Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: Settings or machine problem

« on: December 04, 2006, 09:29:19 PM »

Hi John,
Where should I check on the stepper driver for the DC voltage? Should it be 75 volts per axis?
I'll give it a try and let you know what I got!
Thanks every bit helps, we are going to get this problem licked!
Thanks
Greg

42

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 04, 2006, 09:17:39 PM »

Hi,
When I bought the machine the whole box was so hot I wasn't able to touch it, I'm not sure where the heat came from but I suspect that it came from the big round thing in the box not the drivers but I could be wrong. (sorry I'm not sure of the name of all the parts yet)  I added the fans and the box is very cool, but your were talking about dust I don't have filters so I am getting alitte bit of dust in the box, mostly wood dust.

What did you think of the pictures of the wiring for my machine? Does any thing look out of order?
How do you shield the wires? or what is a shielded cable?

I have my power cord for my router with my z axis wire and then my y axis comes together as well, my x axis is separate and I have had the machine mess up in that axis too???

Is the current resistor on the Geckos correct? Can you see it in the pic, I think Hood said it was the right one.

In Windows BIOS my com port 1 is set to EPP, is that right? There is two other settings ECP and Bi-directional.

My baud rate is at 9600, should that be set higher?

I have leadscrews with .1 pitch also with plastic anti-vibration nut just so you know, you asked earlier.

The Gecko drivers  are not mounted on heatsinks or with heat transfer paste, just mounted to aluminum plates.

How do I find out what amps per phase for the steppers? and the limit resistors for the geckos?

It seems like the whole machine screws up all axis freeze up and the motors moan and then they release and the machine is out of location in at least two axis depends on what type of program I'm running.

I know that's alot of questions and statements please spend your time and answer them I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for your time,
Greg

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 04, 2006, 03:53:24 PM »

Hi,
This is the link to some  pictures of  my controller box:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=1396.0

I have posted about this issue before, I would change things and they would seem to get better then after awhile it would mess up again and loose steps.

What do you mean "noise"?  I have heard that having too many things plugged into the same outlet/powerbar can cause problems, is that true?

Thanks,
Greg

44

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 03, 2006, 11:59:25 PM »

Hi,
I will give it a try with enhanced pulse enabled, CV is constant velocity is on, but I can't find Backlash compensation so I'm not sure if it's turned on, I am using Mach2 do you know where to find it.  You want me to run it with exact stop on? I will run the machine tomorrow and will post and tell you what happened.

Brian, My Accel and Vel for my machine are the following:
          Accel          Vel
X axis   7.2225      1.8675
Y axis   7.74         1.838
Z axis   7.47         1.944

What do these numbers mean to you?
Thanks,
Greg

45

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 03, 2006, 12:44:55 PM »

Hi,
Thanks for the replies!

-Enhanced pulsing is not on
-Constant Velocity is on
-Can't find CV mode, I am using Mach2

Here are a few more questions I have that might be an issue:

-In BIOS my com port 1 is set to EPP, is that right? There is two other settings ECP and Bi-directional.
-In Mach 2 com port 1 baud rate is at 9600, should that be set higher? my wire is quite short.
-When I was reading the manual for the stepper driver they were talking about a 5 amp 250 vac  fast acting fuse, my machine keeps blowing them, the fuse is located at the power supply, I am using a 6.3 amp fuse and it hasn't blown yet.  The guys from k2 said it wasn't a problem.  What do you think?

Thanks Brian, I will keep in touch with you, The problem is intermitten, Yesterday I ran two programs one to ruff and semi-ruff then on the third program to semi finish it screwed up and lost location and I ran the program about 4 or 5 times and it kept screwing up. Then it worked on the 6th time, then my finishing program ran fine but I wasn't running it at the feed that I wanted to, because of fear that it would screw up.  I found if I run it fast it screws up more.  This is what it does on a constant basis no specific axis they all screw up at different times. The only thing that I noticed is that all axis freeze up and once it finishes getting to the point it starts back up again out of location.  It depends on how much damage being out of location does decides if my part is scrap.

Thanks guys,
Greg

46

General Mach Discussion / Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 02, 2006, 02:33:39 PM »

Hi,
Can anyone help me! My machine is loosing its location everytime I run a cutter path. This is getting ridiculous   I have a K2 cnc router kt2514. I am running Mach2 and am in the process of switching over to Mach3 but I am having problems with it running smoothly, so for now I am running Mach2.  I am using a P4 2gig with 1 gig of ram for the controller PC, I have 276oz steppers direct drive with couplings and gecko 201 stepper drivers.

My machine screws up and then starts to run again out of location, I have played with the velocity and the acceleration, I was wondering if there could be something wrong with the machine electrically. The stepper controller box gets very very hot so I added fans to cool it. The motors arn't getting hot, and I used WD-40 for the lube on the leadscrews, and when the machine isn't on I can move all three axis with ease by rotating the leadscrew by hand. I have plastic antivibration nuts on all three axis and couplings that I made sure that the fit is good and not binding.

These are my questions:
Can anyone go through the voltages on my stepper drivers to see if there a problem with too much power or something like that?
Should I use grease instead of WD-40 for lubrication? Does anyone have any suggestions?
Any other Ideas that could be the problem I will check them all, I need to get this problem fixed!
I will be checking for posts all day.
Thanks,
Greg.

47

General Mach Discussion / Re: Where to buy linear rails and bearings?

« on: November 17, 2006, 10:38:07 PM »

I guess I mean what is a reasonable price.
Greg

48

General Mach Discussion / Where to buy linear rails and bearings?

« on: November 17, 2006, 08:50:53 PM »

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering where I could find linear rails? I need them 8ft long and bearings to go with them, I am looking for a good price too.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Greg 

49

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / Re: Size of a table..

« on: November 07, 2006, 10:59:27 PM »

Art wrote:
>>A belt drive fixed that, and we found the belt tended to dampen vibration to the extent
that higher acceleration was available without having a resonance problem. (Resonance will lose you steps if the coupling between motor and carriage is too tight.. and belts flex enough
to greatly aid in that. ).<<

About the coupling what did you mean by that?  I have a coupling between the motor and the lead screw and I have been having problems with my machine loosing steps or loosing location. I'm not too sure what is going on but I keep wrecking parts.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Greg

50

General Mach Discussion / Re: What is a good feed rate?

« on: October 28, 2006, 04:24:19 PM »

Thanks for the reply, I just want let you know all the details just so I don't miss telling somthing that might be the problem. I think is screws up at random, I attached a few pics to show you want I mean. 

I can move the machine when the power is off with out a problem. 

I had to add fans to my stepper box because it was getting too hot to touch especially after long period of time, even if it wasn't running. 

What do you think of the Dir pulse being set to 0?

I wonder what Barker thinks of the Driver Test results?

Thanks,
Greg