I purchased a Shapeoko 3 during the Black Friday sale and am just now getting a chance to set it up. Everything has gone fine so far but now I have a problem that I think is related to squaring the machine…but want to be sure before I go charging in a break something.
X and Z travel is very smooth and quiet but Y travel is very noisy. The only thing I can find is that the gantry will be against the rear right-hand support but there is a small gap on the left side. What I want to know is:
Is that gap the cause of the noise?
If no, what is causing the noise and how do I fix it?
I’ve followed the instructions for squaring the frame as best I can but the problem won’t go away. Any suggestions?
The machine being slightly out of square should not cause any noise on the Y travel. How large is that residual gap on the left side ? For your information, a relatively easy way to get rid of that gap is to use shimming, either between the side plates and the X extrusion (I captured a few notes on this here), or by adding a thin washer to the Y wheels to achieve the same effect
Now about that noise, any chance you could capture a short video of that ?
Does it happen when moving the machine manually with power off, or when jogging, or both ?
I would first inspect ALL v-wheels (top and bottom of the left and right Y plates) on the Y rails. You may have a dented wheel. Did you also check if the eccentric nuts were all set properly (i.e. not too tight against the rail)?
the link worked thanks. That small gap (related to unperfect squaring) is not a matter of concern, and not the source of your issue.
How does the Y movement feel when you move the gantry manually with power turned off ?
EDIT: when you move it SLOWLY I mean (moving fast will cause induced current to temporarily power the stepper drivers, and you would feel “bumps” that are not there in reality)
Afterthought: you problem reminded me of a recent post :
the reason was a miswiring at factory of one motor connector (two wires were swapped). I wonder (this is far fetched!) if maybe one of your Y motors is wired correctly and works ok, while the second Y motor would be wired incorrectly, and produce this sound (but since your gantry IS moving, that would mean the OK motor would still have enough power to move the gantry fighting against the faulty motor…told you this was far fetched). Anyway, my point is, check whether the wire colors are in the same order on each motor connector at controller side, to at least rule out this possibility.
Fenrus, I’ve tried loosening and then re-tightening the eccentric nuts using a technique from a Youtube video (which I now cannot find) that basically said, “reach under the rail and turn the wheel with your fingers. Then tighten them until they just stop turning.”
I see what you mean about moving it slowly. Anything other than very slowly by hand causes jerking. But when I do move the gantry forward and back VERY slowly, it moves smoothly.
Don’t know if this matters or not but on a whim, I loosened the Y belts and the sounds/vibration got better. It didn’t go away but it did decrease.
Now I’m off to check the wiring per your 2nd reply.
For the wiring — all wiring extensions should be straight through, and all wiring connectors should be consistent, stepper motors may be reversed in several ways:
swap the left and right pair of wires
reverse the ordering of the wires in the left or the right pair
Are you able to tell by ear or feel where the sound originates from, i.e. if you (carefully…) put your hands on the left motor and right motor during jogging Y a bit, does it feel different ? If this is the case and you then swap Y1 and Y2 at board level, does the problem follow the swap ?
since you loosened the belts anyway, you could maybe try to remove them (both) alltogether (after you homed successfully, that is…). If the sound is still there, you will know for a fact that something is wrong in the wiring. I know this test would be a pain in the neck, as it is not super fun to slide those belts back through the belts and pulleys afetrwards…
I pulled the belts and things got very quiet…except for an uneven sound coming from the right Y stepper motor. So I took a look and it wasn’t turning reliably. The left Y stepper seems fine.
The left stepper turns well and will continue to turn against light pressure from my fingers. The right one stalls at the same light pressure. Check this video. I tried reversing the Y connectors on the controller and the problem followed the connector, not the stepper motor. On a guess, I’ve got a bad driver or other problem on the controller board.
Unless you can suggest another solution, looks like I get to use my warranty…which bites since I was planning on using my time off between now and New Years to play with my new toy.
If you mean it followed the on-board connector, i.e. than after swapping Y1 and Y2 the problem moved to your left motor, then yes it seems like the board may be faulty. Bummer
If you didn’t already you should contact Carbide 3D support, they’ll take care of you.
I’m assuming you checked the wiring at the controller. The wire that seems to be the issue, insure it is plugged in correctly. And for that matter, check vs the other two and insure that it is wired correctly. (could be wrong on that end.) It does sound like issue with wiring, not necessarily the controller. Just a thought.
I swapped the Y stepper connections and the problem swapped sides. The wires are the same on all four connectors so it’s not a mis-wired connection. Re-seating the connectors didn’t fix the problem. That pretty much leaves the controller.
Would seem you’ve narrowed it down to the wiring extension - I’d suggest marking the “good” one, then comparing it pin by pin to the “bad” one. I’ve also seen that the sockets can sometimes be not seated properly in the connector, so give each a tug (a tug - think monkey, not gorilla).
I’ve compared the wiring in the connectors and they’re all identical. And swapping the connections for the Y steppers made the problem move to the other stepper. So the problem isn’t the wiring. Plus, swapping the connections was also re-seating them so it’s not a loose connector. And if one wire was loose in a connector, the problem would have followed that connector and not stayed with port on the controller.
If it were a wiring extension, the problem would have stayed on the same motor (unfortunately, the differing lengths of wiring complicates such trouble-shooting since it’s not possible to swap the Y-axis wiring extension from one motor to the other).
If possible, we ask that folks use a multimeter to check the wiring extensions and motor wiring for continuity.
