156 A AXIS Z CH MISSING

[JasonR]

156 A AXIS Z CH MISSING

Getting this alarm when trying to home my A axis. Machine is a 2000 VF-3, indexer is an HRT-210.

The alarm description says it can be a bad cable, bad encoder, incorrect parameters or loose wires. The indexer runs fine when hooked up to our control box on another machine. This is the first time this machine and indexer have ever been connected. The indexer is a brush style and the machine is set up for a brush style indexer. I spent about an hour on the phone with HAAS going through the parameters and everything is what they say it should be.
The indexer starts to home, moves about an inch and then alarms.
Due to the fact that the indexer runs fine when hooked up to the control box I assume the encoder and cable are fine. They were both replaced about 1.5 years ago. Haas verified my parameters so I am assuming that is not the issue either. I have looked for any loose wires or bad connections but see nothing obvious but will be honest I am not 100% on where I need to focus my search for loose connections.

Any ideas?

[Machineit]

Is this the first time you have hooked it directly to the mill for use?

Mike

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by Machineit Is this the first time you have hooked it directly to the mill for use? Mike

Yes it is the first time trying to connect the indexer to this machine. I have been running the indexer with a servo control box on my Mini-Mill up until a week ago. I even hooked the indexer back up to the servo control box after I had the alarms to verify that the cable and indexer were OK. The indexer still functions fine off the control box.

Jason

[Machineit]

Can you tell me what mill you have and brush or brushless? Also is the HRT-210 brush or brushless?

Thanks--Mike

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by JasonR 156 A AXIS Z CH MISSING Getting this alarm when trying to home my A axis. Machine is a 2000 VF-3, indexer is an HRT-210. The alarm description says it can be a bad cable, bad encoder, incorrect parameters or loose wires. The indexer runs fine when hooked up to our control box on another machine. This is the first time this machine and indexer have ever been connected. The indexer is a brush style and the machine is set up for a brush style indexer. I spent about an hour on the phone with HAAS going through the parameters and everything is what they say it should be. The indexer starts to home, moves about an inch and then alarms. Due to the fact that the indexer runs fine when hooked up to the control box I assume the encoder and cable are fine. They were both replaced about 1.5 years ago. Haas verified my parameters so I am assuming that is not the issue either. I have looked for any loose wires or bad connections but see nothing obvious but will be honest I am not 100% on where I need to focus my search for loose connections. Any ideas?

See above

[Machineit]

Originally Posted by JasonR See above

Still need to know if your units are brush or brushless. I had the same issue and found the answer, but it was an unusual circumstance that is not likely to happen often.

Mike

[haastec]

Originally Posted by Machineit Still need to know if your units are brush or brushless. I had the same issue and found the answer, but it was an unusual circumstance that is not likely to happen often. Mike

Are you not reading his posts? They are brush.

Jason R,
You may have done this already, but turn on the rotary in settings by selecting the proper model.

Next look at parameter 43. Z ch only and Disable Z T should both be set to zero.

Not sure if this will make any difference but change INV Z CHANNEL opposite of what it is currently set at (1 or 0) and see if that helps.

I will assume that the mini mill does not have 4th axis option, but go ahead and turn the rotary on in settings of the mini mill also. Ignore any alarms and compare the parameter 43 settings between the two machines and any other A axis parameters. Change back when done.

Hope this helps.

[Machineit]

Originally Posted by haastec Are you not reading his posts? They are brush. Jason R, You may have done this already, but turn on the rotary in settings by selecting the proper model. Next look at parameter 43. Z ch only and Disable Z T should both be set to zero. Not sure if this will make any difference but change INV Z CHANNEL opposite of what it is currently set at (1 or 0) and see if that helps. I will assume that the mini mill does not have 4th axis option, but go ahead and turn the rotary on in settings of the mini mill also. Ignore any alarms and compare the parameter 43 settings between the two machines and any other A axis parameters. Change back when done. Hope this helps.

Sorry, my sincerest apologies, I totally missed it and read it twice. Just getting old I guess. But I assume the mill is brushless with a brush 4th axis hook-up.

The reason I asked is because I had the same issue, brushless machine set up for a brush 4th axis. I hooked up the 4th axis and tried everything to get it to work, but kept getting error codes.

When I finally opened the cabinet to check in there, I found that someone had swapped the "Z" and "A" servos. The original "A" axis servo said brush or brushless, but the original "Z" servo was "brushless only." So the Z axis would work fine as it was on the brush OR brushless servo, but the 4th axis would not work as it was hooked to a brushless only servo.

The 4th axis would give me various error codes and I believe that 156 was one of them. And, it acted the same way, would move just a short distance and then throw the error.

Turned out that they probably had switched them because of having a problem with the original Z axis servo. Later, I found it had a bad solder connection that probably would not handle the current being passed through it. I had it repaired and switched them back and all was well.

Again, sorry for missing the brush comments in the original post.

So look in the cabinet and make sure they have not swapped servos.

Cheers----Mike