Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: NOOB Alert (MACH4 & 57CNC Issues)

« on: June 09, 2019, 07:00:09 PM »

Update: Replaced Z stepper and seems to have helped the issue.  Connections are all soldered, however I am still apprehensive over how robust this is going to be.

Now we are having issues with losing connection to the Pokeys.  Tried dry-running some Gcode and in both Mach4 and Mach3 the program stalls out because of a lost connection.  Has anyone else experienced this?  We REALLY need to get this fixed tonight.  Creeping towards desperation mode...

Wondering why all this seems so fragile.  Mach4 will literally hang up on Gcode, tries re-establishing a connection (which sometimes happens) and then the Mach4 software will randomly just crash.  The software is licensed, etc.  And, still trying to get Go To Zero to work (that's a different issue entirely, which I believe has been covered here)

Are my expectations too high to get this working?  Is this setup robust and we are just doing something wrong?

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: NOOB Alert (MACH4 & 57CNC Issues)

« on: June 09, 2019, 03:21:43 PM »

The Pokeys 57CNC is the motion controller, then I have the 3 steppers driven by these stepper motor drivers:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5VPSFN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The drivers work well, I am just confused on why DIR switches on its own.  If you look at the video, when the Z carriage hits the vertical max instead of crashing, it just changes direction on its own.

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: NOOB Alert (MACH4 & 57CNC Issues)

« on: June 09, 2019, 12:40:50 PM »

This machine has no limit switches or homing, so it is weird that it changes direction all on its own, sometimes at the extents of motion, sometimes in the middle of travel when clicking "Z+" multiple times in succession...

4

Mach4 General Discussion / NOOB Alert (MACH4 & 57CNC Issues)

« on: June 09, 2019, 12:39:56 PM »

OK, Mach4 is up and running and I got some motion.  STILL issues with Z doing its own thing in regards to direction, guessing this might be a setting in Mach?

Video: https://youtu.be/rvbayc26z-c

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: NOOB Alert (and 6040 Issues)

« on: June 05, 2019, 07:37:11 AM »

OK OK, new motion controller on the way (57CNC) and am getting Mach 4 on the machine today...  Then we can start to hunt gremlins.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: NOOB Alert (and 6040 Issues)

« on: June 04, 2019, 10:02:39 AM »

Wondering if the RnR motion controller I have would interface with Mach 4...

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: NOOB Alert (and 6040 Issues)

« on: June 04, 2019, 09:29:42 AM »

Yes, of course.  I wanted to ask about why not go directly with Mach4?

I would really like to get this machine reliable!

8

General Mach Discussion / NOOB Alert (and 6040 Issues)

« on: June 03, 2019, 09:33:42 PM »

Hi Everyone, hoping I can stop pulling my hair out by accepting some grains of knowledge from this forum.

I bought a cheapo 6040 CNC off ebay, and have been fighting the good fight ever since receiving it.  Let me preface this with: I am planning on doing all my own in house machining of plastic parts eventually, and bought this as a learning tool first and foremost. However, now I'm in a bind and I need the machine to work...

1) Running Windows 7, CAM from Solidworks CAM, replacement motor controller with one from buildyourcnc.com (Mach3 USB card) so I could hook it up via USB.

2) I got some parts from the machine! Machine seemed to be running fine after about 2 weeks of chasing issues. 

3) Y axis started going haywire, so I replaced the stock stepper driver with a unit from Amazon (Stepperonline brand).  Back up and running and cutting parts!

4) Z axis started going haywire shortly after (maybe 1 week).  Bought 3 additional stepper drivers from Amazon, replaced both X and Z, did nothing to help Z (did X as a precaution). 

5) Notable things after replacing Z driver: Sometimes getting loud high pitched whining.  Sometimes it responds fine and smoothly, sometimes it doesn't, seems super strange because to me I can't find any pattern causing the behavior.  I switch the motor outputs (plugged Y output into Z cable running to Z motor) and had the same issues... Tried multiple options on the stepper driver, but that was not fixing anything. The really weird thing is I got SOME perfect parts, but it it just too risky running the machine, because it seemingly gets possessed and crashes into the bed.  Not fun.

So now I'm scratching my head and can't think of the next step to troubleshoot.  I tried 2 different stepper drivers, checked all the wiring (about 349234 times) even removed connectors on the line running to the stepper motor and soldered them directly.  Still no dice. 

Here are some links to videos showing some of the issues:

https://youtu.be/e4TLtnLNhSo

https://youtu.be/Ia9ZrSLn7OQ

https://youtu.be/GIGLJtxoREw

https://youtu.be/cUlq18SzwS8

So, I'm kind of frustrated right now, but I understand this is how these things are...