Hello, first time poster here. I am having some problems with wires breaking on my workbee 1510. I first noticed that the “Y2” motor would shutter and stop the machine from moving when the gantry got more than about 2 feet from the front of the machine. After testing the wires themselves with a multimeter (just the wire disconnected from the machine) I found the yellow one was broken. I replaced that single yellow wire with a new one and that fixed it. I used it to cut for about 2 minutes and the z axis motor started to shutter and after testing the wires found that the red wire was not carrying any current when the gantry was in a specific range. After cutting for about a minute the Z axis shuttered a 3rd time and this time the blue wire would only work with the multimeter when the gantry was on the back half of the machine. I thought 2 broken wires might be a coincidence but I don’t know what to do or if there is something I could change to stop the wires from doing this. I am hesitant to continue replacing the wires without changing something. Despite having the machine for a while it hasn’t run for more than a total of 30 minutes so it should not be time to replace anything yet. I was very gentle with the wires when adding them to the cable chains and even placed them in the longer chain by opening the little clips along its length as opposed to pulling the wires through. The cable chain does seem smaller than it should, but just to make sure it is not overly tight I opened the majority of the clips to relieve any pressure from the cable chain. I have a video of the multimeter test from when the red wire broke if it is helpful to post. Any thoughts on what to do are appreciated. Thanks for the help and support.
Check for stress and strain points - using cable chains and tying off any strain points with cable ties to prevent tight-radius bends, and distribute bending forces should help. Also double check that it really is the wire, and not the terminal side of things - easy to get the wires under (instead of inside as it should be) the wire cage, and see similar symptoms. See docs:blackbox:faq-identify-motor-coils [OpenBuilds Documentation]
Thanks for the response Peter. I went over the machine and I just don't see any places with tight bends. Also the only part that is moving during recent use is the small portion of wire at the front of the machine, I have only been using the first 2 feet or so. When I think about how tightly I would have to bend a piece of wire and the number of times I would have to bend it to break I can't believe that this is what is happening at the moment. I am leaving the wires in the machine but taking them out of their terminals to test the individual wires themselves and in this case 3 of the wires have tested as "dead" "over time." I am using the machine until there is a problem and then testing the wires, but at this rate it seems like the wires are going to keep breaking pretty fast. I opened up as many clips as I could on the cable chain, if it is the cable chain the only thing I can think of is to take them out of the chain and let them hang over the table to relieve pressure, which of course is not a great option.
This is really weird. If wires are breaking at that rate on a virtually unused machine, something is seriously amiss - some considerable stress would need to be placed on the wires to fail them. Maybe post several pics of the drag chains, wiring etc to get a closer look?
Good thought Christian I will try to get some photos this evening, and I took a video of one of the multimeter tests I can post. Peter, it is an open builds machine bundle.
Please, get in touch with the store via Submit a ticket we'd be happy to send our replacement wiring to you too just in case - tell them I sent you, include link to this thread. Check and let them know what lengths of wire need replacing
