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My X-Carve was working absolutely perfect for 4 years until recently. It would be in the middle of a carve and something would cause it to skip on the Y axis. This would cause the carving to be off. It would only happen on the Y axis so I replaced the stepper motors as suggested by another user. I still have the issue. I checked my V wheels and they are not tight at all. Just for testing purposed I swapped the X and Y axis now the “skipping” occurs on the X axis. Could this be the controller? Could it be a power issue? Any thoughts on this are GREATLY appreciated!
It is time to tram your cnc.
Set the v wheels correctly, one axis at a time.
Set your belt tension, one axis at a time to 3.5 to 5 lbs at a one inch deflection in the center of the belts
Check your Z axis for vertical movement and orientation.
Double check your steps per mm on each axis, one at a time.
Verify your wiring between the controller and each stepper motor with an ohm meter. (unit unplugged, wiring disconnected. should be less than 0.3 ohms on each wire to each axis.)
You have the older gshield or the Xcontroller?
If its the former I bet the Y-driver is overheating, causing a brief shut-down until it cools again. (milliseconds).
Since you have the older gshield and its your Y-axis that is acting up I suspect the main issue is lack of power AND/OR over-heating.
A single stepper driver run two Y-steppers => they get half the power each compared to X/Z => more likely to loose steps
Over time fine dust etc may build inside the controller => poorer cooling conditions. Can result in overheating after some time, like 4years.
You can clean the driver board as an immideate measure, along with measuring the reference voltage for X/Y/Z axis. This voltage govern current limit for each driver, and may not be ideal set.
Overheating is not a problem in terms of the circuit itself, its a preventive measure. The carve is toast, but the driver will most likely be fine. So tuning this may be good thing
