Hi All,

Another chapter in this epic 3040 journey!!    

Started a nice dimensional file last Friday and got about 75% through it when, whammy!  Strange noises and devastating cross cuts destroyed what was shaping up into a beautiful piece.  

Wellllllll, my Z output has some problems - After about 250k lines of code towards the end (also the first on the machine) my Z motor started chattering and seemed stuck in place, then quit moving entirely, but still let me know it was trying by the guttural groan it kept putting out.

So, I've tested for the following and come up with this:

1)  All motors good - tested all three.
2)  Mach3 Pins and ports good - they remain at the settings that worked initially.
3)  Spindle good.
4)  Get same chatter and non-movement when I hook the z cable up to any motor.

Any thoughts folks?

Joe
469-363-0651

Reduce the Velocity and accel and see if that helps.
Hood

no luck....

How much did you reduce them by? Try reducing the accel by 50%.

roger that - reduced accel 50% to 50 - no luck.

settings that previous worked are

steps 400
velo 700
accel  100

4)  Get same chatter and non-movement when I hook the z cable up to any motor.

Bad drive or cable

ok.   does a bad drive mean a component in the control box or the motor?

It is not going to be the motor if it works fine from another axis, so it will be whatever is in your control box that drives that motor. Do you know what is in the control box?
Hood

it's a 3040 3 axis T-D

afraid that means absolutely nothing to me, if you can provide a link to documentation I can have a look to see what you have but I am not even going to attempt to do a search as I fear I will spend many hours and get nowhere.

Hood