PROBLEM WITH MY CHINESE CNC. CAN ANYONE HELP?????

[ronniecruisin]

Hi. All. After around 6 years of use my Chinese machine has finally failed me. The machine finished a job then the next time I fired it up it wouldn't go. It gets to the point where steppers lock ready to go but commands from keyboard do nothing. Not even run spindle. The virtual red/green button in Mach 3 only works if the serial plug is not plugged in to the control box. Had a look round the machine and discovered burnt wiring at the through plug for the X axis stepper. The plug is simply a straight through 4 wire connector and the curious thing is the 4 discolored wires were only on the control side of the plug. The other side to the stepper were perfect. Soooo I'm assuming a short has happened and caused a problem in the control box. I opened the control box and there is no sign of any obvious burnt components. It all looks fine. Mach 3 runs fine without the control box connected so I'm assuming that to be ok. I have fixed the crook wiring and checked the rest of the wiring throughout the machine and it all looks fine. So I'm assuming the problem is indeed somewhere in the control box. Maybe a component damaged when the wiring in the machine fizzed! My problem is I know nothing about electronics and don't even know how to use a test meter so I'm a bit lost. Had there been something obvious to see I would probably be ok to sort it. But I'm guessing it's something in one of the boxy components in the control box that I can't see that has failed when the wire short happened. There is a green led in the control box that I'm assuming should be lit when the box is powered up. It is does not light up. The inverter for the spindle runs as normal and the steppers lock up as normal ready for commands from the keyboard as I said. But messages to actually run the machine don't happen. The Machine is a Stepmores 6090 CNC which was sold by a couple of guys operating through EBAY and were based in Black Rock Vic. Tried contacting them but no luck so guessing they are out of this stuff now. Tried sending an Email to Stepmores in China...No response. Sooooooo. I'm hoping one of you lovely people might have more of a clue whats happening than me.! Sorry for the length of this...Regards....... Ronnie.

Similar Threads:

• Problem with 80w Chinese laser, please HELP
• Australia PROBLEM WITH CHINESE VFD
• problem with chinese atc
• Laser problem, chinese, again
• Chinese Mill + Chinese accesory + Newbee = Problem

[Sterob]

Welcome to the forum Ronnie.
Where are you located? ( just saw.... Bendigo )

It sounds like you still have DC power to your Motion card as your steppers are locked.
The problem may be the signals getting to the Motion Card or the part of the Motion Card that sends signals to the Motor drives.....maybe....
I assume its a Parallel Port connection?

You don't have a schematic of the machine?

Don't have a friendly electrician close by who could take a look for you?

Can you post some pics so we can see where there is life...someone may see a clue. AN overall pic and maybe some of each of the major components,. (motion card, power supply, motor drivers. )

You probably have to resize the pics to around 100k each, in order to upload here. Third last icon aove is the 'insert images' button.
Make the images wider than high otherwise they wil be rotated 90°.

Burn't wiring is usually the 'result' of a fault, not the 'cause'. You still need to find out what caused this issue.

[ronniecruisin]

Hi.Sterob. Thanks for the quick response. Can't do the pics just yet as I'm not near the machine. But I do have an update. Took the control box to JayCar electronics yesterday and although they can't muck around with the machine as they are technically a shop, The young guy was able to explain what did what for me and we came up with a strong possible culprit. When to computer is turned on a green light lights on the break out board, but goes off when Mach 3 is loaded. he thinks that happens because of power from the serial port lights the LED. He explained the power supplies 36volt for the steppers and 12 volt for the break out board. Now all the stepper controllers light green and the spindle controller works too. The only led that does not light is the 12 volt power supply unit. His theory is that the 12volt supplies the break out board soooooo assuming it's crook no messages would get through to the machine. Also backing this up is the message on the Mach 3 page. (External request E Stop). So my next trick is to open the 12 volt power supply and have a look see inside. Also the burnt wiring is only about 30 mm at the plug so am thinking it may have simply been loose fitting wiring in the plug caused by movement of the gantry over time. The other side of the plug the wiring is perfect as is all the wiring below the small burn area all the way to the control box. Will let you know what I find.....Regards.... Ronnie.

[GGuilliams]

Check your e-stop wiring to make sure it is working properly. Also make sure E-stop is configured correctly in Mach 3.