Y axis not in sync

sometimes my Y axis are not running in sync, it could run fine for 10 minutes then go off by more than 1 inch, the first thing I thought was something is loose so I tightened everything 3 times, I have tried a new stepper motor it was not the motor, next I rewired that stepper motor and it was not that either, so it must be the X Controller, I do not know enough about electronics to mess with that, has anyone got any idea what is wrong

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Hey there Patrick,
this is a very common issue what happens usually is that from the operator manually pushing/pulling the gantry front/backwards by hand that backfeeds voltage into the driver and one of the Y drivers will burn up from this excessive voltage and then only one side will drive.
I’m not saying you did this, but typically it is the primary cause of burned up Y axis drivers…

you can test whether the driver is fried by plugging on only one Y motor at a time and then swapping them at the back of the xController… IF the issue follows the xController plug assignment and it’s conformed to be inside the xController than it is most likely the driver chip and usually the burnt chip can even be identified visually once the cover is opened up… the drivers mount to the heat sink and there is one for each stepper motor, if you see one that looks cracked than that’s the burned one…

inventables sells the entire board as a replacement for $140.

Thank you Seth, at least I know what to look for now, I will open the Controller this morning and have a look, I will try swapping the motors first, I am in the UK but I can still get a new board from Inventables as the have an outlet in the UK

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I have swapped the motors at the back of the x Controller but the problem is still on the same side as before, so swapping the motors made no difference, everything points to something being loose on that axis Y2 but I cannot find anything loose, so I take it that the xController main board is okay then

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Yeah that points to the cable or stepper motor than, which is much less $ then the main board so thats good…:+1:
you could remove the steppers and swap those to see if the issue follows the Stepper or the cable. . Also check the white connector for damage.

Thank you Seth
I did get in touch with Inventables yesterday and got a reply last night, they told me to check the potentiometers and dip switches, and sent me the settings that it should be at, so I did that this morning and now when I jog my X and Y only travel half the distance requested and the Z axis travels twice the distance requested, I do not want to recalibrate my machine just yet, I have replied to their email saying what happened and am waiting for a reply, my X-Controller was purchased on 7/7/2016 so it may be different than the newer models, so I will wait for their reply

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The information Inventables sent me is for the standard X-Carve, but my machine has been upgraded to linear rails and ball screws, so they did not apply, I have tried altering the GRBL settings for acceleration $120-$121-$122 and that got the machine running again without missing any steps,I tried a 3d carve yesterday, only the roughing pass I will do the finish pass today, it went for 2 hours without any fault, the trouble is a grinding noise coming from the machine , it is hard to define exactly where it is coming from, I will have to do some more research, my settings at the moment are
$121=60,000
$121=100,00
$122=50,000
I have no idea what they should be, so it will have to be trial and error, at least I seem to be getting somewhere

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