Accuris skipping inquiry

[Marc Nicoloudis]

Good evening Everyone,

I have a Pinnacle/Accuris 30watt engraver that has recently been skipping midway through a file. This only happens when rastering. It is intermitant, and seems to be better if I slow the speed down a bit. I am currently using Coreldraw X6. I am running files from a parallel port laptop running XP. Wondering if anyone(not sure how many of us are still left)has encountered this and what was done to alleviate the problem. Thanks, Marc

[Dan Hintz]

What do you mean by "skipping"? Can you post a picture?

[Marc Nicoloudis]

Yes Dan,
The file will start out normal, and then about a 1/6th of the way through the raster engraving, the machine(or software) skips on the X axis only, about a half an inch to the right, and then continues normally. Essentially, I end up with the rest of the drawing a half an inch off. With what I believe to be a solid transmission feed from the laptop, I am wondering if maybe the machine(stepper motors) are losing steps. Maybe this is why when I slow the machine to 94%, I am not having the problem. Not a huge deal, as I don't mind running a bit slower, just wanted to tackle this if I could. Thanks, Marc

[Richard Rumancik]

Okay, after rastering some portion, the image shifts to the right by a half inch . . .

Does this machine really have steppers? What model is it? I thought they were the same as the LaserPro which always had servos as far as I know. If it is steppers I have no idea as these are usually operated open-loop. They would only lose steps if the system was overloaded (high friction in a bad bearing for example.)

If it has servos then maybe the encoder disk is dirty. There have been some threads on this. Here is one:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ed-help-please

See Rodne's post. If you use air to clean it, it must be dry, clean air, at very low pressure. The cans of air are safer as the wheel is delicate. You might be able to dislodge dust with a fine artist brush. Also make sure the wheel is secured tight to the shaft.

I also thought that maybe bad memory could cause it; you could try reseating the RAM or replacing. But since the problem went away at slower speeds I am leaning more to a mechanical issue. You imply that the laptop is streaming data to the laser as it rasters but I think that it dumps the entire file into laser memory before it will start to raster.

If this machine is the same as a LaserPro there is a self test diagnostic. There is a motor test routine - but I'm not sure if it can detect a bad encoder or not. Might be worthwhile to run it though. It will also check RAM.

[Marc Nicoloudis]

Richard,
I guess I just saw oriental motor, and thought steppers! I will have to check out the encoder disc threads. will update with my findings. Thank you for the information-Marc