Your motor does not seem to be having the same problem I had. The two pieces seem tight together.
Anyone else got an idea?!
What I guess I am asking is: Do I need a new motor, or is the cable the culprit? How can I find this out? With the X-Y motors it is easy, just swap and check, but the Z cable / motor is special 
Doing some more tests. The red and black conductor do not ring through - so I guess, I need a new cable.
Anyone know of a good source that is on the old continent, ie. Europe, so I won’t have to wait ages and spend a gazillion Dollars on shipping? Or maybe a search term I can use to find something?
Thank you.
marie.o
Now it gets strange. I connected the cables to my original Maslow Arduino and the Z-axis works just nice. I did wiggle a bit on the conductors to make them beep through again, but that’s about it. Now, plugging the cables back into the Due again makes it no go. Even when I wiggle, there is no change. Is the way the Z-axis is controlled different between the original Arduino and the due?!
Just a thought that came up when scanning this post. If you switched from an arduino to a due you need a conversion somewhere. The due works with 3.3V levels, the mega and Uno with 5V levels.
Maybe you need to check into that.
The Arduinos themselves are powered over USB. The shields have the dedicated PSU, which seems to be identical, or at least, MakerMade did not supply a new PSU with the M2 Upgrade Kit.
We’ve been seeing a lot of posts about the maker made kits having z-axis issues. I don’t know what the answer is, but you are certainly not alone.
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What are the alternatives?
I got the first design from them. Had the wrong router for the Z-axis kit they had. Got the upgrade, made a mistake in ordering the wrong bracket. They send me the correct one free of charge. The old arduino now works with the Z-axis motor, but when using it do move around, it gets the error, that the sled can’t keep up (with WebControl or GroundControl), even though I have changed the relevant parameter to 200. The new Arduino has no problems at all moving around (with MakerVerse), but no longer has a working Z-axis.
I am at a lost
marie.o
After unplugging everything, and plugging things back into the old Arduino I was able to do a first half-way successful cut. The Z-axis wasn’t perfect, but I am not too sure, it was the control that causes the issues, or the router that couldn’t hold its bit. For now, I am 
and like what I have.
Thank you for all the patients you have exhibit towards me.
marie.o
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Does your due have 3 or 2 heat sinks? There is a pin swap assignment between them and My z axis (different motor than yours) did a similar thing. We have also seen that the due shields tend to work loose pretty easily and so you might check that since things act weird if they aren’t plugged in all the way. To fix my issue, I had to reflash the firmware, clear the memory, recalibrate. It sounds like your z axis worked and then doesnt, so I almost think it is an encoder problem and yet if it works with the older system, it has to be a code issue.
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I do not see any heat sink on the Due, but three heat sinks on the Due’s shield. For now, I am happy with the old Arduino being able to give me my first successful carves. 
.
I’ll get me some more router bits, will start with some cuts, and if everything works, like I think it should, I’ll become brave, and try the Due again.
Thanks.
marie.o
3 on the shield (not the actual due) is the v2 and should be the default code setup. Is the sled now keeping up?
With the old Arduino everything is working as planned. I have a suspicion, that one of the motors wasn’t connected correctly, causing the issue with the sled not keeping up… 
mistake - guilty 
I am hesitant to connect the cables to the Due, due to the flaky conductors red and black. I’ll stick to the old Arduino until I am a bit more proficient with the whole setup, and the choice of router bits.
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Glad you got it sorted out. Mechanical connections (in my reading of a great deal of forum and facebook posts over the last year) account for a vast majority of user issues. I have a v1 M2 shield on a due as well and I prefer the classic mega because it “just works” and testing gcode settings and bits there are no homing issues - another trend that seem to be happening with much greater frequency in makerverse. I don’t hear much from the classic users using makerverse. When it warms up enough to keep my car outside again, I might try the mega on makerverse and see how it does.
Thanks to Tom, Maria, and all for their posts. I am currently battling this issue --my Z-axis will work for a while and, in the middle of a cut, it will “go Cra-Z.” For clarity, I am gathering from this forum, to try to replace my Arduino (as Maria did)?? …and (2) to also to check all my connections.
This said, has anyone tried to use a dielectric grease (or some conductive substance) on connections? Could this help? …or make things worse?
Thanks for any tips.
I second this one, that’s where I would start. Dielectric grease could help (it should be safe to use), but you shouldn’t need it if they are all plugged in fully
Tony, What shield do you have? can you post a picture?
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Dear Orob and bar,
Many thanks for your time helping me (and maker community.)
Orob, I’ll have to do a photo another time, but I can tell you that I am using an Arduino Duo with a Duo Shield. It’s an M2 model straight from Maker (I think the 2020 model…?).
bar, You’re correct dielectric grease is not the way to go. I did some research and found that ‘conductive carbon grease’ is conductive and that it’s a misconception that dielectric grease helps conduct --it just prevents corrosion. That said, I used some electronics spray cleaner from the hardware store.
All this said, here’s what I learned so far that may help other makers and might help future revisions for the M2. I noticed some slop where the cable attaches to the Z-axis motor. When the machine moves around, it can work fine and if that cable jiggles a bit, then all hell breaks loose and it ruins your project. I cleaned those terminals with the electronics cleaner (maybe not necessary) and then used some quality duct tape to make sure it does not jiggle. (Be careful to make sure all electrical components are completely dry of cleaner before powering them!)
The other thing that maker engineers might do to improve future models is to improve this electrical connection.
Ostensibly, this is/was the problem, but I still have to test it a lot more to know for sure. I am still using the Due and the Due shield. I did not switch to the Mega version.
1 Like
Dear Orob and bar,
Many thanks for your time helping me (and maker community.)
Orob, I’ll have to do a photo another time, but I can tell you that I am using an Arduino Duo with a Duo Shield. It’s an M2 model straight from Maker (I think the 2020 model…?).
bar, You’re correct dielectric grease is not the way to go. I did some research and found that ‘conductive carbon grease’ is conductive and that it’s a misconception that dielectric grease helps conduct --it just prevents corrosion. That said, I used some electronics spray cleaner from the hardware store. (Conductive grease, if ever you wish to play with it, is not the same thing as dialectric grease. ‘8481-1 Premium Carbon Conductive Grease’ is one such grease, but while it can help with conduction, it also can make your terminals quite slippery. )
All this said, here’s what I learned so far that may help other makers and might help future revisions for the M2. I noticed some slop where the cable attaches to the Z-axis motor. When the machine moves around, it can work fine and if that cable jiggles a bit, then all hell breaks loose and it ruins your project. I cleaned those terminals with the electronics cleaner (maybe not necessary) and then used some quality duct tape to make sure it does not jiggle. (Be careful to make sure all electrical components are completely dry of cleaner before powering them!)
The other thing that maker engineers might do to improve future models is to improve this electrical connection.
Ostensibly, this is/was the problem, but I still have to test it a lot more to know for sure. I am still using the Due and the Due shield. I did not switch to the Mega version.