Hey guys. Frustrated mill one user here. Having bad problem with random step loss. All three directions and I have lots of ventilation on the drivers. Any clues?? The step loss is totally random and not code dependent. ie I am not losing it due to code error. thanks
This would be a question for Andy and Chris i think.
If you could post a video, that would help greatly.
Can you describe also:
- Do all the steppers stop at once or one at a time?
- What sound does it make when steps are lost?
- How long can it run for before you start losing steps?
Do you know for sure that it is step loss? If you are having step loss then you will hear a distinct click click click sound. If you are, then you may have a problem in your mechanics.
If your machine is stopping and starting, but the sound does not change, or goes silent, there may be other things you can look at.
- Check if your couplers are tight. Your motors may be turning but your lead screw might not be.
- Make sure that the wires going to your screw terminal for the DC power input is secure. A loose wire or connection might be making it stop and start.
As mentioned above, a video would help a lot. I can usually know the problem right away by hearing it or seeing it happen.
Best,
Andy
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Have had similar issues, usually on jobs running over 20 min. Fixed air circulation issue but when router would suddenly & momentarly stop running traced it back to a faulty power bar. So far only other issue is “clunking” from the blacklash nuts that do cause a slight hesitation but doesn’t seem to affect the actual cut or carve.
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Hey Andy, everything is tight.
The sound is a hard click that only happens on steady pocket operations. I know I am losing steps because the pocket miss-aligns on the next pass. ie the bit goes too far on the next portion of the pass. It only happens on one at a time so far. And it has never happened on a 3d cut. Only happened on v carve and pocket.
You can see the double scoring on the bottom loop of the “L” and the bottom of the “a” and “g”
And now I think I have done it… finally got it to react on video and was not fast enough to stop the machine and now the “Y” axis refuses to move. Emits a humming noise and no go. BUT I GOT THE VIDEO
Not letting me attach the video tho.
@Dusty_Trails did you get this issue fixed? The forum isn’t set up to upload videos, could you put it on youtube or on the Facebook group so that we can see it
Yeah. Somehow the control wires from the driver to the motor got unplugged. I also changed my feeds and speeds but need to be careful how fast I plunge still. Did a carve where it plunged too fast and I lost some very visible steps. I haven’t tried to do any more surfacing passes but plan to soon.
Almost maxed out the mill one’s area but you can see where the bottom left medallion happened and the house got the nasty line across… I should have done mass area cleanup and had the designs stand proud of the actual piece of wood. Canada burr oak. Nice and hard chunk too
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That sounds like a good step in the right direction 
I wonder if maybe the driver current on your motor drivers is a little low or maybe your v-wheels are a little tight. In my experience the Mill One is normally able to plunge or surface at quite moderate speeds with losing steps. The mounts for the brass nuts could also be a little misaligned, it’s easy to fix this by loosening the two M5 bolts to the mount and moving the gantry all the way near to the motor before re-tightening.
In any case, I’m glad you’re back up and running 