Hi All,
I've just experienced a drive failure on the X-axis of my Series 2 PCNC1100.
I was running a longish program ( ~2 hours ), and on the second component when I returned to the machine it was misplaced in "X" but continuing to run, and with that worrying aroma of hot electronics in the air.
I stopped and re-booted but to no avail - no motion at all on the X-axis.
A quick inspection of the stepper drive showed signs of failure on the motor connector, at the B+ connection. A fault appears to have caused a rapid over-current with burn/smoke marks on the connector. Disassembly of the drive board showed that the pcb solder joint had also catastrophically failed with more scorching around the area.
I checked the phase resistances of the x-motor, and both returned a figure around 0.6 Ohms, which tallied with those of the other motors on the machine so I assumed that the motor was probably OK. I also wiggled the x-axis motor lead in its conduit to try and detect any shorts, but there was no change on the meter when I did that.
I was fortunate to have a spare drive from the 4th axis kit that I never got round to fitting so took the plunge and swapped in the new drive to immediate success.
Does anybody have any suggestions to possible failure modes other than.
1. Intermittent short in the motor wires.
2. General failure of the pcb unrelated to other components - age/condensation etc.
3. Intermittent short in the motor.
Thanks for reading.
I've just experienced a drive failure on the X-axis of my Series 2 PCNC1100.
I was running a longish program ( ~2 hours ), and on the second component when I returned to the machine it was misplaced in "X" but continuing to run, and with that worrying aroma of hot electronics in the air.
I stopped and re-booted but to no avail - no motion at all on the X-axis.
A quick inspection of the stepper drive showed signs of failure on the motor connector, at the B+ connection. A fault appears to have caused a rapid over-current with burn/smoke marks on the connector. Disassembly of the drive board showed that the pcb solder joint had also catastrophically failed with more scorching around the area.
I checked the phase resistances of the x-motor, and both returned a figure around 0.6 Ohms, which tallied with those of the other motors on the machine so I assumed that the motor was probably OK. I also wiggled the x-axis motor lead in its conduit to try and detect any shorts, but there was no change on the meter when I did that.
I was fortunate to have a spare drive from the 4th axis kit that I never got round to fitting so took the plunge and swapped in the new drive to immediate success.
Does anybody have any suggestions to possible failure modes other than.
1. Intermittent short in the motor wires.
2. General failure of the pcb unrelated to other components - age/condensation etc.
3. Intermittent short in the motor.
Thanks for reading.