Edge sensor failure

[dholzric]

Just finished up one side of a guitar neck and flipped over the board and i keep getting errors with the edge sensor. I ran the diagnostic and am getting a 0 for the sensor. Is this likely the sensor, the ribbon cable or something else?

[Digitalwoodshop]

This could be a simple fix... The sensor is like headlights in the night..... Lights on... Nothing in front of you... You don't even know the lights are on...... Put a reflector in front of you and the headlights reflect back and you see them.

So place a piece of white copy paper on the board and crank it down.... Place the head over the paper and you should read 156. If you read less.... say.... 90.... Then it could be as simple as a dirty lens on the board sensor.... wipe lens and back to carvng.....

SO say it is much less.... If ZERO.... Then it could be a pinched wire.... both times I had the pinched wire it also disabled the left cover switch and moving the Z, got no Z Data on the LCD. It shorted the data buss to ground.

It could also be that both LED's snapped off.... the Early Board Detectors had a problem with the LED's or lights snapping off... LHR Glued the green board to the black holder and solved that problem....

TO fix a dirty inside lens, I use a knife and cut down the back of the board detector and then pull the window out ad clean it... You can see in the picture in the upper right that one sensor has a broken off LED.

There is a receiver between the 2 LED's that See's the reflective light.

We use white paper as it gives a standard.... Board colors can be different... The paper idea was my idea. A standard.... so my 156 is the same as your 156.... I got so frustrated in the beginning with different color boards.... One LED broken will still work but give you many errors....

AL

[dholzric]

I bet it's the wire. I had a problem with the cover switch not working a while back and then it started working again.

[Digitalwoodshop]

IF it is the Wire.... A temp fix is to tug the wire UP from the top, removing it from contact from the metal edge... It slides down the track on a sharp edge that with vibration cuts the insulation. Getting rid of the QC helps too.... That is where the jack hammer vibration is coming from.

AL

[dholzric]

My QC died quite a while back and I replaced it with the RockChuck. Do I have to remove the whole z axis to change out the wire? Is there room to put heat shrink tubing around the wires when I replace them so this doesn't happen again?

Thanks.

[Digitalwoodshop]

You could try, but there is only a small channel in the back. Replacing the plastic channel cover with tape would be a better fix.... The PINCH point is the problem.... Only screws on one side of the track... The open side lets the wires slide down the sharp edge when you pull the slack to change the board sensor....

A better idea is after replacing the board sensor is to pull the slack UP on the top.

AL

[dholzric]

No luck. I pulled up the wire a bit but still a zero reading. I also tried replacing the wire and sensor (from the top so i don't have to remove the z axis) and it still gives a zero reading. Any other likely problems?



Thanks,


Dan

[Digitalwoodshop]

Did you slice down the back of the plastic sensor to see if both LED's are broken off?

You can shine a powerful light on the board and see if it see's the reflective light....

Could be a bad FSC Cable too..... Try reading the Z Data and see if it changes from 0000 to numbers....

AL

[dholzric]

I tried a brand new sensor and cable. I'll check the fsc cable next.

[Digitalwoodshop]

You could flip the FSC Cable end for end and the symptoms should change... Like a stalled Z Motor....

Do the Z Encoder Test... It will tell if the data buss is working.....

AL