Not Homing to Z axis

Tried to carve a project today. Got error message with "Z Homing axis problem. With Machine off everyting moves freely but still get error message and machine will not proceed.
Causes? Cures?
Running current version of software. Ran project yesterday

Bad FFC Cable.

What does FFC stand for? Never heard it mentioned before.

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Originally Posted by MRcarvey

What does FFC stand for? Never heard it mentioned before.

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Flat whit ribbon cable that is attached to the back of the Z truck.

The cable will flex and flex and eventually the flat copper between plastic snaps like taking a piece of copper wire and bending and bending.... With the plastic it will let the ends touch then as the head moves in "Y" the ends don't touch... This leads to confusing symptoms of the Z working then not...

While your ordering 2 cables one for a spare I would order one of 2 sets of Cut Motor Brushes for that 250 cut hour change. Much cheaper than snapping a $40.00 bit when the brushes get too short and stall. Plus you save on shipping...

PS: And don't forget to get some 685ZZ Bearings for your Y Gearbox to swap at 250 hours too... http://www.vxb.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=685zz

The ENCODER on the back of the Z can get DIRTY. It is just a disk with lines on it that block the sensor making pulses as seen when you call up the Z Data on the LCD.

The Encoder wheel can also spin FREE of the motor shaft, as has been posted many times. A drop of super glue fixes that.

Good Luck,

AL

I knew that - I wondered what the acronym meant.

Thanks to all of you who responded. Since I live in Houston I carried it to LHR. Long story short I had several sensors going bad and the belts were cracked. TheZ axis had a couple of teeth missing which was causing the truck to stall in the top position. Also apparently the white lithium grease I was using is no longer recommended. They say it gums up the gears and causes head problems when cold. They are using a 3 in 1 oil with a marine grade grease combo. I am having them do a complete maintainence check and fix.
Will be glad to have it back.

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Originally Posted by MRcarvey

I knew that - I wondered what the acronym meant.

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Flat Flex Cable

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Originally Posted by mtylerfl

Flat Flex Cable

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Thanks MT :)

I did not even know the answer to that question... :)

AL

Flexible flat cable, or FFC, refers to any variety of electrical cable that is both flat and flexible, usually referring to the cable attached to the Z-truck