Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

The Z axis on my router stopped working. I last used this machine a few weeks ago and everything was working fine.

I can manually jog the X and Y axis but not the Z.
I've checked the fuses and also did a continuity check on the cable to the Z axis stepper and it looks OK, haven't checked the stepper motor or the
Gecko G201x driver yet.

I would appreciate if someone can look at the attached report and see if something is apparent to this problem, I need to learn how to do this myself.

Thanks for the help and hopefully I've provided enough information.

Thanks,
Peter

I just want to update my post -
Since posting this yesterday I have checked the cable to the Z stepper motor, contactor and contactor fuse and all are working OK.
If I swap a stepper cables, for instance swapping the Y with the Z, the issue will follow the swap and cause the Y axis to not move...

Not sure what else I can check. I really don't want to contact support but this might be my last resort.
Not sure how to check the stepper driver
Thanks, Peter

Swap the driver form Z to Y so you can see if the driver is the problem.

Uwe

So, after swapping the stepper cables, the Z axis moves, but the Y does not. This shows that the Z axis motor is good.

Now, you have narrowed the problem down to either the Z stepper driver, or the Acorn. Does the Acorn Z axis DRO change when you try to jog Z? If so, that means the Acorn is sending pulses and the problem is probably in the Z drive. To check, swap connectors H2 and H3 on the Acorn board. Jogging X should now move Z. If it doesn't, then something is wrong with your stepper drive. If it does, then something is wrong with the Acorn 3rd axis output.

If something is wrong with the Acorn according to the last test, you can either exchange your Acorn board, or move your third axis Z to the 4th axis connections and change your setup in the wizad.

Yes, the Z axis DRO does change...
Thank you very much for your reply. I will try your other suggestions tomorrow and reply back.

Much appreciated!!!
Peter

Good, morning. I tried the suggestions.
I should have mentioned that I have a DB25 card with my Acorn setup.
So what I did was change the connections on the DB25 board for the Z axis to pins 8 and 9, previously the Z was 6 and 7.
Changed the configuration setting to use the rotary drive and assigned it to A, changed the step and direction setting and rebooted everything.
When I jog the Z axis I have DRO movement on the Z axis, as before, but no motion on the stepper motor.
Seems like I have an issue with the driver???
Thank you,
Peter

Your testing shows that the driver is at fault. To confirm, swap the driver with another axis and see if the problem moves with the driver.

Yup, will do that tomorrow.
Please know how much I appreciate your assistance. The one good thing about all of this and maybe most issues like this with a CNC is that you get to know your systems soo much more than before something like this occurs.

I will keep you posted.
Peter

This morning I swapped the Z stepper driver with the Y and it works!!! Bad stepper driver.. I guess I shouldn't care why it went bad but it would be nice to have some idea....
Tom once again, thank you for sticking with me on this!!!

Peter

Great. Glad to hear you got the problem narrowed down to the driver. Hopefully it's still in warranty from the manufacturer.