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DynaTorch - Servo - X slave keeps burning up...

cncheese

Plastic
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Location
Texas USA
Any ideas on what would cause the X-slave servo to go out two days in a row...

Smartmotor went out yesterday and Dynatorch rma'd one today... installed, did some tube cutting, then started in on plate and two parts later the damn servo crapped out AGAIN. Got a call into them again, was just curious if anyone has had similar issues?

Thanks!
 
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Two failures in a row seems to indicate a major problem, which needs to be investigated before you toast another motor.

The Animatics motors operate off a separate DC power supply, which is easy to check. check the voltage at idle and with one of the axis motors in jog. The power supply would be the first thing I'd troubleshoot. Check the current draw to each motor as well.

Did the motor overheat when it went out? A little more detail on how it failed might prompt someone to suggest a more useful response.

Double check things like cables and grounding too, a cable that's shorted somewhere is a possibility.

You can discover a lot with a simple volt/ammeter to try to isolate your problem. Spend some time searching before you fry another...

Chris
 
Got another on order... Thinking it is a wiring issue with the ground or the harness.

No heat, just quit working-No lights, red or green.

If it were up to me we would pull every wire off and start from scratch! Paranoid like that.
 
Well, it's not the ground... We've grounded the heck out of this machine. X Slave is still crapping out (motor #3). Wierdest thing, cutting along great and then @#$^%@#$, communication error, restart the machine and 2 motors not responding.

Cutting 11gauge mild steel. Damn it!
 
trouble shooting

While I don't know a thing about your machine, I have been involved in electronics since before transistors were invented...

I believe that you keep frying the same motor/servo each time. If that is indeed the case before you fry #4 I would seriously consider that there is a defect in the driver that supplies this servo.

It is not likely that you would have three dead motors in a row. If I were servicing your machine I would replace the driver board for that servo.

If the manufacturer doesn't want to replace the servo driver, either swap the driver board for that axis, or put the replacement motor into service on a different axis and place one of the motors that have survived these faults in the x axis and then see what dies.
Paul
WB9HCO
 
Paul, you're correct the same motor dying each time. Initially they said it was a grounding issue, however now it may be a cable issue. Also, we already swaped a motor from the tube cutter and burnt it too... My first thought is to reassemble the whole damn thing, but that's not popular "yet".

When you say driver board presume you are referring to the fiber optic connection? About to take some pics and send to dynatorch, I'll post them here too.

For the record Dynatorch has been par for the course regarding support. Not spot on but ok, they have replaced and are replacing the spent motors while working thru the problem with us.

Thanks for the input
 
It is not likely that you would have three dead motors in a row. If I were servicing your machine I would replace the driver board for that servo.

Paul;

Dynatorch uses Animatics Smartmotors. Thus, the driver is part of the motor. The trajectory information is sent to each motor via RS232 or RS485, down the same cable bundle with the HV supply. It's a great concept for low noise applications, one of which is not a plasma table.

The arguments between the makers of Dynatorch, Torchmate, and other low end plasma CNC systems are endless and vicious. Smartmotors often come up in these arguments.

These low end plasma tables can yield incredible return on investment, which is why they are so popular. IMO, the cost savings is in all cases the result of shortcuts in the electrical design.

My guess is that common mode currents are killing the motors. More specifically, it is taking out the drive hanging behind the motor. Whether its called a cable problem or a grounding problem is just semantics.

Doug
 
I heard of a simular problem with another Dynatorch owner. It turns out that the fiber optics to the slave was the problem.

Magma-joe
 
cncheese, any solution? I am curious what you have found. Our DT has roughly the same thing going. This is our second kit to do this. The difference is that the issue happens at turn-on time, not when running.

WSS
 
You almost certainly describing electronics problems, as mentioned above. Quite possibly design problems: "#$Q%#$%" is software lost its mind because of electronic glitch that also fried the drive amp input. In the other case it's from the power-on transient.
 
Well, it is looking like a ground problem due to my using a laptop. Leon spent a full day running the problem down. It was popping the communication side of the motors via the 5volt side of the com lines going to the motors from the laptop. We had to add a ground from the com port housings to the control console. It ran all day with good clean motion on 5/8" AR500.

DT (Mike and Leon) hunted it down in good fashion.

WSS
 
Perfect example of cost savings - It should have isolators on all those lines...

I am a machinist not an electrical engineer so please excuse if I am in error, but isn't "isolation" the opposite of "ground"?

I am happy it is running smoothly again.

WSS
 
re: isolation

If the laptop and the motor had been isolated by the manufacturer you never would have had the problem in the first place.

Grounding is more of a physical act that we implement electrically to control static and stray fields, and to protect operators from 'hot leads' that energize equipment and then presents a lethal voltage to the operator... not so much to protect the equipment.

Isolation is a design that restricts interaction of two system to desired limits.

The isolation would have prevent any interaction of your laptop and there system except what ever it was intended to do in the first place. No stray voltages or problems on your side would have affected the equipment.

Good case for fiber optic interfaces... not to make light of your problem...

paul
 
Correct, It is a fiber optic system. The problem was actually in a adaptor (rs232 I think to USB) that would have been properly grounded had the USB went to a tower (non laptop) chassis. This is as I understood it.

What I can say for sure, is it runs great now. This may have been a problem that has plagued me (and DT) for some time. When we first installed it this happened and this is the second round of trouble. Let me tell you- they have spent lots of $$$$ on warranty and tech support with our machine, in fact our machine is out of warranty and our cost has been basically shipping of small parts. They stand behind it, if this is a needed fix, I am sure it will be addressed and corrected.

a few months ago, I asked Mike Clem if it was possible to do a few tricks with the G-code. He said no but give him a few days. I had a new version that did what I needed two days later. These are just facts, true accounts of how they deal with there customers.

I have no clue if the lines should have been isolated, but I do know I am happy when a part comes of the table that that needs no finish work. I actually had some parts returned becuase the edges were "too sharp", the DWG stated "break all sharp edges" I had to laugh.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Fullmoon as much as I am!!
Cheers,
WSS

PS, I am curious what cncheese's solution was?
 
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More motor fun

Ours fell off the wagon this week. Lost another slave motor. Anyone have any similar problems (maybe with a solution attached)?

WSS
 








 
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