CNC table woes Wright CNC

[PIKustomz]

Just finished assembling my Wright CNC 4x8 , using a refurb XP Dell. Running Mach3 , everything set up to spec , when the table is powered off the motors slide up and down smoothly, all gears make perfect contact no binding etc but when powered up all my motors are making a god awful noise , jerky motion etc , messed with a few settings i found by googling , searching forums etc. Im kinda lost. Any ideas guys? Im new to the whole CNC world . Link to vid

https://youtu.be/XrbyXTfMFhs

[acourtjester]

That a bummer, first you have 2 motors on the X axis they need to be slaved (A slaved to X) in mach 3 and one rotation needs to reverse from the other. You could also have a noise problem or a mechanical problem like shafts slipping but that sounds like a binding in the drive sections.
You showed the X and Y movement does the Z make similar noise. If you were trying to move them to fast they would stall (move a small amount then stop), just to check reduce the Velocity in the motor tune by about 50%. The Acceleration should be about 25% of the Velocity. (100 vel to 25 acc).
And the first thing is remove the Plasma lead from being bundled with the other cables, make a boom and have that cable separate from all other.

[PIKustomz]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah all 4 motors are behaving the same , the x, y and z are all making the same wretched noise/ behaviour. The mach3 software is all preset by wright cnc, supposed to be plug and play. Im thinking either theres a problem with the pc or the controller box. Not sure how to figure it out though. Ill be in contact with wright cnc tommorrow for sure.

That a bummer, first you have 2 motors on the X axis they need to be slaved (A slaved to X) in mach 3 and one rotation needs to reverse from the other. You could also have a noise problem or a mechanical problem like shafts slipping but that sounds like a binding in the drive sections.
You showed the X and Y movement does the Z make similar noise. If you were trying to move them to fast they would stall (move a small amount then stop), just to check reduce the Velocity in the motor tune by about 50%. The Acceleration should be about 25% of the Velocity. (100 vel to 25 acc).
And the first thing is remove the Plasma lead from being bundled with the other cables, make a boom and have that cable separate from all other.

[acourtjester]

Does this system use one power supply for all the drivers, it may have noise on it.

[PIKustomz]

Does this system use one power supply for all the drivers, it may have noise on it.

Ill change power supply, let you know how it goes

[PIKustomz]

Changed power supply, still same

[sphurley]

The little information I can find is this a parallel port interface?
Looks like Chinese electronics?
There used to be a PDF on Mach3 about computer settings to best work with parallel port.
It is really easy to get noise on a PP.
Web site says 24/7 support, I would get on it.

[acourtjester]

I would say there has been and still is a very large number of Plasma table that use Parallel printer ports with out problems.
The tables I have built that all had Chinese controller electronics, I have had one motor or driver (don't remember which) that did have a minor problem. But no where near the one you have, it was when I drive both the X and Y axis at the same time. It was fine when only one of the other was moved by itself. The table controllers I had, had 2 power suppliers one for the X and the other for Y and Z drivers and motors.
The power supply I am talking about in for the motor drivers in the controller. Where does the BOB board get its power from I used the +5 volts from the PC power supply. Are the motor cable shielded.

[WyoGreen]

Wow, that is nasty. I'm sitting here trying to figure out what would cause such a thing. From the looks of the video, there is a lot of jerking going on. What are your DRO's showing while this is going on. Are they jerking also, or are they nice and smooth? When you push one of the arrow keys, there should be a steady stream of step and direction signals going to the drivers, so I wonder what could be making the step signals so jerky. Only thing that comes to mind so far is timing signals from the computer. I'm gonna have to ponder on this a bit. It will be interesting to find out what the problem turns out to be.

Steve

[PIKustomz]

Wow, that is nasty. I'm sitting here trying to figure out what would cause such a thing. From the looks of the video, there is a lot of jerking going on. What are your DRO's showing while this is going on. Are they jerking also, or are they nice and smooth? When you push one of the arrow keys, there should be a steady stream of step and direction signals going to the drivers, so I wonder what could be making the step signals so jerky. Only thing that comes to mind so far is timing signals from the computer. I'm gonna have to ponder on this a bit. It will be interesting to find out what the problem turns out to be.

Steve

Excuse my newbyness but how do I check the dro's? I ran seperate power sources to the 4 power plugs used so its def not the incoming power. It is extremely jumpy , the sound it makes will make you cringe. I ran the 4 signal wires to the motors along with micro switch wire inside the plastic drag chain, the plasma feed on the outside but I havent yet powered up the plasma.

[PIKustomz]

Also when powered up it locks in place like it should. No buzzing or anything. Until i push a directional button.

[WyoGreen]

Your Mach3 screen should have some DRO's in the middle of the screen that show where the X,Y,Z axis are. As the Axis move the DRO's should change showing that movement. Since you have stepper motors, this is not feedback from the motors, but rather where the computer thinks the motors are. So if they are dancing around, then the computer is probably the cause of your troubles. If they are smooth, that just means the computer thinks they are moving along just fine. I suspect the DRO's will be showing movement just fine, but it's the only thing I could think to check right off the top of my head. I still have no good ideas. As was mentioned above, you can try changing your motor acceleration to a lower number to see if that helps.

Steve

[robbyh78]

did you adjust the motor tuning in mach 3? That or something it wired wrong.
Are your motors tight to the rails? kind of sounds like the gear is spinning and only touching the edge of the track.

[PIKustomz]

did you adjust the motor tuning in mach 3? That or something it wired wrong.
Are your motors tight to the rails? kind of sounds like the gear is spinning and only touching the edge of the track.

Thats exactly how they sound although they are properly adjusted. All 4 motors are making the same noise/movement. Even when slid off track they still act the same. Wright CNC decided it was a faulty pc or controller , they are shipping me another pc in the morning , if that doesnt fix it then another board/controller box. Spent a good part of the day running tests, adding , changing , etc.

[acourtjester]

The problem seems to have a common point as a cause, I would consider the controller to be a larger possibility IMHO

[PIKustomz]

Well problem solved!!! A replacement pc fixed the prob!! Very happy now!

[acourtjester]

Thanks for the follow up with the answer, many just ride off into the sunset.
Solutions reported are much more helpful to other searchers down the road.

[drago2020]

I wonder if the manufacturer actually did any testing on the table or at least the PC before delivery / shipping? Seems like QC would have caught this and avoided all the trouble and potential damage to components. Luckily you did not destroy anything in the process, although the equipment gearing can be hurt by dragging, or forcing the motors to act in such a way.

[adbuch]

I wonder if the manufacturer actually did any testing on the table or at least the PC before delivery / shipping? Seems like QC would have caught this and avoided all the trouble and potential damage to components. Luckily you did not destroy anything in the process, although the equipment gearing can be hurt by dragging, or forcing the motors to act in such a way.

Since this post is around 2 years old, I would expect that the OP resolved his problems in early 2019 and is probably up and running fine now. I would be interested to find out what the cause was for the jerky stepper motor movement.
David