X axis loosing steps.

[Gary Sansom]

Hi all

I have a laser cutter that has ran flawlessly for the past 3 years but as of yesterday it has been loosing/increasing steps on the x axis.
I have been in to vendor setting and adjusted and this can work for a few cuts before eventually the steps are out again, belts/pulley have also been checked.

Could it be the stepper motor driver or is it likely to be the motor itself?

Thanks in advance for any help as i'm pulling my hair out at the moment.

[Dave Vigness]

If it's just recently came on, then yes, I would suspect the driver or the motor. Quick easy check, swap the connections between the drivers for X and Y. If the problem moves it's the driver, otherwise it's the motor. Do you know what motor you have? I have a few NEMA 23 4 wire motors from some other equipment I've been playing with. I have a couple of a smaller six wire as well, not sure what NEMA classification they are but they are roughly three quarter the size of the NEMA 23's.

Here's another one, flip and reset all the DIP switches before you go to all the trouble of swapping connectors. Can't hurt.

[Gene Uselman]

The six wire motors are three phase, four wire are two phase.

[Dave Vigness]

Correct, I just don't know what he has. I have several of the two phase, and now that I think about it, I don't remember if the others are six wire three phase, or if they are eight wire two phase. Similar equipment from different manufacturers.