Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Blown Gecko 320..Strange noises from control???

You might check around for a chart recorder. Esterline-Angus
made them for years. They are pretty out of date now but
their might be one on e-bay. They came in many sizes both
strip chart and circular chart. They had both clock and electric
drives. Many inputs available both ac and dc. If you find one,
make sure you can get the ink and paper for it. Some used
heat to draw on heat sensitive paper. most are either voltage
or current recorders. Some required a transformer to process
the signal to the recorder.

>
>

Wow, that's quite wierd! Do you have any new electrical equipment
there? Air conditioner, refrigerator, anything? Sometimes when
electrical equipment starts, especially larger motors, it causes a dip
in the line voltage. When the line voltage comes back up, the filter
caps are somewhat depleted, and need to charge back up. The lights,
especially fluorescents, might flicker at the same time. (It could
actually be equipment at a neighbor's house, if they are on the same
transformer.)

/// Hi Jon, Thanks for responding. I do not have any new equiptment.
The line is commercial 3 phase. I'm not sure if anyone has any new
equiptment near me but, I dont thinks so. The overhead lights in my
shop are not very responsive, they are heavy wattage and a voltage
flicker would not be very apparent. Could a sudden dip in line voltage
blow a driver? It just seems strange because the drive was at idle.
I've peck drilled holes all day with Z driving the knee and the servo
got a little warm and the Gecko was warm but not excessively so. ////

One other thing I can think of is if the main power switch is going
bad, and every once in a while it gets an open circuit for a moment,
then the current makes a connection again, but the transformer has
lost excitation and has to sync to the line again. This can cause a
big "Boomp" depending on the line phase at the instant it turns back
on. The switch might get warm as a sign of this happening. You could
also check the primary wiring for a loose connection.

/// Good idea, I'm going to check that. I'm also going to wire an
incandescent 110 volt bulb outside the enclosure to the transformers
primary to see if it flickers when the noise happens. It will be right
in front of me and more apparent. ///

It could also be the bridge rectifier may be going out. Usually, those
do no go intermittent first, but anything is possible.

One last possibility is that one of your motors has developed an
intermittent short to ground.

/// My motors are practically new and sealed up water tight with
O-rings and I had them apart doing the encoders last year and all
thats in there is two magnets an armature and two brushes and the
wires were routed properly. The encoders are in a seperate sealed
section altogether. The motor seems like a weak suspect but, I wont
rule it out.





If so, you
will lose another Gecko soon! (I kind of doubt this, as a short to
ground will pop a Gecko pretty quick.)

////my Z drive driving the knee I've noticed since my retrofit it has
been this way. At idle the motor dithers or slight buzzing vibration,
It will stop and start again and gets just marginally warm. The knee
being heavy it stop wherever it wants to rather than float to rest
like X an Y. Is it possible that the drive is not settled in perfectly
and is continually trying to adjust causing a problem? I'm not sure
if thats what it is but it acts like its trying to find Neutral
position. X and Y do not do this.




However, if the Gecko supply is mostly floating, but there is a weak
ground path, maybe through the breakout board, parallel port cable,
computer, power cord anc back to the machine's ground, it might not
blow the Gecko right away. When the short goes solid, lots of stuff
will smoke, cables will melt, it will be a big mess. I hope this is
not what is really going on. Darn strange, I wish I could actually
hear it do it, and see what the machine does at that moment. Does it
twich at all?

///No twitch at all, to be on the safe side I zero'ed out my
handwheels and payed close attention all day to seeif there were any
discrepancies and none were observed.



That might be an
indication that the DC voltage dipped at that moment.

/Sounds like hitting a piece of sheet metal with the bottom of your
fist. I know it's weird. I think the voltage dip from the line or
possibly my primary wiring as you've suggested may be the culprit. In
the morning I'm going to go over it with a fine tooth comb for a
possible short, I've been really busy lately and havent had alot of
time to clean and chips are all over everything. Jon, If they dont
already make one, what would be great to have is a small device
someone could plug into a receptacle and monitor voltage over a long
period of time. It could monitor a certain bracket of voltage and
report when the line dropped out of or exceeded this bracket and
generate a reviewable record. If I had that I could just leave it in a
receptacle and come back later and see what that voltage profile has
been and see if the noise occurences correspond to the device's
report. Lcd screen scroll through the events..haha, I dont ask for
much.

Ron







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