test to run?


Thanks
Antoine

[LeeWay]

You haven't really said much about the state of the computer you are using. Is it a stock bloated version of Windows or have you done anything to optimize it?
Many guys do get away with letting other software run on the same computer as Mach 3, but I have not had the same luck. I strip out everything I can to use a computer as a machine controller.
The fact that the driver test does not boot tells me something is wrong with it. It could be something as simple as a faulty RAM stick or something else in the background. If it runs fine for awhile and messes up after a reboot, that also points to the computer and not the machine electronics.
What version of Mach 3 are you using?

[ger21]

If the drivertest doesn't run, then Mach3 should not even be working????