You are right that the machine is now confused about where it is because it thought it was moving different motors but you do not need to do the whole calibration just Actions -> Set chain lengths automatic
I’m checking on that order now and if it hasn’t already shipped we’ll get a shield in there
I’m glad I found this thread. My Z-axis started having crazy behavior! Tried the easy fix of re-seating the wires. The one behind the machine on the arduino (that I rarely look at) was loose. Works again! I got lucky this time!
I’ve been making a bunch of stuff. I’ll have to post it in the projects page when I get time.
We had a load of radio interferrence over the Z-Axis when the motor started to turn. You would not see it with a normal VU-meter. But when we used a osciloscope that had really high resolution , we could see it. The problem was a signal jumping between 2.5 and 7.5 volt. This would mean that the rise and fall was incorrectly detected. We solved it by radio insulating the z-axis wire. We did that by using aluminium tape all around it from motor towards board. Then after we connected the earth motor wire to the aluminium tape by using a crocodile/aligator clip , because you cannot solder aluminium easy. This crocodile clip connecting is essential, because otherwise you will still have huge spiking. This changed the radio interferrence for us from 2.5-7.5 volt, towards 4.9-5.1 volt.
i am having a similar issue. however i have gone through and checked the connections and swapped the cables around to see if the condition follows. ultimately i think my z axis encoder is shot. im not 100% sure how this happened unless it can happen from it bottoming out. a while back it glitched and tried to dive right through the back of my work piece and i had to hit the emergency stop button i installed. i also have the intermittent problem with my left motor failing the first test. that motor has never had a binding problem though. i also have run this after a brand new arduino and shield have been installed. so i guess that leaves the motors right?
i believe ive diagnosed it to the point where i can fix it. but it seems that you cant just buy the z motor by itself. its sold out. how do i go about getting a replacement?
I’ve just been through this journey. As far as I know there are no direct kit replacements, but the one mentioned in these threads works fine.