Z1 axis polarity changing and screen freezing seemingly at random

LowRider CNC Advice
1

Hey folks,

The CNC has been working well for a while now. However, sometimes I will have a series of issues that seemingly go away at random. For example, one Z motor will switch polarity. I reboot and it stays the same. I leave it off for a few minutes and it corrects itself. Sometimes it will just freeze mid cut and the touch screen won’t take any input. Then it will go away for a while. I have also noticed that some endstops will stay triggered for several seconds before the LED turns off on the board. Usually these will turn off the second the clip is released. Rinse and repeat.

My theory is the shop surge protector I am is barely able to run the router and control board and that sometimes it flubs the power to the board and causes strange behavior. I am going to plug it into a higher quality protector which may solve my problems, but I don’t have a way to measure the differences since I can’t duplicate the issue at will. I wanted to know if others have insight as to what may be causing this.

I am fairly certain this is the issue which I why I am not posting pictures of the build. I just want some additional input and thoughts.

2

When my stepper cable isnt well connected, the Z motor tries to spin in the wrong direction, but it starts skipping steps, and a strange sound can be heard. Is the same behavior as yours? or does the change in polarity make the Z motor go in the opposite direction without any other issues?

3

I don’t have any step skipping! It just reverses polarity for one motor.

I did conduct my testing and moved away from the surge protector I was using and I have had no issues since then. So far, it seems safe to say my issues were power related.