G203v Red & Green Led on

[Big John T]

I fired up my plasma cutter and homed the machine. After homing I went to move the Z axis (which had just homed) but it would not move. The stepper was not powered up as I could spin the stepper by hand. I popped the hood of my electrical box and the Z axis drive has both the green and the red leds lit. I powered down and waited a few minutes then powered back up. The red and green leds were lit up as before. The X and Y axis function normally and have the usual green led lit. The drives are all powered from an Antek power supply.

Update
After reading the manual again I disconnected the stepper and powering up I get a green led only, so I have to assume the problem is somewhere in the Z axis stepper motor or wires...

I still wonder why the green and red leds were both lit?

Thanks
John

[Mariss Freimanis]

The green LED is lit when there is power applied to the drive. It is an 'power on' indicator. The red LED lights when there is something nasty on the motor output terminals.

Mariss

[Big John T]

Thanks again Mariss, I must have missed that in the manual...

John

[LeeWay]

There is a nice troubleshooting guide in the files section on the yahoo group.
It has helped me with issues in the past, but then so has Mariss.

[Big John T]

Thanks Lee

Looks like Mariss has a nice guide on here to now.

John

[Big John T]

Mariss,

After further investigation I have the following.
The Z drive is the one with the red fault light on (all 203v's).
If I disconnect the Z stepper at the stepper I get a green light.
If I connect the Z stepper to the X cable at the stepper I can run the Z stepper fine via the X drive.
If I connect the Z power plug (at the drive) to the Y drive I can run the Z stepper fine via the Y drive.
If I disconnect either of the A phase wires at the drive the red led does not light up.

I'm down to the drive unless I missed something?

Thanks
John

[ger21]

Can you run the X or Y steppers with the Z drive?

[Big John T]

I have not tried that Gerry, the wires were too short. I assumed that if I could run the Z stepper with the Y drive that everything was ok from the drive plug to the stepper and both the X and Y run fine... or did I miss something?

John

[ger21]

Unless I've missed something, you haven't ruled out the Z drive as being faulty?

[Big John T]

How is that Gerry? I guess I'm missing your train of thought on this...

John

[ger21]

It looks like you've determined the Z drive is bad, but you haven't tried it with another motor to confirm it.

[LeeWay]

It could actually be a connector on the drive itself.
I had a batch of poor connectors once. I think they were on 201's though.
till, these things are mass produced, so faulty connectors can pop up.

With the drives powered down, check the resistance in all motor circuits. Right at the pins on the drives. Check both A's. Then the B's. This may not work as well if you have three different sized motors, but if they are alike and you get a different reading on one, that will help narrow down the troubleshooting.


BTW, here is that PDF I mentioned, just to get it some airtime off the Yahoo group.