Troubleshooting help Wells Index with Sharnoa Controller. X uncontrolable.

Hi folks.

I have an older Wells Index CNC Mill with a Sharnoa Tiger 3 controller. It ran great when I put it up a few years ago. Called it back into service today and the X axis is acting very weird. Everything on the machine works as it should except the X. I can jog it, but have no real control over it (it jerks, jumps, traverses, etc) and the readout on the screen doesn't change. Y and Z are fine and their registers change as they should. The encoder on the X was replaced a while ago, maybe 10 years? and looks to be in good shape. Should I be looking at the encoder, control, or the drive motor, and what should I be looking for? I wish I had the money for a retrofit. The iron is in impeccable shape, the controller not so much. Many thanks!

Mark

Can you shut off the axis amps and turn the screw by hand? If you can then watch the position readout to see if it tracks the encoder. If it does not I would run new encoder wires temporarily to check that.

Mine is older than yours, made in 1980. A quick and dirty retrofit with Linuxcnc and gecko drives have served me well for 15 years, paid for itself many times over.

That being said, a bigger machine with toolchanger is in the plans

Thank you for your response.

Is your controller a Tiger 3? I've not heard of linuxcnc. I had never heard of them when this machine became available but I knew the Wells Index line very well and took the gamble as it was in excellent condition. I was fortunate that my machine came with a huge box of spare parts, including computer cards for the 1, 2, and 3. My computer crapped out shortly after I got it 15 years ago. Through trial and error, I was able to figure out which board went bad and which ones fit my machine. Got lucky finding the bad one and it powered up. I have to initiate the machine with a tape reader (god forbid anything ever happens to that tape) but once it’s up, I can communicate with a PC through the RS232. In my research I actually came into contact with the guy who invented the Tiger controller. He laughed when I asked for help as he had had nothing to do with them for a good 20 years.

I'm back to work today so I won't be able to look at it again till the weekend, but I'll look at your suggestion. Thanks again!

Mark