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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Tormach Personal CNC Mill > 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    34

    770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    I have two 770 Tormach machines. They are about ten years old but up until 2 years ago had limited use. I have been running them flawlessly for two years on Mach 3. I decided to upgrade to the PathPilot. I bought one new controller and one card for the second machine. The install went perfectly well.

    Since the install I have been experiencing numerous problems. I have been running for about two weeks now. First I lost the Z axis drive on the one machine. I replaced it and since replacing it , it is constantly losing position, It will halt in the middle of a program , It loses it ref position. Just this morning I tried to run it again and it moved up fast ground to a halt and lost position. I have checked all the cables and connections and everything seems fine. This drive is only a week old and has only run about 3 times.

    Yesterday, the second machine also lost the Z axis drive. It will only go down regardless of which way you move the shuttle. I swapped out drives and the problem went away.
    I have a hard time believing this is coincidence. Both machines experience the same failure within days of one another.

    I am lost as to what to do next as I no longer have mach 3 for one of the machines. I plan to switch computers today and try to see it the problem goes away.

    Any input greatly appreciated

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    1863

    Re: 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    My 7 year old 1100 is still running Mach III and runs flawlessly every time.

    I was talking to Andy one day and he asked me if I was still running Mach or had I switched to Path Pilot. I told him if they want me to try Path Pilot, send me a control with it and I’ll try it. If I like it, I’ll pay for it. If I don’t like it, I’ll send it back. He said he’d see what he could do. That was the last I heard about it.

    After the horror stories I have read about Path Pilot, if I have to change I think my next control will have a different name. It will say “HAAS” on the front of it.

    I had a Haas TM1 in my shop and I have told my wife if I knew then what I know now, I would have taken some of the money I got when I sold my FADAL, paid off my Haas and brought it home.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love my Tormach but the Haas was a WAY better machine.

    For the kind of work I do now, my Tormach is perfect. I make running gear for gas powered remote control boats and trucks, and if I can’t hold 6 parts in one hand, they’re too big for me to mess with.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    1777

    Re: 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    Quote Originally Posted by ontariocnc View Post
    I have two 770 Tormach machines. They are about ten years old but up until 2 years ago had limited use. I have been running them flawlessly for two years on Mach 3. I decided to upgrade to the PathPilot. I bought one new controller and one card for the second machine. The install went perfectly well.

    Since the install I have been experiencing numerous problems. I have been running for about two weeks now. First I lost the Z axis drive on the one machine. I replaced it and since replacing it , it is constantly losing position, It will halt in the middle of a program , It loses it ref position. Just this morning I tried to run it again and it moved up fast ground to a halt and lost position. I have checked all the cables and connections and everything seems fine. This drive is only a week old and has only run about 3 times.

    Yesterday, the second machine also lost the Z axis drive. It will only go down regardless of which way you move the shuttle. I swapped out drives and the problem went away.
    I have a hard time believing this is coincidence. Both machines experience the same failure within days of one another.

    I am lost as to what to do next as I no longer have mach 3 for one of the machines. I plan to switch computers today and try to see it the problem goes away.

    Any input greatly appreciated
    I had a drive problem on my 1100, it was the plug that connects the stepper motor to the drive, contacts were burned and it was arcing, this caused it to lose reference and make strange noises etc.. I repaired the plug and its been fine after that.

    For what its worth I have been running Pathpilot since its inception and it has not made an uncalled for move since I installed it, not the case here with Mach 3.

    Also the drives use Mosfet transistors in the output circuit, they will blow if there is arcing.
    mike sr

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    1777

    Re: 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Seebold View Post
    My 7 year old 1100 is still running Mach III and runs flawlessly every time.

    I was talking to Andy one day and he asked me if I was still running Mach or had I switched to Path Pilot. I told him if they want me to try Path Pilot, send me a control with it and I’ll try it. If I like it, I’ll pay for it. If I don’t like it, I’ll send it back. He said he’d see what he could do. That was the last I heard about it.

    After the horror stories I have read about Path Pilot, if I have to change I think my next control will have a different name. It will say “HAAS” on the front of it.

    I had a Haas TM1 in my shop and I have told my wife if I knew then what I know now, I would have taken some of the money I got when I sold my FADAL, paid off my Haas and brought it home.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love my Tormach but the Haas was a WAY better machine.

    For the kind of work I do now, my Tormach is perfect. I make running gear for gas powered remote control boats and trucks, and if I can’t hold 6 parts in one hand, they’re too big for me to mess with.
    I also make car and boat small parts, the biggest problem I have is the car guy always wants to change something.

    Pathpilot runs flawless here Steve on my 1100-3.
    mike sr

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    1788

    Re: 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    As a reference experience from another Canadian user, I initially ran my 770 on Mach3 and converted to PathPilot during the late beta perhaps 2 years ago. I've had none of the problems that you mentioned.

    You said that you "swapped out drives and the problem went a way". Do you mean the driver or the actual steppers? Is it possible that your problem results from a loose/corroded connection to the Z-axis driver?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    1788

    Re: 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Seebold View Post
    My 7 year old 1100 is still running Mach III and runs flawlessly every time.

    After the horror stories I have read about Path Pilot, if I have to change I think my next control will have a different name. It will say “HAAS” on the front of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Tormach but the Haas was a WAY better machine.
    I read this forum almost every day and have seen very few PathPilot "horror stories". I suppose that my memory must be failing. A Haas may be better but for twice the money it should be!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    34

    Re: 770 PathPilot - Issues - Losing position - blowing drives

    Update - Problem seems to be resolved. - 2 Separate issues

    The "drive" I was referring to was the Z axis stepper drive. Both machines are the same age. The z axis failed on one a week ago and the z drive failed on the second one just this week. I figured it was too close to be a coincidence. DV testing is good but not within a few days good. The manufacturer can predict the lifespan but not to within a few days"} I figured pathpilot was the root cause but I replaced the drive and it it working agian.

    PathPilot was in fact the root cause of the erratic behavior. My machines are 770 with a revision 2 board. When I upgraded to PP I bought a card and software for one and a full controller for the other. The software was , I believe, 1.9 or something. I updated on to rev 2.10 but the other one would not take the update, The one that would not take the update was the one that was running erratically.
    Tony, from Studica, came over as he was also perplexed by my description of the problem. We updated the suspect machine to revision 2.14. Unlike machine number one, this update required us to boot from the USB it would not take the update from within PP. We updated it on Thursday. Since then I have dry cycled it twenty plus times running the same code with no issue.

    That all said, I did not turn the problem off and so I cannot say 100% that the rev level of the pathpilot was the root cause. But as I said, I have cycled it many times, after updating, and experienced no issues.

    I also updated machine # 1, the second Z axis drive failure machine, to revision 2.14 and it also dry cycled numerous times without issue.



    Tony, From Studica, was a big help, great support from this company. If you are located in Canada and are interested in purchasing at Tormach I would highly recommend them.

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