by gene » 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