X Carve Y Stepper motors not in sync, or binding

Hi Everybody,

After working really smoothly for 1 month, the Y1 stepper motor isn’t working in synch with Y2. The Y2 will move4-5 times before the Y1 will lurch forward or backward an inch or so. It feels like it is wrenching the motor when it does this and I am afraid something will break. I have tightened the eccentric spaces and wheels on that side as it seemed like they were a little loose. I also tightened belts on both sides. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

Turn everything off and check the wiring on your Y1. It sounds like it’s being dragged.

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Thanks. It looks like the Y1 isn’t working, like you said. THere was a wire loose, but that didn’t seem to be the problem.

Triple check the wiring (with the controller powered off).

It’s possible that the driver is fried due to an intermittent connection. With the power off, swap Y1 and Y2, power on, what happens?

Thanks Neil,

You were right. Y1 works now, but Y2 doesn’t. DOes that mean that the driver is fried? How do I rectify that?

Thanks

Get in touch with Inventables Support :slight_smile:

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Then the microsettings are most likely different between them.
Or driver is a dud.

Have you found a solution for this issue?

I am having the same issue, but it’s opposite for me. Y2 is the issue, Y1 works great. When I swap the terminals on the x-controller, it switches and Y1 doesn’t work and Y2 is fine, so the motors appear to be fine. Sometimes it will start working in sync again, then in the middle of a carve, it’ll blow the stepper drive chip, and I have to replace the entire circuit board. Inventables has sent me numerous circuit boards, and Y2 replacement wiring, but the issue keeps coming back. I am beyond frustrated. Any tips you have will be greatly appreciated.

Same issue that I am having. Just assembled and trying to calibrate.

I’m having this problem now, what does it take to fix or what do I say to support? I have 3 gifts to carve by this weekend…

Typically this sort of report comes in when one of the 2 axis is completely inoperable, the one thst isn’t working is being dragged around by the one thst is working.

I would swap connectors at the back of the xcontroller to verify if the issue follows the xcontroller plug, or if it follows the wire and stepper motor…

That said a fairly common issue is a loose set screw on the belt pulley causing the motor to just spin freely and not actually drive like It should… or a loose connection. Or broken wire.

Thanks, did switch and problem transferred to other motor. Mine don’t have set screws that I can see? So maybe it’s a circuit or wiring problem

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If the problem moved then it would be internal to the controller. I can’t with good conscience advise opening it up if you’ve never worked on electronics b4… it could be as simple as a lose or damaged wire inside. But more likely the driver is blown

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I just had a similar issue last night. The machine has been working well for a year and upon starting to move the router to the correct position the Y1 moved forward but the Y2 didn’t. The Y1 kind of made some light sounds as it tried to move then the connection was lost between PC and X Controller quickly followed by some smoke coming out of the controller.

Frustrating because I just received the upgrade kit and now I’m down! I have a call into service.

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To me this sounds like a short inside the new stepper motor which caused the driver to fail inside the xcontroller.
Since (I assume) Inventables does not QC these steppers themselves , it is possible that a defective one slipped through their suppliers QC process. I’m sure this doesn’t do much to rectify your situation though… but I wanted to share what I think the root cause most likely is…

Thanks, Seth! I just received a note from support wanting a picture of the inside the controller. They are thinking a chip might have blown. We’ll see if we can get it back going.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it. I appreciate it. - Tom

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I’m currently having this same exact issue. Y1 drags, Y2 moves nicely. Machine was working perfectly fine for a while.

Wires, belts and pulleys looks just fine and we’re tuned according to Seth’s previous thread about it.
I’m just about to loose it and sell this crap of a cnc. Looks like I’m encountering more problems than actually working with it since I purchased the upgrade kit last January.

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:frowning::frowning: sorry your having issues.

If the y1 drags. Try unplugging the y2 and see if it moves at all… if it doesn’t then likely the y2 motor was doing all the work and pulling both sides along. You’d want to do some further troubleshooting to determine if the issue is the motor, cable, or driver chip inside the xcontroller box.