Issues Please Help

Hello everyone, Great to be part of this forum for this machine, already thinking about how I can redesign the squeeze without even winding yet.
I have been having extensive trouble and been trying to get my 4-axis X-winder up and working over the past few days, I have several issues been using windows 8 with the current x-winder software 4.15.

1. When approaching the end of a run (group) when the delivery head is at the end of the mandrel; the whole thing freezes and the mandrel just turns over and over for eternity.

Lowering the speed seemed to help earlier although on my last test this happened within 3mins on 'slow' speed.

This is a photo of the last G-code read

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l518/lordoftweedheads/xwinder%20freeze%20mandrel%20turning_zps4m61duwq.png

2. When doing hoop windings the delivery metal roller is positioned vertical!! not horizontal.

Looking at the assembly diagrams the home position of the DH angular axis appears to position the delivery metal roller at the horizontal when in reality it is 45degrees.

3. When doing the hoop windings (‘slow’ speed) the carriage went out to 1.5m when the part was under a meter. I had to stop it before it reached the end of the axis.

4. The executor program’s real time mandrel angle read out does not agree with the rotation of the actual mandrel; I manually set the mandrel gear ratio and tried the default one as well – no luck.

5. When I click on the polar filament map in the designer I get this? Its not symmetric.

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l518/lordoftweedheads/xwinder%20polar%20map%20non-symetric_zpsld8qvyvm.png

I'll add some more photos soon

This is taking so much time and I don’t know how to sought it out, can anyone help?
Thankyou,

Kind Regards,

Sam Groll

Hi Sam,

I have redesigned the roller with great success. All I did was remove the OEM roller / aluminium plate / elastic setup. Got two pieces of aluminium angle iron to be mounted on the left and right sides clamping down ontop of the tray. I drilled Two holes for a static roller to go into, and 2 slots for a slidable roller to go into on the mandrel side of the roller. So carbon goes through a double roller squeegee instead of single roller + aluminium. Then we use elastic bands to tension the slidable roller against the static roller however hard we want :)

1. What you describe sounds exactly like the carriage left / right motor is being overcome by friction. We had an issue with ours - where by cog on the motor, did not match the cog on the end of our extrusion bar - even though the belt seemed to fit, it would lift up over the cog guides and skip every 30cm of movement or so. It wasn't originally like this, but maybe overtensioning caused it. Check that your carriage is free to move left and right, and maybe do what we did, which was to wrap the other cog with sticky tape - so it is circular. there is no need for it to have cog indentations, and this will stop skipping, which may be your problem.

2. Have you gone into the setup menu to set it up?

3. There is still a bug in the software when you use mm, so be sure to use inches for everything. !!!!!!!

4. How far off is this? is it regular - Ie 1 rotation 10 degrees, two rotations, 20 degrees? if this is the case, then your gear ratio is incorrect

Replies

Dan Tryon October 25, 2016 at 10:15pm

When I assembled my machines the metal delivery head roller was at 45 degrees as well. I am confident that I assembled it according to the drawings but it seemed off by 45 degrees for every move the machine made. Then I scoured every photograph and video that I could find and concluded that the plate (with the tab) that hits the switch to zero the delivery head rotation IS MACHINED WRONG. I have found videos where you can see that the tab on that plate relative to the delivery head roller is not the same as the plate that was in my box of parts. Either the switch needs to be relocated or the tab on the plate needs to be relocated. MY SOLUTION was to drill four more mounting holes in the aluminum plate and rotate it 45 degrees. This has solved many problems! The delivery head roller now seems to be at the correct angle for all of the test windings I have made. When I get back to work I will take a picture.
Rushabh Ashar October 25, 2016 at 5:25am

Hi Sam,
I have recently started working with the X-winder and much like yourself, I too am having trouble with the mandrel angle, but a little different from you.

I have noticed that although my phi angle (in the code) is the same for left end and right end, the physical mandrel rotation angle is lesser on the left end than the right end (if that makes sense) for all passes. I know this is meant to happen at passes where a mandrel shift is present but in my case it happens in every pass.

I have looked at the Gcode at G2, G5, G3 and G6. They are identical in all respects. This one has me stumped!!

Just wondering if you have had your issue resolved? If so could you please guide me?

Regards,

Rush.
- Andrew Jones > Rushabh Ashar March 23, 2018 at 4:44pm
  
  I am having the same issue. It is like it is not doing the dwell on the left end for some of the passes. I dont want to add an extra 360 rotation to the part. Is there an ideas why this is happening.
- Dan Tryon > Rushabh Ashar October 25, 2016 at 10:18pm
  
  I am experiencing this same problem. The motions at the right end of the machine are NOT THE SAME as the motions at the left end of the machine! Quite frustrating. I am at least glad that others have this same issue.
- Nicholas Finch > Rushabh Ashar October 25, 2016 at 10:28am
  
  I no what you mean, it's like it dwells for 360 degrees on the start end, but as little as 180 or 90 on the far end?
  
  I often thought about just adding an extra dwell command, on all of the left end commands.
  
  Nick
- Rushabh Ashar > Nicholas Finch October 26, 2016 at 3:23am
  
  I did. I had to add an extra 50 degrees to the left end to match the right end. It works, but not ideal. Just wondering if there is an actual problem with the hardware or is it a fault in the executor?
  You have previously mentioned that using mm causes problems, and the belt cog on the dh linear move jumps every now and then. Wondering if these problems are related somehow? Cause mine jumps on the cog as well and am using mm's.
  Let us know if you have a solution.
  I will be doing some fault finding tomorrow. Will let you know if I figure it out.
  
  Rush.
Sam Groll January 14, 2016 at 6:45am

Nicholas, we havnt tested your fixes yet but you are a legend buddy - Thankyou so much. Can't believe this isnt common knowledge - well now it is :)
Nicholas Finch December 19, 2015 at 7:22am

Hi Sam,

I have redesigned the roller with great success. All I did was remove the OEM roller / aluminium plate / elastic setup. Got two pieces of aluminium angle iron to be mounted on the left and right sides clamping down ontop of the tray. I drilled Two holes for a static roller to go into, and 2 slots for a slidable roller to go into on the mandrel side of the roller. So carbon goes through a double roller squeegee instead of single roller + aluminium. Then we use elastic bands to tension the slidable roller against the static roller however hard we want :)

1. What you describe sounds exactly like the carriage left / right motor is being overcome by friction. We had an issue with ours - where by cog on the motor, did not match the cog on the end of our extrusion bar - even though the belt seemed to fit, it would lift up over the cog guides and skip every 30cm of movement or so. It wasn't originally like this, but maybe overtensioning caused it. Check that your carriage is free to move left and right, and maybe do what we did, which was to wrap the other cog with sticky tape - so it is circular. there is no need for it to have cog indentations, and this will stop skipping, which may be your problem.

2. Have you gone into the setup menu to set it up?

3. There is still a bug in the software when you use mm, so be sure to use inches for everything. !!!!!!!

4. How far off is this? is it regular - Ie 1 rotation 10 degrees, two rotations, 20 degrees? if this is the case, then your gear ratio is incorrect
- Jeremy Platt > Nicholas Finch February 8, 2016 at 10:35pm
  
  Hi Nicholas,
  
  That sounds like a great setup, I don't suppose you have any pictures handy?
  
  Cheers,
  
  Jeremy.
- Nicholas Finch > Jeremy Platt February 9, 2016 at 2:22am
  
  Standby.....

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