[winegummo]

got my machine a few weeks ago and finally today had a chance to fire it up. everything arrived in great shape and assembly was super easy. Im using the bootleg version of mach3 right now but will be ordering a proper version this weekend after payday. everything went smooth except for they y axis. i did a quick switch of the motors and the event still happens. Any ideas from you more experienced types. My first thought is there is crap in the ball nuts.

010.mp4 Video by winegummo | Photobucket

posted a video cause its easier then trying to describe.

btw. thanks cnewb and others for all the info. was nice to come back to the forumns and have some positive info to read through.

im totally prepared to switch boards and sheild cables but i had to fire it up as is because from what i can see, this is a differant beast than the ones that were causing all the trouble. even if the controller seems to work fine, i'll probably still upgrade to sheilded cables.

thanks

[Adverse Effects]

your vid is not working

[winegummo]

hmm weird. it works when i click on the link but that might be because i am the original poster. lets try this

6040 y axis problem - YouTube

[jimmineycricket]

got my machine a few weeks ago and finally today had a chance to fire it up. everything arrived in great shape and assembly was super easy. Im using the bootleg version of mach3 right now but will be ordering a proper version this weekend after payday. everything went smooth except for they y axis. i did a quick switch of the motors and the event still happens.

I had this happen too when experimenting on the motor tuning. I think your motor tuning settings need to be tweeked. With the recommended ones I was getting issues like this on the x and y. I tweeked my velocity and steps and It runs really smooth now. I have let it run projects about 2 hours long now without issues.

[Adverse Effects]

acceleration and top speed is to high

i bet your using the default controller that came with the unit and not one you bought separate

i had the same problem

replaced it with a G-540 and i now can run at just over 2 times the speed and if i upgrade from a 24 VDC 12 A power supply to a 48VDC 12A (or more amps) power supply i could almost 2 times the speed again the speed again

[winegummo]

thanks. i'll adjust things and see if it helps

[Adverse Effects]

cut your speed to 1/2 and reduce the acceleration by about 1/3

[winegummo]

that worked.

when i first opened mach3 it had velocity set at 3000 but the manual said 3500 so i had adjusted it. i set it back and it works fine now. thanks for all your help

[Adverse Effects]

make up some g-code that will run a circle over and over and over

i made a circle 200mm accross and told it to cut 30mm with a cut depth of 0.1mm and i set it up so i new the home point then ran the file (took hours and hours to run lol) then looked at where it was when it finished and went home again

had to do this 14 times slowing it down each time till i got a run that had the same start and end point

i then did the same thing with a figure 8 running almost the full length of the bed
and then had to turn it down a touch more

then i blew up the stock controller and got the G-540 and i am doing over 2 times the speed now

[winegummo]

ok. i'll try that test this weekend. I already know that i may need to change controllers. Im hoping that this one will last long enough for me to get a grip on the machine.

cheers and thanks

[RussellK]

Mains-Earth ends in the line-filter and only neutral+phase enter the VFD.
How should this be connected properly?

If it was me, I'd establish a single earth point bolted to the chassis with a star washer to bite into the metal, and from there, individual earth wires go to the earth pin of the IEC socket, the earth pin on the mains filter and the earth connection of the VFD - you'd then take the spindle earth from that VFD connection, and as mentioned, ground the cable shield there (if possible). If it was me (and probably will be when I get on and order a machine) I'd replace the spindle connectors with ones that provide 3+E conductors and connect the shield to earth inside the plug at the control box end.

My touchscreen computer has an external DC power supply and only 2 wires going into the machine.
So I guess that one may have a floating earth level?

That would be a "double insulated" device and thus doesn't require an earth connection for safety.

I guess it gets a bit confusing as mains earth is fundamentally intended as a "protective earth" and used as a safety precaution against the metal casing accidentally becoming live and giving you a shock if you touched it.

However, we are also using it to reduce electromagnetic interference while trying to avoid creating ground loops.

[jimmineycricket]

Have any of you added limit switches yet? I purchased some mechanical ones. I see onto board it says limit xyz but would be helpful if anyone has tried and have any tips for location etc.

[MarcusWolschon]

Did any of you do something against the noise from the water pump sharing the 24V with the steppers and stepper drivers?
Mine doesn't have any capacitors and creates 30+V spikes even outside the range of my osciloscope.

[Adverse Effects]

i threw away the punp and now use a pond pump
Something with more than 300Lt an hour you carnt hear them at all

[RussellK]

After almost a year of research, I finally got off my backside last week and ordered a Carving CNC 6040 machine with extra fruit - rot axis, vice & wireless remote. Total damage was about $2500.

Arrived today with no customs fees, which was a nice surprise. Packed well with sheets of ply for impact protection (very good idea). While I had been thinking about endless mods to improve earthing, shielding, stepper drive etc, today I just put the thing together - attached gantry to table with 10 allen bolts + installed spindle, attached steppers, found a bucket & lid, added a bit of antifreeze for corrosion and that was it.

Bolted a bit of MDF to the table and ran the sample file. And it just worked.

Well, not exactly, I didn't tighten the coupling on the Y axis enough so the stepper slipped and the first cut went sideways a bit. A second attempt worked fine, although the file supplied appears to be mirrored, and I couldn't find an option to fix that.

Taped-up boxes to routed wood? Less than 2 hours. So far so good

[RussellK]

Did any of you do something against the noise from the water pump sharing the 24V with the steppers and stepper drivers?
Mine doesn't have any capacitors and creates 30+V spikes even outside the range of my osciloscope.

A couple of ceramic caps between the terminals and to the casing on each should eat up the spikes - as posted, I only just got mine going, and while I've had no interference problems so far, I will start to work over the various bits and improve what I can - I'll scope the addition of caps and get back to you if it improves things.

[port_huon]

After almost a year of research, I finally got off my backside last week and ordered a Carving CNC 6040 machine with extra fruit - rot axis, vice & wireless remote. Total damage was about $2500.

Arrived today with no customs fees, which was a nice surprise. Packed well with sheets of ply for impact protection (very good idea). While I had been thinking about endless mods to improve earthing, shielding, stepper drive etc, today I just put the thing together - attached gantry to table with 10 allen bolts + installed spindle, attached steppers, found a bucket & lid, added a bit of antifreeze for corrosion and that was it.

Bolted a bit of MDF to the table and ran the sample file. And it just worked.

Well, not exactly, I didn't tighten the coupling on the Y axis enough so the stepper slipped and the first cut went sideways a bit. A second attempt worked fine, although the file supplied appears to be mirrored, and I couldn't find an option to fix that.

Taped-up boxes to routed wood? Less than 2 hours. So far so good

The Chinese suppliers are getting better at packing their products, mine had lots of foam but the plywood is a good idea. Now they just need to get rid of the water pump and replace it with an aquarium pump.

The problem with the mirrored image may be that one of the steppers is wired incorrectly or the Mach III setting for it is wrong. Check in Config -> Homing Limits and tick the Reversed box for the X axis.

[RussellK]

The sample file appeared reversed on the Mach 3 window, so the machine did cut it as per the display, and the axes move in the directions suggested by the manual, so I'm not sure what's going on there...

[MarcusWolschon]

That vice looks quite tall.
You'll loose a lot of the very, very limited Z travel with it.

[Adverse Effects]

now run the same cut cutting down 2 mm with a 0.1mm cut depth and see if its out of alinement at the end of it