C86ACCP fault relay endlessly clicking on and off - Resolved

[kb58]

I've just started bringing up my CNC router, running an Acorn board and C86ACCP, with Clearpath servos and IPC-5 power supplies. It's a combination of Clough42's controller box and Piotr's awesome granite-based router, (both are on Youtube).

My problem is in the title. To get the system up and running, I wired it per the Centroid Rev 4 S15072 drawing, including running the DriveOK signal through the relay board. When powered up, the C86ACCP relay clicks slowly (around every 3-4 seconds), and the green LED blinks at the same rate. With only the X channel servo connected for testing, it will jog via CNC12, but only for about 3 seconds, then shuts off with a fault message. I can reset it and it'll run again, but always for only 3 seconds before faulting. The DriveOK signal is wired and configured per the schematic (IN5), and the only way I can get it to jog without faulting is to disconnect the DriveOK input from the C86ACCP and ground it.

I don't understand why the relay is slowly clicking (its click rate is not related to the blue heartbeat LED on the Acorn bd). I'm not the best person to be dealing with this because I'm a retired EE with SW experience, so there's a bit of "how hard can this be", so it's humbling when I can't figure out something myself.

Thanks in advance for enlightening me!

[cnckeith]

Gary's favorite question to answer

[Gary Campbell]

Read the second post here: https://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic. ... 673#p67643

[kb58]

Thanks guys, I had read that thread and followed the directions - I believe - but it still did it.

I spent some more time on it, and during this test, I have one servo connected to X, but nothing else connected:
1. The 4-second on/4-second off clicking starts immediately at power up.
2. It doesn't matter whether a servo is connected, or whether a connected servo is running, or not.
3. I used the advanced "logic analyzer" feature and nothing on the Acorn board is toggling at the above rate.
4. Undefining IN5 as DriveOK made no difference - the issue seems to be contained entirely within the C86 board.

Because of how the C86 board is mounted in my setup, I didn't realize that there are status LEDs near each servo connector. With the relay steadily clicking, I finally noticed that two red LEDs (Z and Y) were toggling at the same time that the green LED turned off.

So it appears that it's properly complaining about two servos not being connected - I didn't bother connecting two additional servos to confirm, but it brings up the question: How do I truly disable status checking on unused servo ports? During debugging, I thought I'd tried that, but realized that I need to read more before proceeding - and to post questions.

Oh, and that was some very good points about keeping the servos enabled, and having both the servo power supplies and spindle power getting shut off with EStop - looks like I'll be modifying things and it's not even running yet, hah.

Thanks again.

[Gary Campbell]

You need to jumper out the alarm terminals on any axis that's not connected

Also... make sure you do NOT have an input set to "DriveOk"

[kb58]

Yes, the DriveOk assignment was undefined per your post referenced above, though that didn't stop the cycling.

I just reread your referenced post... "...Place short wire jumpers connecting the 2 position terminals marked ALAR & GND together for each axis you will be connecting to"

Are these the "hard and soft" or "active axis" jumpers, because I don't seen anything labeled ALAR anywhere, and a search of the Acorn and C86 PDF manuals didn't turn up anything, either.

FWIW, I tried setting the Y and Z Active Axis jumpers to Off. Oddly, doing so eliminated the red LED lighting on the Z axis but the Y axis LED kept blinking. Inspecting the 2-pin jumper didn't show any issues. I'm now wondering if you're referring to the HLFB signals and possibly jumpering them on the green 2-pin connectors... enough confusion for one day!

[Gary Campbell]

I'm now wondering if you're referring to the HLFB signals and possibly jumpering them on the green 2-pin connectors...

This excerpt from my manual should clear that up:

[kb58]

Okay, thank you very much, Gary. I'm going to add to the thread title *resolved.*