Home position shifting - Just in time for the weekend

[Bruce Clumpner]

Was running a simple raster/vector job and popped a breaker (twice).. Everything seemed to power up after the last one, but now my epilog mini seems to be shifting the x-axis home to the right as it makes it way down the y-axis. Stabilizes about 1" down and runs OK from there. At the end of the job, the head resets back into the new home position.

I've attached a scan of a grid showing the drift...

Any idea what I did, or need to do to get this corrected?

bc



http://s1001.photobucket.com/albums/af139/bruceclumpner/?action=view&current=homing_error_4-2-10.jpg
http://s1001.photobucket.com/albums/af139/bruceclumpner/?action=view&current=homing_error_4-2-10.jpg
http://s1001.photobucket.com/albums/af139/bruceclumpner/?action=view&current=homing_error_4-2-10.jpg

[AL Ursich]

I would power down everything and bring it all back up again....

AL

[Bruce Clumpner]

a couple of times doesn't seem to make any affect... Oh yeah, epilog is closed for good friday, so no help there until monday.

[Peck Sidara]

Bruce,

A shift in the engraving is typically due to a dirty encoder strip OR a failing encoder flex cable. Try cleaning the strip first: http://www.epiloglaser.com/tech_library.htm (it's under system maintenance) and try to blow out the encoder reader while you're at it

Run a few jobs on scrap material....and if it still occurs, you should try flipping the white flex cable over end to end (while the machine's off). The flex cable attaches to the encoder reader (circuit board attached to engraving head/on top) and to a small circuit board near the x-motor on the right. Note which end is which using a sharpie, disconnect, flip end to end.

I would also check the x-axis belt tension, a super loose belt could also cause the shifting. With the machine turned off, move the head to the far left, I-beam to the far back (away from you). Feel one of the y-axis belts (left or right) to get a sense of how the x-axis belt should feel. Although probably not exactly the same belt tension as the y-axis, this at least gives you a rough idea of how tight the x-axis belt should be. To adjust the x-axis belt, remove left side panel of machine, look on left side of I-beam and you'll see the pivoting arm that allows adjustment to the x-axis belt (phillips head screw).

Hopefully the above gets you thru the weekend. Give tech support a call Monday morning to continue the trouble-shooting.

[Bruce Clumpner]

Peck,

Thanks for the info, Sorry you didn't take off like everyone else there.

Guess I didn't mentioned that I spent a couple of hours last night cleaning the machine, including the I-beam. It ran a couple of small jobs afterwards and it tested ok, and so thought the breaker shut down was to blame for the problems.

I've had some registration problems in the past, and have cleaned the encoder strip and blownout the reader in an effort to fix it. It seemed to be working ok, but didn't really check registration with multiple passes. I'll check the tension and try swapping the reader ribbon cable to see what happens.

Will email to tech support if nothing seems to clear it.

bc

[Martin Boekers]

I found that most the trouble I get is in the reader. It's hard to get a can of air to clean it out good. It just takes a minute or so to take it off and give it a good cleaning.

I was told in the past to run an X Axis calibration whenever I changed a strip or motor. I run it now everytime I have an issue surface, Maybe Peck can address how often we need to run that.

Thanks!

[Brian Robison]

I'm betting on it being the cable. If it is, order another to keep around.

[Bruce Clumpner]

From what I'm told, it's probably not the ribbon but the connector. their test it to swap ends, and if it works, then obviously the connector at one end is bad.

I'll look up how to do an x-axis calibration and go from there..

Thanks everyone for their input. Will put it to the test in the a.m.

bc

[Bruce Clumpner]

A couple of things came up this weekend, so I finally got to re-tensioning the X-axis belt this morning.. And everything works.

Thanks to everyone

[Peck Sidara]

I found that most the trouble I get is in the reader. It's hard to get a can of air to clean it out good. It just takes a minute or so to take it off and give it a good cleaning.

I was told in the past to run an X Axis calibration whenever I changed a strip or motor. I run it now everytime I have an issue surface, Maybe Peck can address how often we need to run that.

Thanks!

Martin,

What the x-axis calibration does is calibrate both of the x-axis encoders on the Legend EXT, only time it'll go out of calibration is when one of the two encoders are replaced (strip or motor).

You do not have to run this on a regular basis. Should you decide to check it from time to time, the values should remain the same. If they don't, then the encoder strip is dirty, encoder reader is dirty/faulty and or the x-axis motor pulley has debris built up on the cog causing the x-axis motion/movement to not be true.

The Legend EXT is the only Epilog product offered with dual x-axis encoders so this feature only applies to the EXT.

HTH