VIBRATION during start up and or ?

[GLENN BRADDY]

Epilog owners... any idea. This happen during start up and my last few projects. If I move the I beam to it's furthermost point it happens. I've cleaned both x and Y.. and relubed...

I have an order that I can't fill...until this is fixed..dooh
Thanks

[Larry Bratton]

Glenn:
My EXT sometimes makes a weird noise, I guess you could call it a vibration. This occurs on startup and initial boot when the head is setting itself to home. I have made several attempts at resolving this, but have been unsuccessful. Doesn't seem to have any particular pattern to when it occurs, it also doesn't seem to hurt anything and at the moment, it's not doing it. So, I just run it and continue on and put up with the noise when it happens.

Glenn, please post the type of machine you have in your signature. It will help in solving issues you may bring to the forum.

[Bruce Volden]

#1--does your carriage move freely when not powered up, or do you feel "slight" hesitant areas. I have removed "gunk" from the valleys of the pulleys with a toothpick and things were back to normal

#2--I assume you have servos, these sometimes do this type of thing for reasons unbeknownst to me.

Bruce

[GLENN BRADDY]

Thanks Larry and Bruce
I fixed the problem ... PRAISE GOD!!!! The Encoded just needed a really GREAT CLEANING!!!!! I cleaned both!

[GLENN BRADDY]

well maybe I was wrong

[Scott Shepherd]

I have no idea if it'll help your issue, but on many encoder related issues, you are advised to swap the ends of the cable on the encoder reader. It has 3 pins and only uses 2 if I recall correctly. You can unplug it from the board, then the head, then swap the ends, plug it back up and try it.

I only mention that because you mentioned the encoder strip.

[GLENN BRADDY]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/gebraddy/shot%20show%202010/14b8044f.jpg

here is the picture of what it is doing.. the previous owner said weather might create this?

[Scott Shepherd]

the previous owner said weather might create this?

Yeah, maybe if you were in bad weather on a boat in the ocean.

You need to call Epilog tech support. They are there, it's free, and you'll get expert advice instead of people guessing (like me).

[GLENN BRADDY]

thanks Scott... but tech support is off until next year and so I just thought I would throw it out there...

[Scott Shepherd]

Tech support is closed all week? That's crazy. I understand why you'd ask here then!

[Larry Bratton]

Yeah, maybe if you were in bad weather on a boat in the ocean.

You need to call Epilog tech support. They are there, it's free, and you'll get expert advice instead of people guessing (like me).

WOW! LOL, I'm not even sure that being in a boat would cause that! That is definitely a tech support problem. What did you clean the encoder strip with? Your only supposed to use distilled water.

[GLENN BRADDY]

I did clean the encoder with distilled water. But First I cleaned it with dry Q-tip. After I did that... it was great. ... Then I did a few labels and it was back. and it's a chatter / vibration

[Larry Bratton]

Glen, did you do as Scott suggested..reverse the ends with the encoder strip? If you cleaned it and it straightened out, doesn't it make sense that it is related to the encoder strip?

[Robert Walters]

If I'm understanding the issue correctly, the "chatter / vibration" that you speak of is the servo motor trying to "find itself", and when it can't, it will turn cw/ccw trying to find it's position as reported by the encoder.

If you cleaned the encoder disc once, and it temporarily resolved the issue, sound like you need further cleaning.

Did you use any canned air to blow out anything in the optical interrupter that the disc fits in?
Did you check all the cabling from the encoder back to it's source?
Did you check to make sure nothing has come loose?

In the photo you posted, I see the top is wiggly, and the bottom is good.
Which occurred first? The wiggly or the clean engraving?
If wiggly came first: it seems the it had an unknown position, then found itself.

I'd take the time to break things down and do a good inspection.

[Michael Hunter]

The only time I've seen anything like Glenn's problem was when the screw holding the mirror/lens to the moving carriage came a bit loose on my Epilog.
Might be worth a check.

PS According to an email from Epilog, they are manning the tech support for emergencies this week by email and are there on the phone between 1:00 and 2:00 each day.

[Mike Null]

I recently had a similar experience only to find the the work was moving.

[Emily Wilson]

Last year I had the problem of little wiggly lines in my vector cutting and found that I needed to take the wheels off of the coffee table that my unit was placed on. Previously I had cleaned and cleaned the unit thinking that would resolve my problem The entire unit was not stable when it had wheels on it's table legs. Vibration was wiggly. Vector line resumed best quality when the wheels were removed.

[Richard Rumancik]

Michael could be on to something, suggesting that it is loose optics. Seems to me that if the encoder strip is bad it might mess up the raster along the x-axis but the y-axis is effectively "locked" during each raster stroke. Since the errant strokes seem to be random having a y-component to their direction,(they are not parallel to the x axis) it means that the beam is moving in both axes when it goes bad. A loose mirror or lens could cause this, as the shaking of the carriage could make the lens or mirror flop around, pointing in random directions. Perhaps check all the mirrors, lens, and any mounts and make sure nothing can move around.

Also you could check for any looseness in the y-direction. Check that the left side and the right side have no play in them. I don't know the mechanics of your system but most lasers have one motor for y-axis and then the two sides are coupled together with a shaft so they are driven on both sides from the single motor. If one side became intermittently uncoupled (eg loose sprocket or shaft coupler) then there could be some play in the one side.

[Scott Shepherd]

Either that or take it off the dryer when you are drying tennis shoes :D

Sorry to have fun at your expense, I do hope you get it sorted out soon and report back. I've not seen anything like that before so I'd really like to know what is causing it for future reference.