Issue Maintaining Z Belt Tension (M3)

[puterjames]

Okay, great. Let me try adjusting it to see what happens. Thank you!

[puterjames]

Tried that, and still no luck unfortunately.

[Derek the Admin]

I'd suggest really checking everything and rerouting it from scratch.

If everything is aligned and routed correctly and the zip tie is tight it maintains tension.

I tried to rewatch your video and it wasnt showing much for me.

What exactly is happening. I think at this point we might be talking about different things. You are calling someone it a tension issue, but do you mean it is a holding issue? Those are different.

[puterjames]

That is a valid point. At first it appeared to be an issue with the tension in the belt, but after further troubleshooting attempts, it may in fact be a binding issue. I've had others suggest it could be an issue with the motor, but if the motor appears to run fine for some time and then becomes troublesome (as opposed to acting up from the beginning of a jog test with the Z), then the motor would be of more concern in my mind.

With this being said, it very well could be a holding issue. If the mounting piece alone and the Z plate for the router has been jogged upward and then I the attach the router, it immediately begins to drop. I'm not sure if this is normal, but it happens almost every time that I put the router back into the mount.

[rowiac]

Are you absolutely sure that you adjusted the driver voltage to 0.60V?  If you have it adjusted too low, which happens sometimes when using a cheap DVM and the voltage range is confusing, you might have it at 0.06V instead.  If that happens, the motor probably would not be able to lift the weight of the router.

[Derek the Admin]

Rowiac makes a good point. That can be confusing. I've seen once or twice where people were certain they had it at .6 volts and it was actually at 0.06v. Can you please ost a pic of the multimeter reading so we can check it out please?

[puterjames]

Hey guys, just got back to where I can work on the CNC again. I will check the readings and post a pic once I take the measurements and post them here. Thank you again.

[puterjames]

From left to right: X, Y and then Z readings (with the motors unplugged of course).

[Derek the Admin]

Okay, I see the issue. Your multimeter is set to the battery tester. That won't give you a proper reading. Set it to 2000 on the DCV section instead.

[puterjames]

When I set the multimeter to 2000 DCV, my intial readings for the X, Y, and Z drivers show "000" with no decimal. When I turned the Y driver 90 degrees to the right, I got roughly the same reading. It briefly changed to show "001." Not quite sure how to interpret that.

[rowiac]

Make sure you have the multimeter set to 2000m in the DCV section (which is 2000mV or 2V). You should then be able to adjust the driver until it reads 600 (which is 600mV or 0.6V). I can't remember how much I had to adjust the pot on mine, but I don't think you'll break it by turning it. Be careful not to touch anything else with the screwdriver.

[Bruce]

Rowiac brings up a good point. If your multi-meter has 2000mV listed on the selection dial the readout your looking for is 600mV on the readout display.

Also make sure you have the probes plugged in correctly, Red lead in the V, Ohm, mA input and the black lead to COM or common input.

Indecently the common symbol for DC would be the equals sign = sometimes the bottom line may be a dotted line.  The AC symbol is the ~ (tilde sign).

So a V~ would be a setting to read an AC voltage. V= would be a setting to read a DC voltage. 

[jimmyk]

Not sure if this helps, but I use two zip ties side-by-side on all of my belts. I had some slipping and this seems to help.