Did I destory a motor? (Z-Axis issues)

[Mrjimo]

I was having trouble with the Z axis working. The encoder values read were always -1. So, I told this to tech support and they sent me a new motor. I installed it and the encoders seemed to work properly.
After replacing the motor, I would tell it to move up or down and it would twitch 3 times, the encoder value would go up (regardless of which direction I told it to go) and it would report a failure. So, I bought and applied the graphine spray and made sure things were pretty loose. However, in order to do so, I had to screw the bar until it was high enough to apply the graphine spray to the top. After doing that, the encoder for z axis is always reading -1 again. Did I destroy the motor? I’ve tried unplugging/replugging it, and it still returns -1.

If I replace this motor again, I don’t have much confidence that the Z-axis is likely to work. I’ve already used up all my vacation time on this and I’m quite frustrated.

[Ascend]

@Mrjimo

I installed it and the encoders seemed to work properly.

So you had good and changing encoder values on the controls tab?

Picture of controls tab

@Mrjimo

I would tell it to move up or down and it would twitch 3 times

You mean it stalled/blocked even when moving downwards? Sounds more like a misfunction on the motor driver/encoder to me if that assumption is right.

@Mrjimo

Did I destroy the motor? I’ve tried unplugging/replugging it, and it still returns -1.

I’d say its not possible to destroy a motor/encoder that way. You could try to plug the encoder cable inside the electronics box into f.e. the Y-axis connector and see if you can read encoder values there.