Speedy 300 owners: does this sound normal to you?

[Raphael Weil]

Long story short, I've been having issues with my brand new Speedy 300. On the 4th ever (raster) engrave the arm started making atrocious grinding sounds running one of Trotec's raster demos. The short version is code 147 (Y axis issue), blown fuse inside the electrical box where the motherboard is (which wound up being from one of the motors working too hard), flashed the firmware, and it's back to working again. But with the left panel open and nothing else happening, the Y motor makes this sound:



Since I'm not totally convinced that magically flashing the firmware is going to correct whatever motor issues were there before to provoke that grinding, I'm wondering if that Y motor is potentially defective. If that sounds normal then I'll just chalk it up to firmware weirdness and carry on.

On a side note, I learned a lot from 3 days of troubleshooting with my technical rep, and thought it would be cool to have a Speedy 300 troubleshooting thread where people share their errors and fixes. I looked to see if one existed and didn't find one. Should I make one? If there's an old one, could someone link me to it so I can put in what I've learned? These buggers take a tiny 6.3A 250V slow blow fuse if you ever need one btw. One store in my city had them.

[Mike Null]

Raphael

Comments can be posted here rather than on a site you are hosting.

Sorry to hear about your problem. I haven't experienced anything like that nor have I heard of another situation like it.

[Raphael Weil]

Raphael

Comments can be posted here rather than on a site you are hosting.

Sorry to hear about your problem. I haven't experienced anything like that nor have I heard of another situation like it.

Mike how do I post a sound clip on here without hosting it elsewhere?

[Mike Null]

I don't think you can. Why not try a You tube type thing?

We don't allow postings on SMC that we can't edit.

[Raphael Weil]

I don't think you can. Why not try a You tube type thing?

We don't allow postings on SMC that we can't edit.

Ok will do. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between youtube (that hosts video) and a site like Clyp (that hosts audio), but I'll do whatever keeps folks happy.

[Mike Null]

Raphael

Have you discussed this with Trotec tech support?

[Raphael Weil]

Raphael

Have you discussed this with Trotec tech support?

Yeah we've been enjoying each other's company for 4 days now.

[Neville Stewart]

Very sorry top hear of your woes with a new machine Raphael. If its any consolation at least youre in good hands. They charge too much for them to allow them to give you any trouble, wink!, Remember the old story, Rolls Royce driveshafts don't break Sir, Im afraid you don't owe us anything : )

[Keith Winter]

Good luck. I hope the firmware fixes it. It's possible the grinding issue was something related to it trying to go too far on the axis. If so firmware may help. That's purely a guess based upon what you said they did to fix it. Let us know what happens.

[Raphael Weil]

Good luck. I hope the firmware fixes it. It's possible the grinding issue was something related to it trying to go too far on the axis. If so firmware may help. That's purely a guess based upon what you said they did to fix it. Let us know what happens.

I suspect it was indeed that. Since replacing a fuse and flashing it twice, I've not had any issues.

Still not sure if the sound the Y axis motor makes when idling is normal. Any Speedy 300 owner ok with me messaging you the audio clip? Just curious what yours might sound like compared to mine.

[Mayo Pardo]

My speedy 300 motors make no noticeable noise.
Are you sure it's not something else making the noise, like maybe the air assist compressor - assuming you have one built in?

[Robert Tepper]

Raphael,

When calling for tech support with a problem as serious as yours, Trotec will start by flashing the firmware to be sure that your software is the latest version and that it has been installed properly and not damaged.

There are several excellent tech support people there, Brett and Mike are two of several that I prefer to talk to, they know what they are doing.

I don't have a Speedy, I have a Rayjet 300 and it is basically the same physical machine, the difference being a more advanced software.

So, at this point are you running and the machine is responding properly? Please keep us informed. I too have had a few problems, but in 4 years my machine has been down a total of 2 1/2 days.

Robert

[Kev Williams]

For what it's worth-

I can relate to firmware issues-

About 3 years ago I attempted to upload new firmware from Gravostyle 7 to my LS900. The machine accepted it, and the new driver had some cool features I was looking forward to- like bottom-up engraving finally, and 3600 dpi resolution- but alas, the first time I sent a vector cut to the machine to follow some raster engraving, I was greeted with 'wheeeeeee--BAM!! followed by the machine-gun racket of the laser head repeatedly slamming the wall while making a run for New Jersey! Well, since that didn't work, I uploaded the old firmware back in. And since then, the machine runs fine, as long as I run any and all vector jobs from Corel ONLY. I can run raster jobs from Gravostyle, but if I send a vector job from Gravo, it will head toward New Jersey- but at about 2mm per second, super slow motion. And then the driver is corrupted for both Corel and Gravostyle, and I have to reload it. Gravograph CS informed me that I likely corrupted the LS900 mainboard when loading the new firmware, because it wasn't designed for it. (so why did it load it?)

Anyway, just another story that attests to the fact that firmware issues can cause some rather bizarre issues. You should hopefully have no more problems with your new Trotec! :)

[Raphael Weil]

Ya the compressor is on the other side of the machine. It's for sure coming from the Y motor. I have a long warranty, so I suppose if it's something that's going to fail it'll fail big soon enough. My X motor makes no noise like that. The weird thing is I did have alarm 147 which we eventually cleared with firmware (which relates to the Y axis), but it wouldn't surprise me if there's something not right with the motor.

[Neville Stewart]

I know on my CNC machine, I have incorrectly set the wrong stepper instructions and I made the motor sound like hell till I re set them.

[Jon Colley]

I have listened to the audio clip several times and I don't think it is possible to tell if this noise is "normal" or not from the clip. There is a certain amount of noise in all servo motors depending on the size of the motor, the holding current, the motion control algorithm, etc. There is noise in the clip from the laser tube cooling fans and we don't know where the microphone is situated or if the side panel is on or off.

I know from my years in this business that these systems always seem louder in the shop compared to the showroom. This is because the showroom is typically larger so the noises (especially the tube cooling fans) aren't reflecting off of walls that are closer to the machine. We also have drop ceilings or high ceilings in the showrooms so the sound reflections from above are minimized.

When the noise occurred during engraving, were you engraving from top to bottom or bottom to top? If it was going bottom to top, some part of the axis may have jammed on a plate at the back of the chassis that is designed to direct the exhaust flow. If this is the case, it should be adjusted by our local technician.

If you are worried about the noise that the Y-axis makes while idle, I can certainly have a replacement motor sent up if you want to try it. I think the noise may just be normal, but I can't tell for sure. If it would set your mind at ease, I have no problem with sending up a motor.

[Raphael Weil]

I have listened to the audio clip several times and I don't think it is possible to tell if this noise is "normal" or not from the clip. There is a certain amount of noise in all servo motors depending on the size of the motor, the holding current, the motion control algorithm, etc. There is noise in the clip from the laser tube cooling fans and we don't know where the microphone is situated or if the side panel is on or off.

I know from my years in this business that these systems always seem louder in the shop compared to the showroom. This is because the showroom is typically larger so the noises (especially the tube cooling fans) aren't reflecting off of walls that are closer to the machine. We also have drop ceilings or high ceilings in the showrooms so the sound reflections from above are minimized.

When the noise occurred during engraving, were you engraving from top to bottom or bottom to top? If it was going bottom to top, some part of the axis may have jammed on a plate at the back of the chassis that is designed to direct the exhaust flow. If this is the case, it should be adjusted by our local technician.

If you are worried about the noise that the Y-axis makes while idle, I can certainly have a replacement motor sent up if you want to try it. I think the noise may just be normal, but I can't tell for sure. If it would set your mind at ease, I have no problem with sending up a motor.

I was engraving top to bottom, and the recording is with the side panel off, right beside the Y motor.

I may do a second recording and post it while the machine boots up. By doing that you can actually clearly hear when the motor noise starts in relation to the rest. I'll try and get that up tomorrow. I appreciate the time you took to reply, and I'll get a better clip up. Man this site is fantastic. Good people.

Once I do that John if it sounds abnormal to you, I'll swap the motor out. Fwiw right now the laser seems to be working fine. I haven't had any failures since the original 2.