Hi everyone, i am back.
My brother managed to get me a smaller space in his work shop, so i am back working on the LR3.
So everyone remembers its a somewhat standard LR3 with a jackpot board and a m5 fluid dial (thanks @DougJoseph for your instructions)
FW is 3.13 (newest is .17 but issues getting that installed)
So now the problem.
Before i had to pack it up, i had this problem that the x axis would work for homing and jogging etc and would work for cutting, but randomly it would just cut out.
It took me ages to figure this out, as you dump the power (or at least i do) when the LR3 goes wrong. So i was not able to find the problem. I proved the problem when i was cutting a bit of 17mm film face ply (the one with super smooth black coating) and ii noticed t was just driving back and forward and getting deeper when it was supposed to be making a square.
So sure enough the x axis was like it was un powered as i could move it around by hand while the machine was in a cut.
So fast forward to today and over my break i thought it might be the holding and driving amp settings. But that made no difference. (So i changed them back)
Also now homing is affected, when trying to home Z works fine, Y works fine, but X either jumps around like the steps are out of sync or just tried to move and then just stops and then the motor has no power.
While this is going on the jackpot is just sitting there waiting and i can manually hit the end stop twice and its happy. But the X motor no longer holds its self.
So the motor is not and the only way to get power back to the motor is power cycle the board, via the power switch.
As best as i can i have. I have checked each wire with a multi meter, while moving the gantry. and they all tone out fine.
in terms of the grub screw, i could see that error if i was missing steps, but the whole axit motor looses power. Prior to homing I can push the X axis, with a bit of force and it wont move. Sure i can over come it and it skips steps and stops and then it is holding again.
But as soon as I try to home it, it looks like the step pins are wrong and it stutter back and forth until I kill it. I have a video, but no way to upload it.
Oddly enough if i dont home and just try to move x with the pendant or the web interface all that happens is the x axis make the sound of it trying to move one step and then goes slack. none of the stuttering etc. edit
Even though the X axis is now, dunno “switched off” as in i can move freely, with no power to the motor, the Z and Y axis are still working fine via the pendant or the web interface.
ok, i found it! @jeffeb3 was right, sorta, it was the wires… ish
reading jeffs comment i pulled the plug out of the jackpot, did the testing and put it back in etc. more testing for the $SS command etc.
then i was thinking i need to rule out the driver chip and i was just moving the cables around to clear the driver chips etc and i noticed that when i was moving the cable bundle of most of the axis the red cable on the X connector was moving! So the black block connector is not holding the pins any more.
I also know why it was not happening on the old BTT board as they were held in and on with hot glue. I had not done that yet on this board due to the testing a sorting of wires etc.
So problem is know known, and that is easy to solve.
You can upload it to google photos, imgur, or youtube and post a link here.
Glad you found it. Wiring issues are the worst because you can only diagnose them by eliminating everything else. And unless you find a smoking gun (like you did), it can be hard to be confident it is fixed. Maybe slightly worse than wiring is EMI problems. Those are like ghosts.
