Y axis all over the place
Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:52 pm
my x axis is working great, however I can't get the y axis to be consistent at all. It's moving all over in mach3.
so far Ive tightened up all the hex nuts and even added non-perm loctite. There is no slippage. Also made sure the gantry is running smoothly and tightened all y belts/pulley system. The gantry is square to the vrails (used two carpenters squares to confirm). I've tried all the diffent step options full, half, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and tried adjusting pulse frequencey from 25k to 60k (drivertest tool says system excellent when set up to 60k). Current stepper settings in mach - Velocity 40in (went up to 120 with no effect), Acceleration 2 (tried between 2 and 10), step pulse 1us, dir pulse 1us. (tried all pulse sizes 1-5)
What I"m noticing - when jogging the y axis it appears to stop it's motion for a split second then continue on. It does this repeatedly every x amount of seconds maybe 3 seconds or so in between. When the y axis is locked, the y stepper seems to be pulsing with that same time frame. When the pulse is going on, I can push on the gantry and it will move along Y and then lock again once the "pulse" is over. Having the laser off or on doesn't effect this. The X axis doesn't do this pulsing thing at all and it smoothly jogs. I've also notice that my Y- threaded rod on one side has some definite warp issues on one end (right side if you are looking at front of router or X+). The y axis slides smoothly when the steppers are not engaged. The y part of the gantry itself is not loose or wobbly and it is not making contact with anything that I can tell.
I'm using Bart's 3 axis control board I should mention.
Are there some standardized test files out that I can run that would give me an idea of where my problem lies or anyone have any thoughts? I'm out of ideas at the moment
so far Ive tightened up all the hex nuts and even added non-perm loctite. There is no slippage. Also made sure the gantry is running smoothly and tightened all y belts/pulley system. The gantry is square to the vrails (used two carpenters squares to confirm). I've tried all the diffent step options full, half, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and tried adjusting pulse frequencey from 25k to 60k (drivertest tool says system excellent when set up to 60k). Current stepper settings in mach - Velocity 40in (went up to 120 with no effect), Acceleration 2 (tried between 2 and 10), step pulse 1us, dir pulse 1us. (tried all pulse sizes 1-5)
What I"m noticing - when jogging the y axis it appears to stop it's motion for a split second then continue on. It does this repeatedly every x amount of seconds maybe 3 seconds or so in between. When the y axis is locked, the y stepper seems to be pulsing with that same time frame. When the pulse is going on, I can push on the gantry and it will move along Y and then lock again once the "pulse" is over. Having the laser off or on doesn't effect this. The X axis doesn't do this pulsing thing at all and it smoothly jogs. I've also notice that my Y- threaded rod on one side has some definite warp issues on one end (right side if you are looking at front of router or X+). The y axis slides smoothly when the steppers are not engaged. The y part of the gantry itself is not loose or wobbly and it is not making contact with anything that I can tell.
I'm using Bart's 3 axis control board I should mention.
Are there some standardized test files out that I can run that would give me an idea of where my problem lies or anyone have any thoughts? I'm out of ideas at the moment