Noob with a sick Technobeam

[quote=Woodj32177]Ok here's the deal,
the sensors sense when a tab passes through the sensor,
BUT, if a motor has failed in such a way that it cannot get the motor to turn at all, the fixture may send a sens err, if the tab is blocking the sensor. try manually pushing the wheels all to a new position, and home the fixture again, to see if the error clears, if it doesn't I would test the sensor.
In the test menu, there should be sens option,
you can select the sensor you want to test, and manually spin the wheel, and when the tab passes through the sensor, the display should change from on to off.(or vice versa, i forget which way it is)
that will tell you if the sensor is causing a problem..

FYI, a motor spinning too easy can be a sign of a bad driver chip,
take a new motor and spin it without it plugged into a fixture, now plug it into a fixture the motor will be harder to turn, as it turns into a little generator,
thats why if you move the head of a fixture while it is unplugged the motor lights flash on.

To test this, just remove the driver chip and swap it with one from something that you know works, and power it back up and see if the problem follows the chip or stays with the motor.

Good Luck
Joshua Wood

Oh yeah! Excellent point.
To me motors are a matter of "feel". I class them several ways.
1. A Normal motor You feel a certain resistance and can feel the steppers as you rotate the shaft. The feel is constant.
2. A Spinner. Shaft rotates way too easy and almost spins free. You don't feel the steps. (replace)
3. A Loper. Kinda like a camshaft. More resistance at one point on the motor and not enough on the other side. You can feel it in the steppers as you rotate the shaft. (on the verge of death / replace)
4. A Chunker. Similar to a loper but much worse. (replace)
5. Frozen. It's locked up and wont move hardly at all. (replace)
Have a few 3773 chips handy in case you need'em.
95% of the time it's a bad motor causing the errors.

[quote=Woodj32177]Ok here's the deal,
the sensors sense when a tab passes through the sensor,
BUT, if a motor has failed in such a way that it cannot get the motor to turn at all, the fixture may send a sens err, if the tab is blocking the sensor. try manually pushing the wheels all to a new position, and home the fixture again, to see if the error clears, if it doesn't I would test the sensor.
In the test menu, there should be sens option,
you can select the sensor you want to test, and manually spin the wheel, and when the tab passes through the sensor, the display should change from on to off.(or vice versa, i forget which way it is)
that will tell you if the sensor is causing a problem..

FYI, a motor spinning too easy can be a sign of a bad driver chip,
take a new motor and spin it without it plugged into a fixture, now plug it into a fixture the motor will be harder to turn, as it turns into a little generator,
thats why if you move the head of a fixture while it is unplugged the motor lights flash on.

To test this, just remove the driver chip and swap it with one from something that you know works, and power it back up and see if the problem follows the chip or stays with the motor.

Good Luck
Joshua Wood

Oh yeah! Excellent point.
To me motors are a matter of "feel". I class them several ways.
1. A Normal motor You feel a certain resistance and can feel the steppers as you rotate the shaft. The feel is constant.
2. A Spinner. Shaft rotates way too easy and almost spins free. You don't feel the steps. (replace)
3. A Loper. Kinda like a camshaft. More resistance at one point on the motor and not enough on the other side. You can feel it in the steppers as you rotate the shaft. (on the verge of death / replace)
4. A Chunker. Similar to a loper but much worse. (replace)
5. Frozen. It's locked up and wont move hardly at all. (replace)
Have a few 3773 chips handy in case you need'em.
95% of the time it's a bad motor causing the errors.