X Drive Stalls

[RobertP]

Hey guys, I wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone has some ideas or have had a similar situation. A few weeks ago I started getting X drive errors during a carve. I went through all the normal checks, head pressure, drive gears etc..... soon after that it got to where all three axis would not work. Spent some time on the phone with CW and came to the conclusion of the controller board had failed. Ordered a new one and installed it. did a test and all seemed to be good.
Finally fired up the machine today and within ten minutes got another X drive stall. I cleared everything out to make sure the board was straight, the rollers had no obstructions. Put the board back in and when it came time to load my bit in the start up phase, I got the x drive error again. I thought this was very odd to get a drive error at this point. :( Any ideas or thoughts?

[bergerud]

Sandpaper or rubber belts? With the machine off, can you move the belts by hand? (Push with palm of hand on front belt.)

[fwharris]

Do you get the error when running the user test on the X driver? Ran on user options #8.

Make sure you have reformatted and reinstalled the firmware..

[RobertP]

Sandpaper or rubber belts? With the machine off, can you move the belts by hand? (Push with palm of hand on front belt.)


I have rubber belts, and yes I can move the rollers by pushing on them.

[RobertP]

Do you get the error when running the user test on the X driver? Ran on user options #8.

Make sure you have reformatted and reinstalled the firmware..

I did both of those things.

[fwharris]

I did both of those things.


Did you get the stall error during the X drive test? Did you hear/notice any strange sounds
or movements during the test?

[bergerud]

Maybe the original problem was not the controller but the power supply.

Other things: Head level? Rollers above roll smoothly? Squaring plate square? Wood chip in the belt system?

[mtylerfl]

Hi Robert,

Did the CW Tech have you inspect the X-gears under the cover? I wonder if you have a damaged gear. Won't hurt to check just to make sure no teeth are missing, etc.

[lynnfrwd]

How are you getting power to the machine? On it's own circuit? Extension cord? Power strip?

[aokweld101]

I have to agree with Micheal, if the machine had a hard time moving your last project and got caught up somehow it would of tore a tooth up the in plastic gear.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Inspect the X Gearbox... Pictures from 2007.

[RobertP]

Did you get the stall error during the X drive test? Did you hear/notice any strange sounds
or movements during the test?

I did not get a X drive error during the test, no odd sounds at all.

[RobertP]

Maybe the original problem was not the controller but the power supply.

Other things: Head level? Rollers above roll smoothly? Squaring plate square? Wood chip in the belt system?

The head is level, rollers move smoothly and easily. The plate is square and no obstructions in the belt system.

[RobertP]

Hi Robert,

Did the CW Tech have you inspect the X-gears under the cover? I wonder if you have a damaged gear. Won't hurt to check just to make sure no teeth are missing, etc.


I did check the x drive gears and they are in good condition, no missing teeth and everything meshes up fine

[RobertP]

How are you getting power to the machine? On it's own circuit? Extension cord? Power strip?
Lynn, the machine is on its own dedicated 20 amp circuit straight to the outlet, no extension cord or power strip is used. I plugged my other machine in on this line and had no issues.

[RobertP]

I went ahead and took the machine apart again today and just went through it. I made sure the head guide posts were aligned properly. cleaned and lubed everything again and checked the head pressure with a new digital calibrated shipping scale to make sure it was in range, I got a reading of 76lbs.

I also took the belt conveyers out and cleaned them and they are moving freely.

The one thing that puzzles me is why I would get a X drive error in the load bit portion when I was starting a project, that seemed very odd to me being that there was no movement of the x drive during this phase of loading the project.

[mtylerfl]

That is a puzzle, Robert. I was just "sure" you had a mechanical issue with the x-drive, but after you have itemized everything you checked, I am beginning to think it may be electronic after all. Unusual...most issues folks encounter (besides pilot error) are mechanical in nature and easily remedied.

[RobertP]

Funny thing, I am putting the machine back together and did the x drive test and am now getting errors in the test mode.. I need to pull the x drive motor and give a it a bench test....

[RobertP]

UPDATE! Pulled the X drive motor today and plugged it into my other machine, did the x drive test and got the error. Bad motor obviously right? Nope........decided to pull it apart and guess what I found, the wire harness connector behind the back plate on the inside of the housing was loose. Snapped it back in all the way and put a dab of adhesive on it, retested it and it works......... something to surely check out completely for anyone in the future goes and buys a new motor!

[henry1]

Glade you got it and its nice to know what can go wrong thx for the info

[bergerud]

That is a new one. Good going.