[mark562]

A couple of weeks ago we rebuilt the entire head on our explorer 1. On Monday a screw came out of the brake actuator and activated the brake while the spindle was running and the operator was 2 machines away. Needless to say the spindle overloaded before he could get there to stop it. After resetting the motor thermal protection the motor runs fine but we are getting an axis drive fault alarm when the spindle starts in the program. We were able to cler the alarm and re home the axis but after 3 spindle starts the alarm could be cleared anymore. I have checked all the fuses and looked over all the boards for burn marks and found nothing. Today the machine started normally and I was able to home the axis and jog all 3 manually but when the program was started it did the rapid moves to the point where the spindle is started and alarmed out with an Axis Drive Fault so I cleared the alarm and turn around to consult the programming book to see if I could run the program without starting the spindle. After about 10 minutes I heard the drives go off after I could not clear the alarm agian. I left the machine off for 4 hours and was able the home and move manually all 3 axis. After sitting there with the drive on for 25 minutes I alarmed out again.

Does any body have any ideas of what I should look for? I'm stumped, why would the spindle overload effect the axis drives?i

[Jim Dawson]

Does any body have any ideas of what I should look for? I'm stumped, why would the spindle overload effect the axis drives?i

What you describe sounds like a failing drive. I had a similar problem on a completely different system where if the shop temperature was below about 68°F it would run fine, but greater than that, the system would run for varying lengths of time up to about 90°F where it would not run at all without faulting. Cleaning the drive and checking fans had no effect. I replaced the drive.

Good systems programming would dictate that any drive fault should shutdown all motion. I'm sure that's what is going on there.

[mark562]

I had a friend with a similar machine tell me the same story. It turned out to be a bad drive on his as well. The question now is how to determine which drive is faulty. I imagine these original drives will be quite costly. I read on other threads that the VIPER 200 H will drive these old SEM motors but no one has talked about wether or not the DX-32 control is compatible with them. If someone here knows please chime in.