2001 VF3 Alarm 104 Y Axis Servo Too Large

Happy New Year and happy Monday....the day our machines love to quit!

I have a 2001 VF3 and when I home all axis's I get an alarm 104 Y axis servo too large. In the past we could normally restart the machine a few times and everything would eventually work, not so much today. Ive been messing with it all morning and cant get past this error. I can single axis home the X & Z with no problems but not the Y. Low voltage checks out to each amplifier so I don't believe its the low volt power supply. Id like to swap servo amps to another axis and see if the problem follows. We do have a 4th axis drive in this machine that is not being used however this drive looks to be smaller than the XYZ drives. Im the 2nd owner of this machine and it looks as if the 4th axis card was added at a later date so maybe the newer cards are smaller but Im not really sure. Based on the picture does anyone know if the A-axis card (far right) will work on the Y axis? Part # on the larger amps is 4017C and smaller amp is 4015N-D.



Thanks in advance,
Jim

Swap the X and Y servo amps and see if the problem follows. If it does, you need a drive. If it stays, you need to look at the motor or encoder or you have mechanical binding. Try turning the Y axis screw by hand.

You can also get current part numbers on the Haas site. Can also check with the local HFO tech (or call the factory people), and see if good enough to try. They might be closed today though....

ewlsey said:

Swap the X and Y servo amps and see if the problem follows. If it does, you need a drive. If it stays, you need to look at the motor or encoder or you have mechanical binding. Try turning the Y axis screw by hand.

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Thanks ill give that a shot.

eaglemike said:

You can also get current part numbers on the Haas site. Can also check with the local HFO tech (or call the factory people), and see if good enough to try. They might be closed today though....

Click to expand...

yea my HFO is closed today but I sent them an email, hopefully ill get a response tomorrow.

ewlsey said:

Swap the X and Y servo amps and see if the problem follows. If it does, you need a drive. If it stays, you need to look at the motor or encoder or you have mechanical binding. Try turning the Y axis screw by hand.

Click to expand...

I pulled back the Y axis way cover and with the estop on I was able to turn the ball screw by hand so nothing was binding but in doing so it seemed to have solved my issue......for now. Im not sure what that means but ill continue to look into it. As long as I dont power down the machine it will be fine but we usually like to shit down the machines for the weekend.

It's probably still in the drive. These intermittent faults never get better. Plan to swap it ASAP or at least have a spare on hand.

jimmyfab said:

I pulled back the Y axis way cover and with the estop on I was able to turn the ball screw by hand so nothing was binding but in doing so it seemed to have solved my issue......for now. Im not sure what that means but ill continue to look into it. As long as I dont power down the machine it will be fine but we usually like to shit down the machines for the weekend.

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I'm sorry, but your typo makes me want to suggest you stop shitting in your machines.

Those are some really old drives, just replace the Y axis drive. Pretty soon the X axis cable will break and probably fry the X axis drive so be sure the new drive goes on the Y axis, that cable is not being dragged under the covers. I would not bother with HFO, after core charge, $600 and you have a new drive, you are going to need one soon anyway. Welcome to Haas!

I posted on the other forum, but this thread has different information.

When you are getting the servo overload, is the machine maxed out in travel to the rear of the machine? Is this happening when your try to reference the machine? If you answered yes to these questions, then you could simply have an issue with the y-axis home switch. The problem could be either chips causing a bad read or a faulty switch.

Pull back way covers and clean the reference switch

haastec said:

I posted on the other forum, but this thread has different information.

When you are getting the servo overload, is the machine maxed out in travel to the rear of the machine? Is this happening when your try to reference the machine? If you answered yes to these questions, then you could simply have an issue with the y-axis home switch. The problem could be either chips causing a bad read or a faulty switch.

Click to expand...

In this situation the machine was maxed out in the Y direction towards the front of the machine. Moving the ball screw by hand solved this issue this time which made me think of the home switch being the issue.