Community

4-axis (5)

4-axis winding mode stuck at the hemi-ends

Posted by Amin on October 3, 2023 at 10:17am

Greetings,

We are a group of undergraduate students who are currently working on the winding of a pressure vessel. We have successfully assembled the machine and calibrated it to account for any offsets. During our initial tests using the trace function to ensure proper alignment, everything appeared to be in order. However, we encountered difficulties when attempting to initiate the 4-axis hemi end winding process.

To kickstart this process, the machine's executor homes it, aligning itself with the mandrel's starting position and patiently awaiting our manual input. Here is where the unusual part of the sequence begins.

The G1 command is executed, moving the carriage to the end of the mandrel. Subsequently, the G2 command should follow, but it seems to become stuck either before or after the DH (Directional Heading) moves towards the mandrel's holders. This delay can last for approximately a minute, even in fast mode. Following this, the machine moves away from the mandrel and towards the right end, where it encounters a similar issue with the G3 command.

It's worth noting that the occurrence of these issues is entirely random, and they can happen after varying numbers of passes. 

For a visual demonstration of the problem we've described, you can watch two videos by following the link below.

 

In this video, the G2 command does not get executed properly which is obvious by the DH not moving foward towards the mandrel holders at the ends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltH0eNW6hME

In this video, a similar problem is encountered. This time at the right end with the G3 command, although this time the DH moves towards the mandrel holder but gets stuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOlsJ_A7YKU&

 

Things we have tested to try to eliminate the problem without any success: 
- Different winding patterens angles and all the other parameters you can change in the designer. 

- Different filament width and thickness 

- Running the designer software on different PCs although they are all running windows 11. 

- Running the software as an administrator and trying with windows xp, 7 compatibility modes.

- Switched the DHL and DHR motor. 

- Used another USB-hub with dedicated powersupply.

- Turned off all power saving mode options on the laptops.

 

Is there a fix to this issue? 


 

 

Read more…

SOLUTION to issues with Xwinder crashing/rotating endlessly/"Detached phidget motor" error

Posted by Jeff on May 31, 2019 at 9:58pm

HI all,

After battling this problem for quite some time, and scouring countless xwinder forum posts to find nothing, I finally found a solution to this problem I've been having. I have the 4X-23 kit, and when winding in 4 axis, at around 10-20% through a helical wind (never a hoop wind), the G code will stop advancing, and the machine will either 1. rotate the mandrel endlessly forever, and the program will display the phi angle as ever increasing, or 2. the delivery head will forget where it is and start extending into the mandrel, ramming into it (I have had mandrel damage due to this. 

The steps I took to solve this:

1. Buy an actively powered usb hub that plugs into your laptop, in order to give the USB port enough power to have no issues (I used this cheap Anker hub that plugs into a wall socket https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0192LPK5M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) 

2. Move the power supply that comes with the Xwinder as FAR away from the machine and from your usb hubs as possible. I did not need an extension for this, but only when the power supply is literally pushed as far as it will go away from the usb hubs, will these issues cease.

Only with BOTH these steps taken, the Gcode has run flawlessly for 11 layers straight. I suspect this is from some kind of EM interference with the power supply and the usb ports. 

I figured because no previous posts had a clear solution, that this would help someone out in the future. I am a complete newbie when it comes to electronics so if this is common knowledge to all of yall then disregard, but I hope this helps anyone out there having these same issues. Happy winding.

Zach

Read more…