V3 auto throw troubleshooting

[Chiquita]

The powder throw motor is chattering and does not open/close consistently. Here is a short video.

Any help troubleshooting is appreciated.

New video · Monday, Oct 11, 2021

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Thank you
Edward

 

[Chiquita]

Update:

Took the belt off and just the motor does the same thing.

 

[Rick300]

When mine does anything weird I check all the connections real good and that usually takes care of it

 

[morpheus]

This exact issue has happened to me twice before. It's most likely a bad wire (1 of 4) in the cable.

You can test this by either a) swapping the two (interchangeable) cables to see if the incident follows the cable, or b) checking continuity in each of the four wires within the suspect cable.

If you swap cables, you will likely create a new situation where now the powder trickler motor just wobbles back and forth. Alternatively, if you check continuity, you will likely find one of the wires lacks continuity.

In my experience, I sometimes can resolve the issue by wiggling the wires where they enter the white connector, but ultimately you will probably have to get a new cable from Adam if you want to fully resolve the issue.

 

[Chiquita]

Connections are good, I disconnected/reconnected, turned ON/OFF.
Took the motor off of the mount and still does it. Seems to be a bad motor. Motor runs smooth while in hand and in different orientation. But when it is in the correct orientation (the shaft horizontal) it chatters.

 

[Chiquita]

This exact issue has happened to me twice before. It's a bad wire in the cable. You can switch the two (interchangeable) cables to see if the incident follows the cable, or check continuity in each of the four wires within the suspect cable. If you check continuity, you will likely find one of the wires is bad.

Sometimes you can resolve the issue by wiggling the wires where they enter the white connector, but ultimately you will probably have to get a new cable from Adam if you want to fully resolve.

I will try the cable jiggle test and install another cable or swap the trickler and the motor cable.

 

[morpheus]

Please see my edited reply for additional clarification.

 

[Bojo]

Dumb dumb question maybe.
Do you the dumper plugged into to right port in the back ?
masking just in case this is your initial setup on the machine.
my dumbass plugged the wrong one at first. Did something very similar.

 

[Chiquita]

Dumb dumb question maybe.
Do you the dumper plugged into to right port in the back ?
masking just in case this is your initial setup on the machine.
my dumbass plugged the wrong one at first. Did something very similar.

Good question.
I checked it twice.

 

[kindabitey]

Adam had a video, on YT I think, that stated some of the wipes in the V3 were installed backwards, and was causing a similar situation. A quick email to him would go a long way.

 

[Chiquita]

Adam had a video, on YT I think, that stated some of the wipes in the V3 were installed backwards, and was causing a similar situation. A quick email to him would go a long way.

Thank you I will check it out.

 

[piie]

Thank you I will check it out.

The fact that you can feel / hear the motor chatter without the belt attached would lead me to believe you already came to the right conclusion: broken stepper motor (or at least its bearings since it seems to be orientation specific).

 

[dttheliman]

Dumb dumb question maybe.
Do you the dumper plugged into to right port in the back ?
masking just in case this is your initial setup on the machine.
my dumbass plugged the wrong one at first. Did something very similar.

Done the exact same thing in a hurry , same symptoms- plugging into the correct port cured it

 

[Chiquita]

Update.
I changed cables as suggested and seems like the issue is solved. Reconnected the old cable the issue came back. Installed bad cable on the trickler and it was making a funny noise. With the new cable and the motor in hand it worked fine in multiple orientations, I tapped the motor on the workbench to see if any issue within but it worked fine. Reassembled the whole set up and it works so far.

So it seemed to be a very minor bad connection on the cable.

Thank you all for your help.

I will order some extra cables to have on hand. It seems like these cable won't last long especially being disconnected every time I dump powder back in the jug.

 

[morpheus]

I'm glad you were able to sort it out!

 

[6ShotsOr5?]

The cables wear over time from disconnecting / reconnecting them. I had the problem a few times, each time solved by installing a new cable. Last time I ordered four spare cables to cut down on postage costs, and I’m trying to be a lot more gentle when I have to move / connect / disconnect the cables So hopefully they will last a lot longer.

 

[Bojo]

I’ve only had my unit for less than two months. I was eye balling that connection with the cable and thinking about trying to rig up some sort of strain relief of sort in order to head off a problem before I have one. If I come up with something that does not look like hammered dog shit I’ll post it up.

 

[Jackal2016]

I’ve only had my unit for less than two months. I was eye balling that connection with the cable and thinking about trying to rig up some sort of strain relief of sort in order to head off a problem before I have one. If I come up with something that does not look like hammered dog shit I’ll post it up.

This is what I devised for strain relief for the trickler portion. Simply a small heatsink that would fit the metal rod between the cooling fins and glued in place, then some double sided tape and zip tie to attach it. I felt that it wasn't required for the main unit as it is never removed from the scale. I remove the hopper to dump back into powder bottle and then cycle the auto throw to empty it.

 

[powderbrake]

It seems like these cable won't last long especially being disconnected every time I dump powder back in the jug.

The type of connector being used is not designed for frequent unpluging.
I do not disconnect the cables when I dump the powder back into the jug. In fact, I have not disconnected my cables in years. I simply lift the whole thrower and top off the scale, or lift the trickler out to the side and dump powder.

I do slide my scale and trickler out of it's cubby when using, and back when done loading, and have had no problems with either the old version or the newer V3.

 

[Chiquita]

The type of connector being used is not designed for frequent unpluging.
I do not disconnect the cables when I dump the powder back into the jug. In fact, I have not disconnected my cables in years. I simply lift the whole thrower and top off the scale, or lift the trickler out to the side and dump powder.

I do slide my scale and trickler out of it's cubby when using, and back when done loading, and have had no problems with either the old version or the newer V3.

Yeah. I agree I need to do per your suggestion.