Z-axis stall E06-0228

[unitedcases]

Alright guys, got another one for you. I just got out of the desert, (AGAIN), so of course I head straight to the machine. I rebuilt the vertical bearings on the truck, smooth as glass now. Put my new 3/16 bit in and went at it. Carved a project, no problems. I thought, "Thank You sir, Can I have another?" So I commence project #2, I get about a minute into it and I get the aforementioned z-axis stall, the bit just dove south and stopped, thank god it didnt try to move itself from there. So I try again, and again, and again. 4 times, about a minute into the carve. So I took it apart, blew it out again, checked all cables and everything else that is in there, the only thing I found was a little dust in the encoder so obviously I got rid of that. I forgot to mention I had the same type error before I went to the desert, and I found the faulty bearings. So anyway, on the 5th time as it was measuring the board thickness, it dove straight south and gave me the error. I did upgrade to 1.179 and I did manually adjust the thickness in designer to 1.5, which is the height of my sled plus project, which is what I had to do the first time I carved today. I am clueless. My shed temp reads about 90 degrees, I am hoping that it is just a little too warm and thats all there is to it. However we all know that it can carve in alot hotter areas than that.

[unitedcases]

So.........I go out after the shed cooled off a bit just to see if it would work, thinking maybe the heat was too much. Definitely not. I hit start and as the z truck came towards the keypad in its pre carve homing, it dived south again. Anybody got any ideas? I have a spare thin cable that goes into the back of the z truck. But I remember something happening like this a long time ago and I ended up getting one of the fatter cables, Maybe I should just get all three?

[Digitalwoodshop]

WELCOME HOME !!!!!! THANK YOU !!!!

I think you are on the right track.... The wide FFC Cable is BAD..... IF while driving down the encoder pulses stop getting to the computer, the head will keep going and drive into the board.... So your on the right track.....

Next is a problem that we had in 2007.... The Z Encoder little solder pads that carry the encoder pulses from the circuit board to the cable would fracture at the circular pad where the lead left the pad... See photo of a good Encoder..... This was a common failure in my Sony Days on the Work Bench... Connector Plugs to circuit boards..... The round pad would move due to stress and snap the connection of the circle to the lead on the board.... Check with a magnifying glass.... After posting picture 4.... Easier said than done....

But the bad FFC Cable would be my first choice...

Good Luck.

Hope you got LOTS of Orders.... And Hope that bit makes a difference in carving time... I am running a 3 hour project making 4 handles for my Canadian Customer.

AL

[unitedcases]

We arent talking about the flat one in the back of the z-truck, correct? We are talking about the two that are going into the circuit board, that actually has clips on it?
-Break-

Yes, I have tons of orders and I go on leave on wednesday for two weeks, and guess what I planned on doing?
Thanks again Al, You are definitely the best!

[lawrence]

Nothing to add except-

Welcome home Gunnery Sergeant. Hopefully you get up and running again quickly.

Lawrence

[unitedcases]

Well, as usual, Al nailed it. The 14 pin cable was bad. It has a short that occurs around the time the truck gets close to the keypad side of the machine. I had a spare and put it on and it was bad as well. So I needed to order some parts anyway, so I will be ordering a few of those since they are cheap and that is a common cable that goes out.

[unitedcases]

I wanted to elaborate on this 14 pin FFC cable that I found bad. One of the things that Al pointed out was the fact that the truck driving straight down was a sign that the encoder wasnt getting a signal. So what had happened: If you look at the FFC cable where it comes out of the stationary circuit board you will notice the first bend, right after that bend was where I had a short, by moving the Z truck up and down with the sensor checks on I kept moving the cable til it stopped reading. It is weird in the fact that there really isnt a lot of movement in that particular area but I wanted to make sure that I layed out what I found in the event someone ran into something similar.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Great Job finding it.... To troubleshoot it, I asked him to lower the head into the bottom stop. Then select the Z data. You should get 0000. You can do this at the top mechanicAL stop too and you will get 0000 when you select the Z Data.... Then you move the head to the opposite stop and note that number. That is the number of pulses from one end to the other.... Now slowly move the head to the far end and at the same time move the big flat FFC Cable. IF you have a broken wire or a shorted wire when you move the cable at the same time as you move the head you will loose some pulses... So if you move it back to the top or bottom and get a NEW number than the FFC Cable is bad.... This is the case if the 2 wires that have the Encoder Pulses are broken... IF a POWER to the Z Motor is broken then you will see no change in the Z numbers moving it manually... BUT you will get a Z Stall....

GOOD JOB !!!!

AL

Midnight... Done for the night.... A few days work.... 15 trays of Tags... 5 orders. Next Accountability Boards...

[unitedcases]

All,
The ffc cable was bad. I made sure to buy extras. When getting the z stall, more like when your bit dives, you should definitely check the ffc cable. Also. You should regularly oil the vertical roller bearings on the z truck to help prevent the stalls as well.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Good JOB !!!!

AL