X axis stepper motor will not turn

[ped1osc2]

Hi there!! I have a CNCÈST 6040T 3 axis, 1.5 W water cooled spindle. I've had the machine for 3.5 years and have used it on and off without any problems. Today, While carving a sign on pine wood, about 10 minutes into it, I started hearing a vibration and a rattle when X axis was moving. I noticed the machine was off during the second pass in one area and everything else after that was carved out of place. When I stopped the machine the axis was about 1 cm off. When I tried to move the axis with mach 3, the X axis motor and gantry rattled but would not move to either side. The Y and Z axis worked perfect. I turned the controller off and was able to turn the X axis motor manually. I disconnected the wires to the X motor, cleaned them, reconnected them, turned mach 3 off and on again. Tried several times to move the X axis but it would just rattle and vibrate. Thinking of swapping the Y and X motors to see if I can duplicate the problem but I am not sure if swapping of the motors is an easy task and can not find any procedures for it. Out of ideas. Can someone give me some guidance please!!

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[awerby]

It sounds like it might be a mechanical issue. Have you tried rotating the X-axis screw by hand, with the controller off? Have you checked your couplers and slides? It's actually quite rare for a stepper motor to burn out; an overwhelming amount of the time, it's the fault of something upstream or downstream. If you've eliminated mechanical problems, try swapping the leads from a motor that's functioning well, and see if the X axis motor responds when you issue a command for that axis.

[ped1osc2]

I tried again last night and I was able to run the X axis with Mach 3. After running smoothly left and right at a slow speed, as soon as I increased the speed, it started to rattle. The higher the speed the louder the rattle. The axis rotates fine manually with power off.... no mechanical issues when I do it manually. I want to swap motors to see if it duplicates but I want to find out some procedures on how to do it before jumping on it. Do you know of any? Thanks for your reply!!

[awerby]

Did you try swapping the leads to the motor in question, from a motor that's working well? If the X axis motor is really bad, or if it's a mechanical issue, the problem will continue. If it's a problem with the driver, or upstream cables, etc, then the problem will transfer to the good motor.

[ped1osc2]

Swapped the X & Y connectors. X axis worked fine and Y axis did not. Also swapped the X & Y cables on the back of the controller.... same results. The problem is in the controller. Will open controller tomorrow to swap X & Y microstep driver wires to see if it fails again. Do you know of any troubleshooting steps for microstep Driver DM542?

[awerby]

It sounds like you're on the right track - you've determined that the problem is upstream of the motor. I don't know anything specific about that driver, but I'd suggest getting an extra one to swap in and see if that solves the problem. Looking it up, it seems they go for as little as $25 USD, which doesn't seem too bad - you might get a couple while you're at it.

[elephantcnc]

You have analyzed that the problem lies above the motor. Perhaps you can try to buy a drive to see if this is the problem here.