Sounds like a church organ

Newbee, I picked up a 2018 XXL which ran fine when tested before purchasing. When I set it up in my shop it makes a strange sound when both the X and Y are working at the same time. Sounds like a church organ scaling up and down. The unit also seemed to really struggle with doing a circle.
No router was connected or running as this was just during start up testing.
The v wheels all seem fine, and nothing seems to bind when I move the axis by hand,
I am using Motion 3 vs 5 as the laptop I have is still windows 7. I know,
Questions:
Could this be a software issue with as I believe the machine runs GRBL 1.1
Could it be an issue with the power supplied
Thanks for any help

Not to discount any actual issue that may exist, but I have to mention one thing. 99.9% of the time when my cnc is operating, I have a 6hp shop vac running next to me, the router screaming, and the dust filter going. Sometimes my Worktunes on also. So it was interesting the first time I ever did any ā€œofflineā€ testing, operating only the cnc in a dead quiet shop at night, while I was learning grbl. I heard noises I wasn’t expecting, but made sense… like the steps of the stepper motors on the different axes. The slower the motor moves, the lower the pitch and vice versa. A circle or arc will move both the x and y, but depending where in the path, the specific motor along that axis will be going faster or slower, changing the pitch along the way. When I did my rapid positions in axial directions, they sounded fine… just some science happening.

Maybe your issue is something completely different. Out-of-square machine, eccentric nuts or belts too tight, or something else. Just another thought.

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I realize most people might never hear anything over the router and dust collection. Still seems odd, and have never heard anything like it when watching any video. Today will try a clean power line to the unit and see if it makes any difference. I have a bunch of led lights on the same circuit and sometimes they can be a problem.

I’d guess that what you’re hearing is normal. The steppers are very musical.
My students love when I make our 3D printers play songs. I’ll play one on my SO3 tonight…any requests?

Is the motion struggling? What’s the evidence of that?

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Note that you can make specific sounds out of the machines using

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I’m sure we’ve all seen the ā€˜Imperial March’ version on floppys, but I’m an 80’s fan :joy::
ā€˜Take On Me’

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Yep,

There’s a distinct sound to an adaptive ramp & clear, especially on the big machines which is immediately recognisable. The tune the machine plays is the best way to know if it’s happy or not.

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This would be great!

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