Motor Hum at Idle, Red/Green Blinking Light on Board - Normal Behavior?

CNC Machines Shapeoko
1

Hi All.

Just completed a new Shapeoko build. Machine appeared fine. X, Y, and Z jogged as instructed.

But, after loading and successfully starting and stopping a simple design (no material, not running router, end mill always above wasteboard), a few issues appeared after attempting to rerun the design. I’ve been googling away at this, so I hope posting this might get me better informed.

I’m unsure if I have homed the machine properly. Setting shows, "1005 Shapeoko has homing = falseCarbides "Working with Home " page isn’t loading.

http://docs.carbide3d.com/article/80-working-with-homing

I just want to ensure I haven’t screwed up my day-old machine.

  1. Machine now runs at Y to the bar’s end, chatters and stops. Limit switch issue?

  2. When idle, machine makes a humming noise at Y1, as if motor is under load. This sound was not present when I first started ran the design. If Y1 is unplugged, sound stops. Normal for a machine at idle?

  3. When Carbide Motion is run, machine’s board has additional red & green blinking light, below blue. These new lights stop when CM is closed. All motors can be jogged. Just proof of communication between program and machine?

  4. The log continually shows an increased message count when machine is idle. Normal?

2

1 - probably you have the X and Y axis switches reversed — this happens fairly often

2 - some humming is inherent in how stepper motors work — they actually work hardest, consuming more energy to maintain position, they’re weird.

3 - yes, the blinky lights seem to be suppressed once communication is made — I guess to save energy / processor time / preserve the lights

4 - yes, it used to be that the Log window would scroll up endlessly w/ repeated statements of the current position when it wasn’t moving, now it only reports the first instance, then only increments the count

3

Will,

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.