gerbil stopped working
I was trying a test print today and my gerbil has stopped working. For a wwhile it would initiate pythonw but nothing would print - the x and y axes would never move and pythonw was idle. Eventually the plugin for engraving didn't even initiate pythonw. The preview image appears but the plugin just sits and spins. The green light on the gerbil is lit and when pythonw did get initiated I saw an amber light flash next to the USB port and then a blue light flash on the other side of the USB port then nothing. Normally I would see a lot of flashing of the amber light. The Gcode file doe get created and appears to be the same size as when everything was working. CNCjs executes the Gcode but the laser never fires. Any ideas on what has gone wrong?
I did switch back to the old K40 board and it is working so the laser and wiring are OK.
Hi Dave, it's hard to see what's gone wrong. Maybe you can mail me the board and I can investigate. I can mail you a replacement board to get you going.
Thanks Paul - Part of the problem might be the PSU after all. The laser quality dropped way down and I noticed some discoloring on the big transformer. I replaced the tube about 200 hours ago so I am comfortable it is still good. The old board stopped engraving also but the X+Y axis both move as expected. I have new parts coming for the guts of the K40 and a new tube - can't hurt to have a spare. I will take you up on your offer for me to mail you my board and to get a replacement but I'd like to wait until I get the laser to test fire with the new guts first. If the PSU had anything to do with damaging the gerbil I would not want to fry the replacement. Besides, it looks like you might have a new version of firmware and extensions in the works - I tried the updated inkscape extension for giggles during my down time. It looks like the new plugin is bypassing the white space so I am guessing it will be faster than the old plugin - nice job if my observation is correct.
No worries Dave, it is possible to repair the power supply. It’s a very simple design and I have the schematics somewhere so will post it soon.
Thanks for the encouragement on fixing the PSU. I look forward to the schematic. I have a new PSU on the way from China and a new transformer on the way - also from China. I am hoping the transformer is to blame because that is an easy fix and that would leave me with a spare PSU and a spare tube.
I replaced the PSU and ran into intermittent problems whether using the original control board or the gerbil. Finally traced it down to a bad connector and now gerbil is working again. At least I have spare parts now and I know a bit more on how to repair the guts of the K40.
Thanks again to Paul for the offer to replace my gerbil - thankfully it is ok and running.