Nightmare on Eztrak street!

[Zombiestomp]

I have 2 DxII Mills. One has a CutlerHammer CIB. the other is just an open Mother board.
the Afore mention one has for the last 4 weeks just been making me review my own belief in my ability to run a machine shop.......
Started as an Xaxis runn away ,wich turned into 3 burnt cards a control being sent off and looked at,(which by the way I was charged 500 dollors for zip,and anyone wanting to know my opinion of the repair facility just email me)
a rerplaiced x axis motor and cables. Now my Z axis has a positioning error(looses position when ever it moves in the positive direction ) All 3 axis are fighting to maintain position and the z axis position count (in PFM) is coming from the zaxis but the pos error and the dac count are reading from C axis?
Yesterday had a Tech the second one in three weeks making numerous trips to repair it, come in and after only 2 min lays his hand on the z motor and tells me its worn out...... I am replaicing the spindle in the 2nd machine so I removed the motor from it and put it on the other after he left and still have positioning errors. I really need a VACATION!!!!!
Can anyone take a stab at whats going on here because im about to scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[One of Many]

I don't recall what all goes through the AXSBOB board besides the encoder, or if the CIB has one. It sounds central to feedback cross talk. Run away is common to tach feedback.

If the issues were local to one axis, you may be able to change the order of homing to isolate which is causing the others to freak out.

One faulty encoder or other component in the feedback path can brown out the supplies to the rest of the system, causing all kinds of unrelated conditions.

DC

[gus]

I vote for a bad power supply blowing stuff up

[NC Cams]

I you are ANYWHERES near Chicago, contact Brian and BPT Machine in Carol Stream Illinois. He did my EZTRAK and he's an artisan with respect to tuning/fixing it. Very reasonably priced - he was a former Bridgeport factory/field service employee who built and tuned them. He still has GOOD connections with the guys who started EMI who are the defacto "factory service guru's" for 'Traks.

Brian found very subtle things that I did to "fix" the DOS O/S which were causing goofy troubles with the system. Runs like a champ and his charge was VERY reasonable and fair...

if the motors are SEM, you could have a tach problem (common issue) which we had loads of problems with. Clarckson is the factory service center for them - you can send them directly as their prices are "reasonable" but NOT cheap.

Wore out??? The tech can probably wear out THIS before that machine wears out. I"d bet faulty wiring or loose connnection. You can trace from the servos BACK to BMDC card to save $$$'s. If the connections are good and not crossed, chances are either bogus encoders/tach or perhaps (gulp) funky BMDC card.

EMI can bench test for reasonable price and repair for fraction of a new board. A "BMDC test" by anybody outside of EMI of BMDC is a waste of money.

If BMDC is bad, save your money. Us the TRAK external hardware and replace with a turn key unit from AjaxCNC. You can interface your wiring and servos to Ajax for a little bit more than a full BMDC replacment cost. You can Ebay off the M/B and servo amps to save a few more $'s.

If syustem has feedback (good wires) back to BMDC and the encoders and tachs are OK, it should run.

BTW, if the hard drive is going south or gets corrupted, you could also have all kinds of screwy things happening. Brian at BPT can provide a drop in, pre programmed DOM card to replace the H/D (which is INFINITELY more robust).

If the HD/FDD card is going bad (mine did too) you'll also have bizarre a$$ problems of similar hair pulling and unexplainable natures....

Several things could be on the fritz but tacho's are probably central to your root causes.