Problems Gridding

[lvogts]

I have a Milltronics partner 5 with the Cen. 4 control. I am having problems getting it to grid. In the system I/o page I can see that all the switches and sensors are sending an input when they make so I don't think it's a bad switch or sensor on the axis. Has anyone had this problem or can you direct me to a fix.....I'll checked system set up paramaters and the settings seem to be ok. The macnine will keep raising the z axis until it hits the overtravel switch causing an e-stop to kick. The only thing I can see is maybe an encoders is going bad. on the input page there are a few numbers that flicker like the encoder is sending a signal between two clicks. If a drive board for a servo is going bad, would that cause that problem.....I know this is an old mill but hope someone can help!!!!.........

[repairguy]

When the Z axis tries to home what happens? The Z axis should go up, find the switch, move down off the switch, then move back up to find the home marker on the encoder. A common failure is to lose the home marker. If this happens then the axis would move up and find the switch, move off the switch, and then move back up and overtravel because it nevers finds the marker. If the home marker is not working then the encoder needs replacing.

Dan

[lvogts]

Thats got to be the problem. The z axis does just that. Moves up to switch, moves down off the switch and then back up past the position switch to the overtravel switch. I would guess it's either the encoder or the control not using the signal to stop the axis. I disabled the grid option in the controller.......Paramater 066 i believe or maybe it was 489 or 488. In one of those paramaters I shut off the option to grid and it seems to work just fine when running any program. I just need to watch the overtravel limits when writing a program. Is this going to cause me any problems? In the mean time I'll try to trouble shoot the encoder on the z axis. See if I can get a home signal out of it. I'm sure thats the problem. I can get it to grid if I mess with it and try like 20 times. It will find home right about the time your pissed!!..........With the grid option off will this cause me any problems running the machine that I've not found or noticed?

[Ben Colby]

Take the front cover off and clean the switch with contact cleaner.
There is also a trip dog that you can adjustup or down for the roller on the switch. I own one of these machines and it's usually the simple fix. It doesn't
take much to screw the machine up.
Onto another subject; Put a % sign in as the first character in your programs
first line ie.. %G90 G80 G40 G100 G17
then a another % at the end ie.
G98
M2
%
This may help your uploading from PC to CNC control.

[repairguy]

Yep, you have a bad encoder. The machine will run just fine. Obviously if you shut the machine off, do it with the Z axis all the way up. If it were me I would bite the bullet and buy a new encoder from Milltronics.

Dan

[lvogts]

estimated price for new z axis encoder?

[Mortek]

My last one was $375