Ian Stewart-Koster
Older Greyer Brushie
I'm a bit of a 'fix it yourself' person wherever possible. Burning out servos and drives diagnosing the problems and getting them going again with our cnc router has been an interesting adventure- and no problems in the last 18 months, touch wood! That was all a servo control system.
However, I recently bought a laser engraver. 2nd hand. 45 watt. Made by Universal Systems in USA.
It was built in 2002, but the tube was renewed in 2012.
This runs on stepper motors.
All was fine, till tonight, and suddenly the Y axis movement failed to happen.
If you go into XY setup, homing and set a new origin, you can drive the lens all over the bed along the X axis, but it groans and gurgles and struggles when you try to move it in Y direction.
It eventually won't go any further as it's convinced you're at one of the limits, when in fact it's sitting in the middle of the bed.
I got into diagnostics for the motors and it said Y error.
I rebooted it, and in diagnostics is said X & Y: OK.
I tried to steer it around the bed - and same problem - little or no activity in Y direction.
The timing belt is fine.
The gears are OK.
The stepper motor is OK - I swapped it with another, and the juddering and groaning happened to that one also- leaving me thinking it's electronic, somehow.
There's no difference between booting it up connected to the PC, or starting it not connected at all - and trying to use the arrow keys to test the axes...
I turned it off again, twice, and rehomed it, and all was good for 5 minutes, then back to tricks again.
I was wondering if anyone here might have had something with similar issues, and knows a possible solution?
Tomorrow I'll take a torch inside it and see if there's a loose lead half-plugged in, or something.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
However, I recently bought a laser engraver. 2nd hand. 45 watt. Made by Universal Systems in USA.
It was built in 2002, but the tube was renewed in 2012.
This runs on stepper motors.
All was fine, till tonight, and suddenly the Y axis movement failed to happen.
If you go into XY setup, homing and set a new origin, you can drive the lens all over the bed along the X axis, but it groans and gurgles and struggles when you try to move it in Y direction.
It eventually won't go any further as it's convinced you're at one of the limits, when in fact it's sitting in the middle of the bed.
I got into diagnostics for the motors and it said Y error.
I rebooted it, and in diagnostics is said X & Y: OK.
I tried to steer it around the bed - and same problem - little or no activity in Y direction.
The timing belt is fine.
The gears are OK.
The stepper motor is OK - I swapped it with another, and the juddering and groaning happened to that one also- leaving me thinking it's electronic, somehow.
There's no difference between booting it up connected to the PC, or starting it not connected at all - and trying to use the arrow keys to test the axes...
I turned it off again, twice, and rehomed it, and all was good for 5 minutes, then back to tricks again.
I was wondering if anyone here might have had something with similar issues, and knows a possible solution?
Tomorrow I'll take a torch inside it and see if there's a loose lead half-plugged in, or something.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
