Blown Gecko 320..Strange noises from control???

Hi all,

Last night I was running my mill and I heard a loud pop and I could smell something like linseed oil in front of the machine. Everything seemed fine though, then a few minutes later two loud boomps! And Z axis Gecko went into fault and Z did not work. So I investigated and discovered that the Z gecko had indeed failed and a capacitor on its board had exploded leaving an oily residue under its cover. The Gecko and heatsink were slightly warm and the Z motor was just barely warm, I was fly cutting and hardly using Z at all. Mostly X axis. So I changed the drive with A axis that I rarely use and set the Gain, Damp and Trim as they were on the one that had just ran flawlessly for a year and a half of continual use.

I came in this morning fired up the control It was fine and ran all day. After 14 hours of pulling a 3/4" rougher hogging out some forming dies (heavy load but not unusually so), its been making the loud snap noise and the boomp noise. More boomp than snap though..:-). I'd say it happened about 10 times today at all different times. And after many of them I would immediately check all motor temps as well as open the enclosure and check everything for heating and everything stayed cool and the machine ran perfect all day. Nothing seemed unusually warm, there was no smoke or anything other than the noises. It has never done this before. Using a drop light I could see back under the cover of the Gecko's and there was no blackness, oil or blown anything from what I could see.

Last night when I swapped out the drive, I checked carefully for chips or wires possibly shorting. I cant figure it out. Here is an outline of whats in my enclosure and I dont see how any of it could make a noise unless it fried: Transformer, EMI filter, 3-20k 100 volt Uf Capacitors, Breakout board, 3-Gecko 320's on sinks, Cooling fan, 24-volt power supply for air valve, 24 volt Air valve for coolant mist(neither were on when drive blew, Main power double pole relay. Computer with Surge supressor that also protects the power to the control. I think I may be getting voltage spikes Coming into the building as a few light bulbs throughout the shop have blown in the last few days.

Pics of inside the enclosure are on the "CNC pics" group at yahoo under rogersmach. Any suggestions to what may be doing this? I'm totally stumped. The noise is definitely coming from the enclosure. I checked the voltage from the main transformer and then off the bridge rectifier and it was fine about 72 volts DC. I was thinking maybe the old transformer was shorted internally. It seems fine though.

Ron


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