X Stepper Keeps Dying

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X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Thu 24 Oct , 2013 21:24 pm

all thoughts welcome

about two months ago the x stepper on my triac died, got a new one. well last night my brand new 2 month old stepper died.

im aware steppers are pretty hard to kill, anyone got any suggestions? could it be the x parker sd2 drive card causing this?

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by Martin » Thu 24 Oct , 2013 22:12 pm

I would check the wires from the motor. Look for fraying which would cause a phase to short to ground.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Thu 24 Oct , 2013 22:52 pm

um ok thanks, what check it all the way back to cabinet?

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by angel-tech » Fri 25 Oct , 2013 0:00 am

is the stepper getting hot (too much current).

Check the connection box is not full of coolant (more likely to cause the drive to fail).

Do you have the tension on the belt too tight.

Is the stepper full of coolant.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Fri 25 Oct , 2013 21:40 pm

Martin wrote:I would check the wires from the motor. Look for fraying which would cause a phase to short to ground.
ok wiring is fine, it is a brand new stepper so

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Fri 25 Oct , 2013 21:44 pm

angel-tech wrote:is the stepper getting hot (too much current).

Check the connection box is not full of coolant (more likely to cause the drive to fail).

Do you have the tension on the belt too tight.

Is the stepper full of coolant.
stepper was an exact match for the original one that came with it tom and didn't notice any heat issues.

connection box is perfectly dry and stepper is completely dry.

now like the original stepper its an 8 coil stepper. so only 4 were wired in, just wired in the other 4 coils from the stepper that weren't being used and it works perfect. so it would seem 4 dead coils and 4 working coils.

this is an odd one

changed x and y drive cards over for a 5min test and both seemed fine

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by angel-tech » Fri 25 Oct , 2013 22:19 pm

I don't think you should have wired it so that 4 coils were not used, the coils are usually wired in series or parallel, but i'm pretty sure they're all used.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Fri 25 Oct , 2013 22:54 pm

angel-tech wrote:I don't think you should have wired it so that 4 coils were not used, the coils are usually wired in series or parallel, but i'm pretty sure they're all used.
they weren't all used on the original stepper we checked

I still have it to be fair

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by angel-tech » Fri 25 Oct , 2013 23:51 pm


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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Mon 28 Oct , 2013 18:34 pm

But the eexisting stepper that came from denford only had 4 coils wired not all 8

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by angel-tech » Tue 29 Oct , 2013 0:31 am

maybe Martin can shed some light, I would have thought all 8 coils would be wired in to the 4 wires. Maybe you thought the linked coils were just wires not connected. Did you measure the resistance across the coils.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Tue 29 Oct , 2013 12:53 pm

yep we measured all 4 of the not connected one and they were not connected to the machine.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Tue 29 Oct , 2013 13:12 pm

i would love some further guidance

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by angel-tech » Tue 29 Oct , 2013 14:53 pm

were the unused wires connected to each other in pairs

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by Martin » Tue 29 Oct , 2013 16:09 pm

It does sound strange. I Don't see why we would have left 4 wires seperate.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Wed 30 Oct , 2013 13:24 pm

nope 4 unused wires not connected and each had heat shrink wrap on them

will dig the original stepper out when i get home from work and post some photos

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Wed 30 Oct , 2013 20:43 pm

here are, original stepper

as you can see only 4 connected, ignore the white connector we were using that for testing purposes. but as you can see other four have been cut real short and they were covered in heat shrink wrap to stop them shorting etc...

Image

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by angel-tech » Wed 30 Oct , 2013 23:15 pm

it's normal to have the other four wires short and heatshrunk, but they're normally connected together in pairs, as they're the centre taps of both coils, or end and start of A- A+ and B- B+ coils.

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by Martin » Thu 31 Oct , 2013 7:31 am

It does seem strange. Was it the X axis on a triac?

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Re: X Stepper Keeps Dying

Post by andy_con » Thu 31 Oct , 2013 8:54 am

Yeah x axis on my triac

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