In the middle of running my project it stopped. Oddly, it was in the middle of the workspace but had a hard limit alarm. Reset back to zero and the Z motor starting acting up. It no longer travels up or down, although when activated the router starts to pull the carriage downward. The motor is making a grinding noise and sort of stutters in movement. The video should show trying to move it down by 0.1 inch. And then trying upwards.
I don't see how this could be possible since it's been running just fine for days of use and nothing has changed or been added... But, I'll look over everything again.
Someone here (can't find the post now to give credit) has the brilliant saying "Wiring is always fine until it isnt anymore"! Its true though, connections wiggle loose, get knocked out and unplug, or wires can break under all the back and forth, particularly at points where strain relief, radius of routing, etc was not sufficient
Wiring can be fine - until it's not. Vibration can shake connections loose, constant flexing of wires can break them - sometimes inside the insulation where the break can't be seen. Faulty motors are very uncommon, but wiring problems feature here on a regular basis. Good luck in finding the issue! Alex.
Continuity is present for both pairs of coils. I also swapped the X and Z inputs at the black box to see if that made a difference - it did not. Additionally, all other motors are warm to the touch and I can feel a slight vibration, except for the Z motor.. That one is cool to the touch and has no vibration
Did you include extension cabling in your check? Measuring continuity through both motor coils - already proves the motor is fine. Swopping motors proved the controller is fine. In between you only have wiring The motor won't warm up as much if only one coil is powered, and the other isn't due to a wiring break, further confirming what we suspect. Keep in mind the break could be intermittent - only losing connection when tugged on for example
One more test - by swapping the connectors at the blackbox end you were using the same cable - try using a different cable between the blackbox and the Z stepper. Alex.
I'm chalking this up to gremlins. I swapped the wires at the X motor itself with the Z and everything worked. Swapped them back and all is well in the world. To include hearing the static whine of the z motor at rest.... Ran the machine back and forth to the limits and nothing is amiss. Here's hoping it doesn't happen midstream again
I would not. Whatever is loose / broken will reoccur - most likely several hours into an expensive job in the near future ruining a workpiece or breaking a bit. The symptom did happen - go over the wiring, tighten all terminals, check for places where you may have pinched insulation into the terminals, and in case the wire itself broke off somewhere inside - get some spare wiring on hand so you can quickly replace it next time it happens. Gremlins aren't real - intermittent wiring faults caused by wear and tear on the other hand - very real
I'm going to order an extra harness... But I have tugged and touched everything...im going set a mock job and let it move around while doing the same thing but that will have to wait until this massive storm hits and moves on
