Ex controller / servos making a weird noise

Z axis moves up and down smooth like butter but the x and y in slower speed, 10x on the pendant sound like a creaking rocking chair and are not smooth at all (tried attaching a video but it wont let me) but it doesnt sound good. The creaking noise also surfaces at the slightes touch of the gantry, even with a few pounds of force. Has anyone else experienced this?

My servos do squeak a little bit if you put pressure on the machine but I’ve not had any unusual noises or anything unsettling, on another note what is the trick to getting the keyboard to work I’ve tried to get my computer keyboard to work but no joy you had any luck?

Same, the screen says keyboard jogging enabled but the keys do nothing. I was watching some video that mentioned pressing control J to enable keyboard jogging but i wont be in the shop until tomorrow to try it. Im heading to the acorn forums now to do some more research, hopefully i can learn a thing or two

Ok here is the answer I don’t really like it but its not a deal breaker, you have to hold down the ctl and the arrow keys will now jog

Well thats silly… i mean the arrow keys arent assign to any other function, why have to hokd the ctl key. Well at least theres a way! Another mystery solved🙌

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A little squeaking at rest is normal. It’s the servos’ way of saying “I’m feeling movement but I’m staying here”.
Is the jerky movement with the WMPG also apparent when you try the same move from the screen?
I can think of four possible reasons for jerky movement you are seeing.

  1. I’ve seen this happen from time to time and it disappears when I reboot my system. That seems like a computer gremlin somewhere.
  2. The WMPG is supposed to be 3-12 from the antenna. If it’s too close it might behave erratically, at least in theory. I don’t find that an issue on my system but it’s in the documentation.
  3. There is a choice in WMPG setup between smooth and fast. IDK how its set up in Avid but if there is an option between those you might check. I always use smooth.
  4. I’m guessing that if you see the same behavior with screen-driven and WMPG-driven movement there might be an issue with servo tuning. Clearpath has made that fairly easy to do but it seems like Avid has done all of that up front already.

Could that be a safety feature so you don’t accidentally bump a arrow key :thinking:

I kinda like that. One thing I really didn’t like about Mach4 was the conflict between hot keys for Mach4, and using those keys in editors. I was forever enabling and disabling keyboard jogging in Mach4 whenever I was also editing files (Vcarve or Notepad++, or email). Having to hold down ctrl seems like a less frustrating solution once you get used to it.

There is a setting to change that:

  • Keyboard Jog Slider: If this slider is set to “No”, the operator will need to press “Alt+J” on the keyboard to enable keyboard jogging. If set to “Yes”, keyboard jogging will be enabled by default.

Pretty sure you still have to hold dwn ctl key to jog with keyboard

ok, I’ll have to try it when I get my controller.

This is correct. We are going to make that a little more obvious on the control screen in an update coming soon.

So if I understand right, Alt + J is just to enable keyboard jog mode, but then you still have to hold down Alt with the jog keys to jog (like Alt + up arrow)?

BTW, in the router user manual it didn’t mention jog keys for the A axis. Didn’t know if that was just an omission or not.

If you don’t have it set to be enabled by default, yes.

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