Stepper motors stopping

I have looked through the similar issues for the X and Y axis stepper motor issues. I believe that I have no binding on the lead screw and the gantry is aligned properly. When I disconnect the lead screw from the stepper motor, and manually move the lead screw, the gantry moves along the X and Y axis smoothly. With the lead screw disconnected from the stepper motor, and i jog the stepper motor, the stepper motor itself stops. (I use the arrow keys in the Mach3 software to jog the stepper motors) Once the motor stops movement I let off of the arrow key and resume the jogging by using the arrow key the stepper motor will resume movement and will stop again. This happens either direction on both X and Y stepper motors. Any advice will be helpful.

Hit tab and see what the jog function is set on…not sure what its call at the moment but one setting is incremental and the other is continuous.One of the settings will only allow it to travel in a perdetemed distance then stop…until the arrow key is hit again.

This may be a very similar situation?

Monitoring the Mach 3 software and checking voltage inside of the enclosure indicates the the stepper motor is still moving, when the stepper motor is not. Is there supposed to be an encoder on the stepper motor that is letting the software know its location? From all the test that I have performed so far, all indications show that the issue seams to be isolated to the stepper motor.

You said it was both x and y…so you think both motors are bad?.Is this a newly assembled machine that your running for the first time?If so have you tried running the break in file?

I made contact with Aksel with Langmuir. Sent a video of the motors stopping, they determined that the power supply was not working properly. I will purchase the one that was specked next week and see if that cures the issue.

Both my motors stopped working in between cuts. Changed out the power supply. nothing. Good signal from the computer. When you loosen and wiggle the X or Y control there is momentary power to the motor, similar to when you power up the switch. There are no control signals from the computer including Jog.

I would check the 5V supply to the + side of the Stepper Motor Drivers. If that signal is lost the steppers won’t move. However, I think that if there is power to the motors (from the 36V Power Supply) the steppers will be energized and you will NOT be able to turn them by hand. This should prove that you have 36V power but no logic power.

The 5V signal comes from the CrossFire controller board and is marked on the board. I believe the pin has multiple wires connected to it. I’ll see if I can dig up a photo…

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I went out to answer a question for Langmuir and after getting the information I tried turning the motors by hand. They behaved perfectly as should with power on and off.

Turns out it is a software glitch in Mach3. I turned the jog on and off a couple of times. The motors responded fine after that both in the jog mode and on a running program. Who would have thought cycling a switch in a software program would have fixed a problem mechanical problem.

New one for me.