I’ve had my AltMill for about two months. So far, I’ve made a few projects; nothing fancy or sophisticated. The latest project took approximately an hour to run.
Twice, I have had one of the electric motors start making a crackling/sputtering noise AFTER the toolpath has completed. The first time on the right Y axis motor. The second time on the Z axis. The noise only stops after I power down the SLB controller. Sieneci Labs has been great in quickly sending me replacement motors.
I was just wondering if I’m just having bad luck, or if others have also had the same issue? Turn your volume up to hear on the attached video.
I suspect it’s caused by the closed loop system of the motor correcting position. Although I can’t really hear the noise in the motor in your video, I have had noises from both Y motors on occasion (actually also on the X motor but it’s rare). When you hear the noise, try turning whatever screw is relevant (the coupler between motor and screw is the best place) a bit by hand. In my case the noise stops.
In most cases the noise disappears shortly after it starts. I ignore it now.
@Chucky_ott used the same term to discribe his mysterious ghostly sounds a way back. It has hounted me to this day, waking me up at night, screaming. And now finaly, after all these years of looking over my shoulder, the mystery might be solved.
I hope tha chuckster will come in and comfirm the sound he mentioned in his topic is the same as yours and if so, how to cope with it.
@horsiedad@Spamming_Eddie yup, same sound, but perhaps not as loud. For me, it only appears to be on one or both of the y axis motors. It was hard to say because of the resonance through the aluminium extrusions.
Unfortunately, I haven’t received my spindle and I’m knee-deep in building an addition at the cottage, so I haven’t been using the Altmill at all these past few months.
I guess I should fire it up and see if it still does it. And perhaps open a ticket with Sienci while my Altmill is still under warranty.
Do watch that warranty bit - I think it’s only 3 or 4 months …. and you say that you haven’t used your mill at all in the past few months. Sience seems to be a bit flexible with the warranty term but why risk it.
I heard the same thing today on my altmill. I’m just finishing up dust collection and table build out so not much use yet. I’ll try stay tuned to this topic so please keep any resolutions posted.
To my ears, that sounds like the closed loop control side of the motor correcting for minor positional changes. It’s part of a PID control loop, and could potentially be detuned to be less sensitive – but practically its unlikely to cause any issues besides the noise and perhaps a little heat.
Positional hold noise like that is very common, in my experience with servo and step-encoded machines.
Thanks for the feedback. A couple of questions/comments: 1) What’s the chance that this ongoing positioning will shorten the lifespan of the motor? 2) Since Siensi sent me two replacement motors, it implies that they think the motors are defective. Would they not offer to “detune” the motors if that was the fix?
You are assuming that they (or the person you communicated with) knows of this problem It is also possible that even though they know, they just decided to make the customer with a new machine happy (they do that sort of thing).
I do not know the reasons but it is quite possible that they have tried explaining the reason for the noises to other customers who either didn’t believe the explanation or requested replacement motors anyway and now the official response is, in order to avoid the hassle, send out new motors and let the customer see for themselves that the new motors do the same thing.
I dont think warranty lengths are set by law in either country. If you buy it from another country then you are probably bound by that companies warranty. If the were selling inside your country that might be true.
No issue here, and I am over the moon with response times and customer service/support. I work in a plant and have seen many of machines come and go along with the companies whom install them. And this company is doing AWESOME. This is our first CNC machine 4x4 Altmill. And from the program (vectric) to the machine assembly installed and software. Very user friendly. Highly recommend. Go big and that’s what we did. I work with life long wood workers and this adds a different craft to their toolbox.