Makermade M2 motors hiccuping/sled "jumping"

Troubleshooting
1

Hey yall,

I have an m2 that I am the 3rd owner of but the previous owners couldn’t figure out how to get it working. I was able to get it working but have only done a couple projects with it. This is my 2nd cnc, the 1st being a foxalien masuter. I’m no expert, but I figured it out.

I’m having an issue with the sled “jumping” aka the motors hiccuping when running across the top of the work space. Basically the motors stall briefly when moving. Both motors do it and at about the same spots everytime. The chains are not slipping or skipping a tooth. And I’ve tried lowering the sled speed and it still does it.

I have a 12’ unistrut top beam reinforced with a 2x4. 15’ chains with a counterweoght sytem. 4x8 work area with wings so the sled doesn’t tip off. Latest version of all software I’m pretty sure. It’s only been about a month of me messing with all of this.

I’ve read that the motors and/or board can get overheated and start acting up, OR when running along the top of the work area, the board can’t handle the power requirement and that causes the motors to hiccup. I’ve ordered a 10 amp 12 volt power supply to see if that’s the issue (oem is 5 amp). But I’m wondering if I can fix this issue with the help of this forum. The FB group hasn’t been very helpful, they try, just not enough people on there.

Thanks for any help!

2

Welcome aboard, and it is nice to see another M2 user. There are not very many of us, so it can certainly be difficult to get help in a timely fashion. I have two M2 machines, a FoxAlien Masuter, and a Genmitsu 4040 Pro. I have had my first M2 for about four years now, and it has been a lot of learning and mistakes, but I have also made some really cool stuff with it. Check out My Maslow Adventures to see what it can do.

I have also had issues with the M2 jumping, or I call it “hockey sticking” at the top of the wasteboard. My experience has been that it descends from left to right, and then sharply comes back up to correct itself, hence making marks that look like a hockey stick. I am very interested to hear about your experience with a higher amperage power supply to see if that makes a difference.

That being said, it only happens in the top 10-12" of the wasteboard, so I effectively have to make sure that my work happens in the middle of the wasteboard, and everything is fine. I have also found that the sprockets on the motors tend to back out the set screw over time, which causes the sprocket to move out on the motor shaft and if unchecked, it can fall off the motor. I use blue locktite on those set screws, and keep an eye on them. So far it has been better.

I have also considered upgrading the motors for more power. I have a little extra weight on my sled, and tend to prefer depth of cut over speed, which has worked a little better for me. I try not to exceed 750mm/m, but I can do 2mm depth per pass and it will be okay. If I’m doing work on a hardwood, I’ll slow down to 500mm/m, and maybe reduce dpp to 1.5mm. I have done a few projects at 3mm dpp on plywood and could perhaps go deeper per pass.

I also do not run the router wide open, or even close. I’m using a DeWalt DWP611, and find that it burns through brushes very fast (50 hours or so) running at 6, but running at 1.5-2, the brushes last more than a year.

So with these hokey bicycle-chain machines, patience is your friend, not speed.

I do hope that you post back with an update using a stronger power supply. I think the reason this happens is kinda like weight-lifting (like a clean-and-jerk) where the vertical pull is at a max-power limit, and it just can’t maintain it over a consistent horizontal plane on a nearly vertical incline.

I think many people would agree that although the machine is capable of moving around a 4x8 area, the effective cutting area is more like 3x6.

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Update.

The higher amp power adapter did nothing when jogging the machine with maker verse.

BUT, it doesn’t “hiccup” when a project is running. I use my m2 to make panels for speaker boxes mostly and it cuts smooth and straight towards the top of the work area with no issues. But I also orient the panels low on the work piece so as to avoid going all the way to the top, and use the bottom and/or sides of the plywood as edges of the panels so it doesn’t have to run all the way to the edge.

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