I have encountered a problem with my Z axis not moving. Everything was working fine last night. Fired up this morning and the Z axis will not move even though the DRO is registering movement. I have shut down and restarted a couple of times including the controlling computer. All connections have been checked. When unplugging and reconnecting the motor it will make a small clunk sound.
This is a couple month old 4x8 with EX stepper system and the 4hp spindle all factory with no mods.
Any insight would be appreciated as I have a ton of work to do this weekend.
Couple of things to check: Make sure the DRO is moving enough so that you’d see real movement. If you have feedrate override WAY down it might only be moving so little that you can’t tell it’s moving.
Next thing to check is that your XLR power cables for the motors are all connected and tight.
If the DRO is moving a large enough amount (a few inches if you jog for a few seconds on high speed jog) check to see if the motor is moving at all (you can pull back the cover on the Z axis ballscrew to see if the motor/ball screw is spinning)
If it is your oldham coupler might have loosened up.
If it’s none of those things open on the control box. You’ll see 4-5 black driver boxes with fins on them. Those are the stepper drivers.
With the power off trace all of the high power lines (these are the ones that go to the bulkhead with the XLR connectors on them) and make sure all of them are seated.
Then trace the communication wires, these are the smaller gauge wires that go back to the acorn board. Make sure all of those connections are seated.
On the Acorn board itself there’s a DB25 connector, make sure that is seated on both ends.
If all of that looks good power the machine back up and look at all of the drivers. Do you see red or green lights?