Ok guys I’ve been working with Daniel most of the day trying to figure out what’s going on with my machine. So, here’s the run down.
The machine has been setting for about 3 weeks maybe more work has been crazy so no playing for me :). The only thing that I’ve done is move the machine from one spot in the garage to another. This is what’s happening I’m hoping someone else has an idea.
First homing of the day the machine crashes into the switches. I hit the top button multiple times to get the axes to home and after many attempts it will home. After that it will rehome with no issues as long as I dont turn the machine off. The homing dialog box does nothing to slow the homing speeds for the axis down nor does it disable an axis when I uncheck it and save it. To me it sounds like something in the controller has gone south. The homing switches activate when you check them with a metal object, so they appear to be working. I’m at a lose on this thing. Very frustrating to say the least.
Let me know if anyone else has had any issues similar to this and how did you fix them.
Did the physical routing of cables change after moving the machine?
Only things I can think of are:
Electrical noise. Try temporarily unplugging the VFD/spindle power during first homing. If it works then try to reroute or shield the sensor wires.
Grounding issue with one or more sensor wire. Try to rig up (e.g. blue tape) a piece of metal in front of each sensor then try to jiggle the cable at each connector; the one closest to the sensor, and the connector at the PwnCNC power supply, to see if the light on the sensor goes off/on.
Cables are all zip tied up so they can’t move. The spindle I don’t have power to it so that can’t be it either.
I’ll try the third option.
What is odd to me is the fact that the homing dialog box doesn’t work at all now. I’ve change the homing speeds and nothing changes I’ve tried to disable the Z axis and it still tries to home the axis nothing changes when you make changes.
You said they activate with metal, what if you manually moved the axis to where you want it to home, then reposition your switches. They should have a little play and maybe in the move you knocked it out of alignment or something.
Update and it’s not a good one. I shut down all the homing options turn the linear speed to 10 and used the homing option and it tried to home the Z at a rate that’s not 10 on the speed. The only good thing that happened was it didn’t move the x and y axis.
I’ve changed software from 5.09 to 5.11 and nothing has changed.
I have a video but it won’t allow me to upload it
at this point I’m open to other operating systems as this cost me a job through Sprouts groceries that easily could of brought in over 10,000 maybe more
I turned off all the homing options this morning and when I hit home all axis it still tries to home the Z
I think it’s hardware related something in the Masso as it shouldn’t do this and still the speed for the homing of the Z sure the heck isn’t 10 like I have it checked
Not good for a new system what’s most upsetting is I just lost a chance at a good size job with Sprouts groceries as I can’t do the job
With my CNC4newbees it was there unit that required UCCNC for software. It worked did its thing unfortunately I sold the entire setup once I put this together
Did I miss a post? What fixed the problem in the end? I am curious since I am now bringing up my system and homing works fine for the X & Y direction, but it always slams hard on the Z axis and triggers both the HOMING ERROR ALARM and the Z MOTOR ALARM, and it does not back off as planned. Once I clear the alarms, the homing continues correctly for the X & Y stages and also backs off the Z before starting. I reviewed the Masso screen setting Daniel has published and it is exactly the same. I can test the Z-axis sensor and it lights up and I can also see the Masso screen recognizes it. I tried backing off the acceleration rate and it does not slam as hard, but it still trips the alarm. I can also use the pendant to jog in the Z direction. Any ideas?
I know you said the light goes on, but can you trip it when it’s homing?
Homing isn’t required for jogging, as I’m sure you know, so when you jog it all the way up, does it trigger the switch?
I’m not aware of any delay function of the switch, but you can try and reposition it lower, or attach something like a washer to the top of your traveling z axis to make it trigger sooner. Just spitballing ideas because im looking thru a straw of what you say and don’t see the whole picture
I agree with Chris, see if you can trigger the sensor with a piece of metal (steel) while it is in the middle of homing.
Another thing you can check, which happened to me on the X-axis, the connector for the homing sensor was a little janky and needed jiggling. This issue showed up well after first use of the machine, and it has not returned since.
I can jog it up with the pendant and when it is within 2-3 mm from the sensor, the red light goes on and the Masso screen shows the Z sensor going High. Also a red flashing button on the screen says Z Hard Limit. which is different than homing where the z -axis plate gets within < 1mm from the sensor and the screen shows Z motor alarm. I attached images of the spacing done manual and with the homing.
yes, homing the Z seems different than jogging it up. When I jog with the pendant, it stops about 2-3 mm from the sensor and the masso screen states hard limit reached. On the other hand the Z -axis homing moves the plate to about 0.5mm from the sensor and the message shows Z-Motor Alarm. other than that, it jogs up and down fine. It is almost like it thinks it needs to go higher during homing than when jogging. I was going to start looking at the connection next
Just to update everyone here. I was communicating with Daniel, and the solution turned out to be a Z calibration issue. Daniel is updating the documentation to add the calibration step before initial homing. By default, the machine thought 8.75 in of travel was 2.1 in in the z direction while it thought 29 in in the Y direction was 64 inches. So the same homing speed was vastly different for those axis.
