Denford Software & Machines

Hi All,

my AC Servo Triac was working just fine making parts, on the next Cycle Start it moved to the start position and started jerking around in the X and Y the screen showed 'Following Error' when I looked at the Baldor drives 2 of them the left hand 2 showed red LES'd and the number 6 the other Z (I guess) showed a dot and a green LED.

If I reset the machine the error pops back up, if I turn off and start again I get the 'Emergency Stop' error, If I then press and hold the axis enable button I can home the Z axis but as soon as I try to home X or Y the 'Following Error' returns.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Graham

Not sure which drives they are, can you post a photo or type number ?

It's strange that X and Y would fail together--it's probably a common fault (eg drive enable wire loose or disconnected)

NB the Baldor servos sometimes need a proper power off for a good few minutes to reset

Thanks for the reply, the fact 2 are playing up together is very odd but the bit that is baffling me is that the Z axis will work if I press the axis enable button. The LED on the computer rack is showing number 5 and the e-stop relay is not lit at all and the e-stop button is out.

Here are some pictures of the drives from some time back so the LED's don't relate to this problem.

Regards
Graham

Baldor Flex Drive manual

d suggests that the control is disabled

If you can get the e stop relay working then the drives will enable

You really need to examine the enable and e.stop loops if you have the correct schematics ?
I don't remember seeing diagrams for that setup before.

The drives do enable, until I try to home the machine. I will have a look and see if I can work out why the e-stop is failing.

Thanks
Graham

i have one of these triacs and had a similar following error on one drive, it turned out that the drive had an electrical fault.

I have tracked the problem to the 2 axis mint card, what is the battery for on this card? Is there anybody repairing these or can I get a replacement or is it Mach3 here I come?

The card is ARCOM Control Systems Ltd MotionSystem it also says Optimised Control Ltd D501 ISS 4 the only other number is KCC9727

Thanks
Graham

See this post...
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3171&start=20
black5f seems to know a bit about these cards

You could also try Arcom (links in the other post)
or Alan Henderson: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=2841

Hi
This looks like a STE bus version of a very early Euroserver card. I have two similar cards that are now about 25 yrs old, quite reliable in my experience. Following error can be either a drive fault or this card. The only issue I ever had with them are the decoupling caps. Mines a different layout but they will be the brown bead things top left or bottom right in the picture, I'd start top left! (there's also one in the middle marked c6).

All they do is filter out interferance and are likely to be 22 - 100 nf. They have a limited lifetime, sort of around 20 years then they start to go open curcuit. If you look closely and are lucky, you may even see signs of a crack or heating which will point out the culprit. Mine blew it's top off.

I'd start by de soldering these, check them if you can, but replace them. They are easily available, the actual value isn't that critical, I stole some off an old 10base ethernet card I had laying around. When mine went the card wouldn't do anything but they are there to filter interferance off the encoder pulses. So it's easy to see when they play up, the machine looses it's position and hence following error.

To check off the board short the connections to discharge it. Typically an ohmeter should then show near zero and climb. If it's bad it will stay at near zero or just not show anything at all.

The blue component is also a cap and could be a suspect if it doesn't work by then.

I'd also check all the drive connections in case something has worked loose giving dodgy pulses. Start with the encoder connections and it would be worth dismantling any plugs to look for bad soldering. the encoders are usually connected by 9 pin d's as in your picture, these do oxidise so puling them out and in may make a difference.

Unfortunately if it's anything else on the card the cost of fixing these will probably be more than a rebuild.

Hope that helps!

Tom