Morning, all. I have an email in to OF support, but in the meantime perhaps someone here has a fix for me (but it’s probably a broken thingamajig). I’m starting day 3 (about 8 hours of runtime) of my new OF and no machine-related problems till this morning. X axis would not stall home. It didn’t make the infamous grinding noise, but while up against the hard stop, the X position as reported on display would keep dancing around. I resolved that by reducing stall homing for motor 0 from 1.0 amps to 0.9 amps, and rehomed everything and started a simple cut.
After only a minute of cutting shallow pocket holes, it was obvious that the X position was drifting, significantly. I paused and then stopped the running file, turned off the Makita, and used the game controller to retract Z. The machine is still powered on but idle. The display suggests that spindle X position is currently at about 23 (inches) which would be correct for where I was in the run file. The spindle, however, is quite obviously at only about X=8 inches. I note that while energized, the Y and Z ball screws are being held in position by their motors, but the X screw can be manually spun quite easily. That seems like a broken linkage between screw and motor, but I haven’t taken anything apart yet. Any suggestions?
I thought as much, but since everything is new I’m hesitating to unfasten the motor mounts to look for fear of voiding a warranty. I’m sure I’ll hear from OF tomorrow. Thanks!
Nope, not a problem with engagement between motor and screw. Am I correct that when powered up, the stepper motors hold the screws more or less locked in position? I can spin the X axis screw easily even when powered up, so I think probably a faulty stepper motor.
I don’t have my 1F yet but from what I know of steppers is if the other two motors are holding then it could be a failure of the motor or the driver (which looks to be a part of the buildbotics controller). I could offer some troubleshooting steps but you’re best off waiting for 1F to instruct you.
RESOLVED! Thanks to tech support’s timely assistance, which included an instructional video on how to check/replace the coupler between motor and ball screw we found coupler pins had apparently loosened during shipment. I’m hurrying back out to the shop now, it’s almost noon and I have a quota of pernicious mdf dust to meet before the end of the day.
