[Ashley Cobb]

Hello,

One of the power wires become disconnected from the servo while operating (faulty connector), there was a loud bang and alot of smoke. I immediately shut off the machine. There is a terminal block on the Gecko that is melted.

My questions are;

1) Is this typical of a wire becoming disconnected?
2) Is there likely to be any damage to the servo?
3) Is there likely to be any other damage to the system?
4) Can the Gecko be repaired (wishful thinking... )

Cheers

[Bubba]

Ashley,
1) Yes
2) Maybe, maybe not
3) Not sure what your referring to here
4) Possibly, contact Gecko via the web site as they are most helplfull!

[Ashley Cobb]

Bubba, thanks for your help.

There is another servo drive and a stepper drive, I am pretty sure they are fine because on the cut it looks like they kept going between the bang and hitting the e-stop.

No blown fuses on the PSU or anything, so hopefully just the gecko is gone.

Cheers

Ashley

[CoAMarcus]

Ashley,

How did the wire become disconnected? Was it stranded wire or solid core? If you download the Servo Return Form from the link below and send it to us with the drive we can figure out if it is repairable or not pretty quickly.

http://www.geckodrive.com/support.aspx?q=10000

You can also email us at [email protected] and we can answer any questions you may have.

Marcus

[Ashley Cobb]

There was a plug attached to the motor. On the driver side the negative wire worked loose from the back of the connector.

The wire is stranded aluminium about 2.5mm in diameter.

At this stage I think we will go with a new drive, I can't see it being economical to send the drive back. And we need to get up and running as soon as possible.

Cheers for the help

Ash

[BobWarfield]

Ashley, you might want to get a new drive AND send the old one back. It will hopefully leave you with a spare. Or maybe just order a spare. Worst case is you don't use it until you're ready to build that 4th axis!

Cheers,

BW

[jimbo7]

Ashley,

Aluminum wire is not a good choice for this application. Aluminum will cold flow and loosen due to thermal expansion/contraction. You can also expect early fatigue failure. I am suggesting that your change to stranded copper wiring, tighten all connections, run it for two days and then tighten the connections a second time. This should prevent loose/broken wiring. Everyone should do at least an annual inspection of their equipment for loose wiring.

Good Luck with your repairs,
Jimbo7