Source
r/shapeoko•
Elspin

Shapeoko 3 mysteriously died overnight

I was making some registration pockets for my material in my wasteboard last night but this morning when I went to setup the actual job, it wouldn't home at all. When I went to run the machine, everything seemed normal but when I hit initialize it just remained stationary. I can verify through the settings menu that all homing switches are working, so my assumption is either the z-axis motor or driver for it are dead. Would greatly appreciate any ideas for troubleshooting, there's honestly a pretty incredibly low amount of hours on the machine and even lower on the z-axis as it's a relatively recent upgrade to the z-plus so this is pretty disappointing to say the least

Posted Jul 19, 2021, 1:16 AM UTC

611
WillAdams•

Write in to [email protected] and we'll get this sorted out.

5
xraydeltaone•

Was it powered on (but not running) overnight?

2
ElspinOP•

No, I always unplug it when I'm done using it

1
warrantyyvoid•

Shapeoko boards are known to have issues including disconnecting. Do any of the motors work? You could switch the motor wires to a diff axis to test your theory on a burnt out driver chip.

2
[deleted]•

If you just unplug it you have most likely cooked a power mosfet.

Look at the driver when you power it up. If it powers on as green ok. but when you try to home it it might show a red alarm light. Generally means a burnt mosfet.

I just had to replace 3 drives.

1
Anxious_Teach1914•

Try virtually homing to verify your motors are working, connect to cutter and go directly to MDI, type in g28.3 and click send, you can then go into the jog menu without traditionally homing. Turn your machine off and change motor cable extensions, connections on the controller, etc. This will help narrow down possible issues quickly.

Make sure your bitsetter is disabled before doing the above

2
[deleted]•

Regarding the bitsetter comment, absolutely this. I hadn't used my machine for a month or two and I couldn't get it to get past the bit setting part. Turns out I had connected the circuit on the bitsetter by putting the lead on top of the block and closing the circuit, so, o movement at all. Once I realized, simple task to fix.

2
ElspinOP•

Thanks, this was really helpful in diagnosing - motors all work fine, so I'm definitely suspicious something is wrong with the board. After running G28.3 I had the following with all the motors in their proper positions:

  1. X ran completely normally back and forth
  2. Y would only run towards the front of the machine if run backwards
  3. Z would not run at all

I turned the machine off, unplugged all the motors then put the z motor plug on the x pins. After this, it would run down and up but not to the limit switch, like it had a virtual endstop somehow (none of the limit switches were even close to triggering, but it would not move past a certain point)

1
dangerrrnick•

Please read this. As I beat my head against the wall for 4 hours one day. This has happened twice to me in about 5 cuts. I uninstalled carbide motion and reinstalled (remember to configure for your machine). Worked perfectly. Then had to do it again.

Edit: just realized this is from 8 days ago. You get it working ?

2
ElspinOP•

Good to know that this works for some people, but definitely not my problem. During further troubleshooting one of the stepper drivers spontaneously burst into flames, so sadly it was a pricey PCB replacement for me. (I had reinstalled carbide motion, as well)

1
dangerrrnick•

Sorry to hear that.

1