[shred]

the mx has 3 drivers and a top board that they connect to . The top board works as a breakout board ,, this is the one that keeps blowing .
I could gut the mill and add all new drivers and all that fun stuff but it's more trouble than it's worth and defeats the purpose of turnkey . I'd probably scrap it and replace it before it comes to that .
The drivers themselves aren't the problem , and blowing them is only a sign there is a problem elsewhere . I've only blown a few drives in the time I've had these mills which I think is pretty good for the amount of use they get . I've blown an awful lot of dm860 drives on my torus so they all crap out at some point .

I need to carve into it . I have other mills that I need to keep running for the day , so I'll check it later . I have a feeling the wires could be shorting on the x . The wire casings they put on them are terrible and they eventually break . The metal from the casing then cuts or carves into the coatings on the wires which causes shorts . I've replaced or repaired a few motors because of this ,I haven't blown a driver because of it though . I have a couple extra motors on hand so hopefully it's just a motor issue

FWIW, I had two 1100 ATC boards pop from the incoming voltage from the power company-- nominally 220-230 swinging too high. Put a buck-boost on to drop it some and it's been solid since.

[metalmayhem]

I don't see it as being an issue from the power company because this has been over a week and the other mills have been running without a hiccup . This mill and another have been running off the same breaker for a couple years now , so I know that part of things is good

I took it apart to swap the x motor which it turned out had the wires repaired as I had previously mentioned . That would have been a few years ago . . The wires run across behind a panel where the power supply is . I took that panel off and I was gentle pulling the wires through . I connected the new x motor to the driver and left the motor resting on the table . I powered up but the driver had no power . I looked at the power supply and the positive wire was hanging . Obviously it wasn't tight and me pulling the stepper wires through was enough to knock it right off .

Now I have the possibility of it being one of 2 things , the motor is no good or the supply could have been losing connection and blowing the driver ??? . I hoped to get a reply from tormach before putting another new driver on but since I haven't heard from them I reluctantly went ahead and hooked it up .
The x motor is still sitting on the bench while the machine will air cut for the next couple hours . So far so good . If all goes ok tonite then I'll mount the motor tomorrow and cross my fingers

[metalmayhem]

the mill seems to be back to normal aside from the need to put it back together . I air cut for a few hours last night and the mill is behaving
The more I think about it the loose connection at the power supply is the likely culprit . I heard a pop when one drive blew and an arc is probably what I heard . This was the first time that cover has been off so I can't even guess at how long that power wire has been loose .
I like the mx drives but they are obviously a bit overly sensitive at times . The estop blowing the unit is well known and it's possible a power flicker mid run is enough to blow them to , but who knows ??

There is a distributor who sells individual replacement boards for the axis in the mx3660/4660 . At least leadshine is wise enough to allow a customer to repair a blown axis rather than replace the whole unit . I contacted the distributor yesterday to ask if they can also source the top (breakout) board but I got no reply . I'll probably go to the horse's mouth and try leadshine usa .
Still no reply to my inquiry from tormach either as expected . I'm sure they have a short list of possibilities and I was hoping for some input because this has become a tad costly .

it's too soon to say it's a problem solved but I'm hopeful

[popspipes]

My 12 year old1100 S3 had many under torqued wires, I went thru and tightened all the visible connections. I did have trouble with the connectors on the stepper drivers burning and discoloring, repaired those and the machine has been relatively trouble free.

[metalmayhem]

I find the connectors on my torus pro drivers break down over time . They'll fry the drivers If i don't change them out every so often . I'm guessing the 1100's get enough power at the drives to do the same ? The mx3660's haven't shown any breakdown or coloring which is good

For the most part the 440's are trouble free but it would be wise to go over everything when they arrive . I'm bad in that sense and I had them cutting as soon as they were pulled out of the crates and powered . I should set aside the time to go over all of them but I can't lie to myself because I know I won't lol

This week was a bit different and and a little frustrating . I'm still doing random air cuts to test it and tomorrow it'll be back to production . Tomorrow I need to order yet another driver to have on hand . I'll blow another at some point and it's always good to have spares rather than have a mill not running for a week or so .
I also like to keep a spindle driver and motor as well as at least one stepper on hand . The steppers are a bit unique since they have the angular contact bearings built into the motor . I'd like to find another source for them but all my web searches have failed me . They are reasonably priced from tormach so I can live with buying them through them

[metalmayhem]

non related anything I've posted here but the work thats gone into this is pretty wild . Maybe a future retirement project just for fun



https://youtu.be/9gMX_hR-RoM?si=AsNsxARiane3ipar