[rogerfries]

I'm building a plasma table based a G540 that I won at last years Digital Machinist CNC workshop in Ann Arbor. Thanks for Donating it!!! Such a nice small form factor, seems perfect for this application.

Anyway I do have a problem with it. My Y axis is not jogging, but it does have holding torque. I carefully checked all of my wiring and everything is correct. I moved the X motor to the Y and it won't jog. I moved my Y to my A and now I can jog on all three (using A instead of Y). This proves to me my motors and wiring are fine. For the short term I'm fine, but I do plan on adding a 4th axis in the future, so I'd like to solve the Y axis problem if possible. What do you think? Are there any internal fuses to check? This seems very strange that it does have holding torque. I really don't think it's a Mach 3 setting as I have decent experience working with Mach 3.

Thanks!

As I'm typing this I think I better check my parallel cable. If it's bad, that could cause this issue. I'll see if I have another one to swap in. Any other ideas?

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi Roger.

Yes, it Could be the parallel cable, or even parallel port. Open the Y DB9 shell and look for tiny wire bridging contacts. If that all checks out you can open the G 540 case, (small screwdriver, gently pry up each corner of cover) and swap Y drive with A drive. If it doesn't work then, it's not the drive. If it DOES work then, you can ship the offending drive back to Gecko for replacement. (call first) IIRC, The G540 will run with only 3 drives, but better call and make sure.

CR.

[rogerfries]

Great,

I'll give that a try. My parallel cable theory did not pan out. I swapped the cable for a different one and no joy. I suppose it's possible it's the port. swapping Y drive with A drive internally should isolate the problem. Thanks!
That's a nice design that the drives are swappable.

[rogerfries]

I swapped out the drive and still no luck, so I swapped parallel ports. I put the Gecko on Port 2 (intended for my THC) and everything works. So the problem is with the parallel port on the motherboard not the Gecko. I guess I will meed to get a new motherboard. Thanks for the help Diagnosing this. I would have never suspected the motherboard.

[Crevice Reamer]

Excellent troubleshooting Roger!

Glad I was able to assist.

Motherboards with parallel ports are getting scarce. Tigerdirect has a few, like this one:
ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AMD 760G Motherboard - Micro ATX, AMD 760G Chipset, 1866MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA 3.0 Gb/s, RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, Hybrid CrossFire, AMD FX Ready at TigerDirect.com

Or they also have whole refurb computers, with 1yr warranty, starting at $79. Search refurbished desktops:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...sort=1&recs=10

CR

[rogerfries]

I went through my pile of parts and found an identical motherboard. I swapped it in and got the exact same result. Strange, 2 motherboards with the same problem. Motherboard design flaw perhaps? Strange. Anyway the Gecko is fine and it doesn't matter I was thinking about putting a faster motherboard in anyway.


Thanks again!