Does anyone here know why my Z axis motor would begin to turn only 1 direction? I’m not sure if it is a setting issue, or a firmware problem. It was working fine on Chilipeppr for a while (I have a Tinyg controller), but began to jog only toward the table. I also tried it on cncjs and it worked correctly once, then it began doing the same thing there.
My bet would be some sort of mechanical issue. Does it rotate by hand?
There is a bug i’ve seen before where after configuring tinyg, the axis moves the wrong direction on first move, but is always correct after that. Could it possibly be that?
Initially, I too thought it was mechanical, because it made a shuddering sound, but when I checked the axis everything moved smoothly and everything appeared okay, and I couldn’t figure out why the motor would try to move in the opposite direction.
Maybe the wiring came loose? I hate to think it’s a gremlin in the code…
@jlauer Unfortunately, it continued to move in the wrong direction. Interestingly, I tried to use it on cncjs after I couldn’t get it to work on Chilipeppr, and it turned the right way the first time I brought it up, but then it began doing the same thing there, as well. I’ve been trying to reinstall the firmware, but I’ve got to go back and see how I installed it the first time. I tried to flash the updated firmware from ChiliPeppr, but after it appeared that it had flashed the update, the message stated that it could not find my TinyG.
I’ll let you know if it gets corrected after I reinstall the firmware.
Perhaps the pot on the tinyG is not delivering enough power to "lift: the Z-axis. I believe you said it sill go only towards the table. Try adjusting the motor pot for the Z-axis.
That was something I thought about since it was making the shuddering sound. Unfortunately, turning up the pot didn’t have any effect.
I wish I could upload a video to show what was happening. But, all I see on G+ is attach photo.
When testing for smooth operation of the z-axis (I assume it is a screw drive)you need to be sure and check it at the top and bottom as that is where most binding happens, in my experience.
When I pulled it up today, it has moved upward. I don’t know if it will change when I start running an operation.
George, if easy to do, disconnect the motor from the coupling (pull the allen screws, slide off the coupling) to see if motor by itself will rotate.
Do you use homing and soft limits? Is $sl=0 (soft limits off) ?
Can we assume you were able to reinstall firmware?
If not, you might just execute a $defa=1 to restore default parameters and refresh all of EEPROM, in case of EEPROM corruption of some sort. You will have to restore all parameters after that command executes
Okay, if it begins that during the next run, I’ll definitely do that.
@jlauer When I pulled it up today, it has moved upward. I don’t know if it will change when I start running an operation.
Under powered?
Ok guys, thanks for everyone’s input. It was a short in the wiring of my z-axis motor. I tried all the other fixes and still had the problem. I went to the Synthetos website and under trouble shooting the administrator stated that two users had reported unusual motor movements and crashes which were later attributed to a short or wiring problems which subsequently affected the programmer. I checked and surely enough, one wire had been pulled from another where it had been heat wrapped around. After soldering the wires back together, the issue seems to be resolved. No problem with the firmware or program!
Sent from a Certified Braves Fan
Thanks for sharing the solution!