I went into the house for a minute to grab something to eat on a 20 min toolpath.
When I came out the tool was going in weird directions. Now the Y axis is stuttering when I initialize the machine and it stutters a bit when manually moving it quickly by hand with the machine off.
It seems to permanently stutter (in place) when it gets to the back of the Y axis.
I really hope I haven’t damaged something permanent. Any ideas what I can do to resolve this?
I haven’t had it long but it worked perfectly before this. I’m not sure if my laptop went to sleep while I was away from it. I’ll have to make sure it is set to not sleep.
It may just be the Z limit switch that does not register anymore.
Power up the machine but don’t initialize. Go to the Settings page, in the tab that has the “GRBL Active input pins” line. Bring a spanner close to the underside of the Z limit switch (assuming you have been able to back out the Z axis from the upper limit), and check if it registers, it should read “Z” under “GRBL Active Input Pins”. If it doesn’t, go back and inspect the wiring of the Z limit switch
Also, get in touch with support@carbide3d.com so they can follow up with you on this.
Ok, if the Z still registers correctly, but the Z movement during initialization does not stop and grinds at the top of the axis (is this what’s happening ? hard to tell from the video), it may be that the axis meets the mechanical limit a little bit before it would trigger the switch. You may be able to reposition the switch slightly lower, such that it triggers in time.
That, is normal. It’s the motors acting as generators and pushing power back into the controller, just enough for it to wake up and try to lock the motors in place (as it does on a normal power-on). Try and avoid moving the machine manually, and when you have to, do it slowly enough that you don’t get this.
Regarding your problem with the X axis: with the machine turned on, are you able to manually push the gantry to the left or right ? It could be that the X motor pulley slips on the shaft, which would also be consistent with what you described in your initial post (tool moving in weird directions)
Possibly a semi-loose connector in the X motor wiring harness then. Keep an eye on this, and if the X axis misbehaves again, try wiggling its extension wire gently and jog that axis, to detect if there is a poor connection somewhere.
This has happened three times at the same section. I was able to get video of it.
I started the cut on a fresh piece, the first two pockets worked fine (same toolpath as the third).
It only seems to fail when it gets 10-12mm deep in the material at that point.
I edited the toolpath to just be the bottom cavity and started it fresh. It was running fine but I didn’t want to wait for it. So I edited the toolpath to start just above the existing depth. It cut fine for a pass or two but lost x-axis again.
Let’s see what support has to say, but I would probably remove the x belt, remove the X stepper motor, and inspect the pulley set screws there (is one of them still aligned with the shaft’s flat, and are both tight?)
