BZT - A Poor Quality Machine

[fidia]

We bought a BZT PFL-3 in my day job.

We have the machine less than 6 months and it has been a solid nightmare

1. The EStop has not worked since day 1 - Contacted BZt and they just disabled it

2. After 2 months of little use the Axes started stalling randomly - Contacted BZT and they said the machine needs new ballscrews and motors. They sent new ballscrews and motors and charged almost €400 + Shipping. Fitted them and NO FIX. the machine still stalls when on the rapid movement.

3. The spindle just stopped turning on also. M3 does nothing.


For the total cost of almost €5000 take my advice and do not buy BZT. I have contacted them and no replies. This is not my own machine but belongs to the company I work for. I am trying to get it working. I will post a video of the problem later. Ballscrews are ISEL, drivers are cheapo Chinese make and home switches are Hartmann.

At this stage I just want to send it back to them and get our money back however I doubt we will ever see the money again!

[fidia]

Been doing some troubleshooting.

1. Power on software
2. Power on control unit
3. Enable drives
4. Home Machine - machine homes OK
5. Rapid machine to X, Y and Z limits - no problem
6. G28 to bring machine to home - axes stall.

I have backed rapids down to almost nothing and always stalls when going back to home. Def not a hardware issue as the machine never stalls going forward. Only coming back. Also stalls are in X, Y and Z axes therefore I cannot see it being a mechanical problem.

Going to email BZT again tomorrow.

[DuffelBuffelWuffel]

This is a electrical / settings problem , nothing to do with the machine.
It probably runs eding cnc , I and many others use the same controller with no problems.

Flyer:
http://www.edingcnc.com/upload/files...flyer_tech.pdf

Manual:
http://www.edingcnc.com/upload/files...n_v4.01.00.pdf

Motors are pretty sturdy ... so they probably are fine if there is a problem It would be in the driver / controller board (unlikely) or cabling.

You could also re-flash / update the firmware of the board ... not that It should do much but still.

Can you make video's or whatever of what is happening?
Than I can try to help you.

Also the Owner of Eding CNC is really responsive. If the controller really is defect he will probably be the one to help you out.

[fidia]

Took the machine apart today and did some tests.

Yes I think you are quite right that the control board it shot. There is also a BZT BOB.I cannot tell if this is broken.

I got a reply today after numerous emails and they asked for me to ship the machine back to them to fix. As the problem is electrical not sure why they would not just send out 2 new boards to try. Gonna cost us quite a bit to ship it back to Germany.

The boards are not too expensive but just going to send it back in any case.

http://www.edingcnc.com/products.php?productid=56

[DuffelBuffelWuffel]

tbh I do not think that board is broken as i never have heard of one that broke.
Might be best to upgrade the firmware on the device and "start fresh" with new settings for the cnc. Just follow the manual.

I'm not sure if your machine has this:
http://www.bzt-cnc.de/en/shop/electr...e-mit-watchdog

But that could also be whats causing you trouble. It might be the watchdog or whatever tripping from "noise".

[fidia]

I will take a picture not of the inner electronics. I do not think it has this board

[JAZZCNC]

6. G28 to bring machine to home - axes stall.

Define what you call a stall.? . . . . Because the fact you can home contradicts this.!!

Are you sure it's just not stopping in a place your not expecting or are the motors actually stalling, has in making high pitch whining noise.?

[DuffelBuffelWuffel]

A short video could tell us a lot. This machine so so simple that there is not much that can go wrong.
Is the current limit of the driver maybe set to low so it trips and stalls the stepper momentarily?

And returning it ... you still have to pay the expensive shipping to Germany and back , It might be cheaper to hire / ask someone local to take a quick look.
If you find the defective item they will probably send you a new one free of charge.

[fidia]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...h%20Motors.mp4

[JAZZCNC]

Ok to help properly we need all the info regards settings.

So take clear pics of the drives and there Dip switches. Need screen shots of the settings in the control software.

Can't see it being a wiring problem but if can take clear pics then do so.

This will most likely be a setup issue. Normally with systems like this with a motion control card they either work or they don't and it's rarely a faulty board that causes problems like this with 99.9% of the time it's either a setup or wiring issue.

Same goes for the drives and the Motors. They are simple devices which just work or don't. If they turn on then again 99.9% time they just need setting up correctly.

Setup is every thing with steppers and it doesn't take much to overtune them and make them stall. Some times they work perfectly fine at one setting but won't work at all with another.
Resonance can severly affect them and cause issues. For instance you trying them motors on the bench doesn't mean they will do the same on the machine.?
I've seen resonance cripple machines with very similair stalling motors etc at low speeds and by just changing the micro stepping which shifts the resonant frequency to another place they will work perfectly fine and give 2 or 3 times the speed.!!

It will 99% turnout to be something like this or a Wiring issues.!