When moving along the Y axis i have a bad vibration and noise.
I have checked tension on belts and all connections. Everything is good. When I remove the belts, the gantry moves smoothly along Y axis.
I have noticed that when I start a movement along the Y axis the right side stepper always seems to start its motion a split second before the left. I’ve also noticed that after a motion is complete, if you gently try to turn the spindle on the right stepper it is solid and will not turn. But if you try to turn the left stepper spindle, it will move 1/8" in both directions.
Is this a bad stepper motor? Any other troubleshooting tips I should be looking at?
I would check belt tensions, and I would unplug connectors and reconnect them. This has happened to me a few times…probably not the stepper motor. But even if it is…you’ll want to look at that first. There is some complete trouble shooting for this on multiple threads. Use the search (magnifying glass on upper right on desktop) and searh “y axis noise”
Check all wiring and connections — is everything secure and in good condition?
Are the pulley set screws securely in place? Put a “witness mark” across the end of the motor shaft/pulley so as to monitor/check for slipping.
Belts securely anchored and well-tensioned?
Power down and slowly/gently move the machine to the center of motion for each axis, then remove both Y-axis belts — are they in good condition?
Power up and connect to the machine and try to initialize — the Z-axis should home as normal, then the machine will try to home the X- and Y-axes — the X-axis should also home as normal, while the Y-axis motors should turn until they time out. Do they turn evenly and in synch?
If it moves when you remove the pully on the Y axis it could also mean your X&Y axis is out of square. Measure corner to corner on your CNC bed to see if the measurements are the same.
Belts, connections, squareness, and levelness were all checked prior to my original post. We have not had any lighting strikes, the machine has not been hit or abused. It’s around 3 months old with about 10 hours on it.
I tried running it today with the belts removed so I could watch the stepper spindles. The right side ran as expected. The left side vibrated (so it’s getting power), but the spindle did not spin.
That seems like a bad stepper motor to me. Am I missing something else?
If one side is vibrating, that sounds like the signal might be inconsistent. If one of the windings isn’t being powered it will result in a jittery mess instead of smooth motion.
My two cents, the connectors of the motor are a far more likely culprit than the motor itself.
Not sure what next steps would be to prove it one way or another besides re-terminating the cables which is kind of annoying (but certainly possible if absolutely necessary )
Maybe other folks will have less annoying ideas to try
Could unplug the stepper motor and attached the connection to a volt meter and see if the out put is sporadic vice consistent during a Y axis move. If you want to you could swap the right and left motors and see if the problem follows?
If swapping cables is simple then that’s a great test step. Assuming the issue follows the stepper it would indicate either a stepper issue or a stepper side cable/connector issue.
If the issue does not follow the stepper I’d think it indicates either a driver/IC issue or a controller side connector issue.
Either way it’s great info to have.
I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to swap stepper connections since I don’t have a Shapeoko. If it’s as simple as swapping two connections, it seems well worth the effort to try
Tried swapping the left and right connections. No change.
Since I’ve removed the belts, it’s clear as day that one motor is working and the other is just vibrating. It’s like there are no teeth on the spindle or motor gears.
Going to open a warranty case with Carbide. Thanks for the help everyone.
I once had a similar problem on my SO3. I was convinced it was the stepper motor despite always reading “the steppers rarely fail”. I had a spare stepper so I swapped it out and the problem remained. Turns out my controller went nuts and had to be replaced.
That was my other thought. The motor has power and is getting the signal to move, but it isn’t moving correctly.
It’s acting like the motor is bad, but nothing has happened to cause damage to the motor. The electronics on the other hand, we’ll electronics never really need a reason to go bad.
Swapping the left and right connections should indicate if it’s stepper side or controller side.
I think maybe “No change” is a bit confusing.
read that as roughly “the same physical stepper was stuttering when I plugged it into the left side and when I plugged it into the right side.”
Swapping the left and right indicated that the wiring is good, the control board is good. By half splitting the problem and the issue remaining with the same side indicates that the problem is between the stepper motor and the remaining mechanical connection(s) (Pully, belt, rollers, rail).
If you wanted to rule out everything except the stepper motor you could swap the left and right stepper motors.
Was just thinking that with troubleshooting, it helps to run through the easiest or least expensive fixes first, and a new motor is a third the price of a new board.
One thing I’d check before pulling the trigger on a replacement motor is to verify that the contact fingers in the motor connector are fully seated in the shell. They lock/click into place. I have had a situation (not a C3D product…) where the connector looked OK, but when I plugged it onto the supply cable, one contact was pushed back in the shell rather than tightly springing against the mating contact in the cable shell, giving the intermittent contact that your symptom sounds like.
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