repair or replace?

[hollyfeneht]

using my cnc machine.... made a mistake. very valuable, somewhat expensive, lessons being learned. the first question is in regards to the x axis, which with mach 3 seems to be going the opposite direction of what its told. secondly, unpluged one of the stepper motors, yes, neglected to read the stepmaster nc 4 axis label that says not to. needless to say its no longer working. is there anyone who knows how it can be repaired? if so, how? and if not any recommendations on what other options i have when looking to buy a new one? it would be hooked up to a taig micro mill. ive tried to contact stepmaster, it goes to voice mail...will try to email them as well but any help would be much appreciated.

[paulC]

Not familiar with the stepmaster product but you have proberbly taken out the stepper controller IC for this axis. Should be a fairly straight forward process to replace but you will need to get the replacement chip. Should be much cheaper than replacing the board. Contacting Stepmaster is your first task.
Paul

[hollyfeneht]

good to hear that it might be cheaper than i imagined. is possible to short the other axises even if i didnt unplug those? I will try turning it on to confirm, but stepmaster has neglected to return phone calls.... via email maybe. thank you

[hollyfeneht]

it makes a sound when i turn it on but i can not move in any direction even though i only "messed up" the x axis....

[bcromwell]

Thats normal, When you blow up the axis chip of one axis the others quit working.. It has happened twice to me.. Different Mfgs board but cost me about 40$ to repair IRC.

Oh and the Mach3 is a configuration issue, change the direction pin to the oppsite of what it is now, if high change to low if low change to high. But only to the axis(s) that are reversed. (When you get your board fixed that is)

Bryan

[hollyfeneht]

as good as news as i could get in regards to cost. if i may ask, why did you have to replace the IRC, and i have yet to open the box up but is it simply unplugging and plugging in a new chip? or would i need to take it to somone. in fact i will go have a look right now. ive emailed stepmaster as well, so its a waiting game at this point i suppose.
thanks for the mach 3 tip, i will try it once i get my machine back online.

[paulC]

The chips are soldered in so you need to be confident in repairing PCBs. Too much heat in trying to desolder the chip could damage the board.
Paul

[digits]

I think I bought one of those stemaster nc boards off ebay myself. It was cheap but it sure wasn't cheerful! It used to overheat and shutdown at half the rated current, even with additional heatsinks and fans, and one day it actually caught fire when a stepper jammed.

If you have the same board, my advice would be to quit while you're ahead and replace it with something decent. I spent twice as much on my second set of drivers, but they are 100x better!

[hollyfeneht]

alright, well I will wait to hear from stepmaster and see what my options are. I got the box open but wouldnt have a clue which piece is the IRC. if i can send it to them and they can replace it that would be great or find someone in the los angeles area that can do it.

thank you for your help~

[hollyfeneht]

any suggestions on what a better investment would be to buy instead of stepmaster? i would be more than willing to pay more for the quality.

[SORCHEROR]

i recomend you look at the keling inc site,they have single driver simialr to the geckos,but lower price,you can get there smaller driver,they work really well and are tougher units,plus single uints

[SORCHEROR]

heres there link, http://www.kelinginc.net/
look at the 4030 driver,they are $59.99 each but well worth it