[DRock]

Hey guys,

I am finally finishing up my conversion after what seems like forever. I have previously energized and successfully moved all three steppers before taking it all apart and then building it again the right way after many many nights of research and head-scratching. But of course...that doesn't seem to be the case after I build the final setup. I included a picture of my electronics cabinet to show how I have everything hooked up...I severely under-estimated how much work it was going to be to do it properly. That being said, I start up Mach 3 and turn the box on and everything looks good...fans are moving, 5V at the BOB, 120V at the main power rails, 48V at the output of the big power supply, all stepper drives have their green lights on. I have the DIP switches set to max current and all others off, as they were before, and I have used the "auto tuning" feature by switching the state of SW4 twice and all three motors responded with a noise of some sort.

I did notice that the Y-Axis stepper appeared to be getting warm while the X-Axis was stone cold after idling for 15 minutes or so, I figured they would all be slightly warm to the touch but maybe that isn't 100% true.

I am fairly certain that my wiring is correct as I "ohm'd" everything out multiple times and verified the right wires were going to A+, A-, B+, B- and the right pins were going to the Pul+ and Dir+ for each driver. I am thinking there is probably something in the software configuration that is not allowing me to move the motors correctly, the DRO in Mach3 moves while I jog but the motors just sit there making no noise.

I am hoping to get this solved so that I can take good pictures of how I setup my electronics enclosure and hopefully use it to teach people how to properly ground stuff and how to deal with shielding as well as wire routing. That is the main reason I routed the wires like I did...kind of set it up like an easy to read electronics schematic.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks.

[DRock]

Hmmm...it may be that I wired my Pul+ and Dir+ to the output pins rather than to common which isn't how I had it setup before.

I hope that is all it is...

[doorknob]

Your stepper driving wiring is not clear enough in the photograph to tell.

Are there only two wires going from the breakout board to each stepper driver, or do you have wires to Pul+, Pul-, Dir+ and Dir-?

Which breakout board is that?

[hoss2006]

Read number 6 here.
FAQs
Hoss

[DRock]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Turns out I had the wiring flipped on my C10 BOB, I had the Pul- and Dir- connected to COM instead of Pul+ and Dir+.

However...that only got my Z-Axis moving. Not sure what is wrong with the X-Axis but I didn't bother going on to fix the Y-Axis because I am sick and tired of messing with the multi-conductor wire, I am going to order up a C35 like I originally had planned.

The X-Axis DRO would move when I jogged but the motor would do nothing...so I decided to try to turn it by hand to see if the motor was holding strong and after twisting it the motor decided to take off! It kept moving and moving until I smacked the E-Stop and pulled the power cord out of the wall for good measure. This has me really confused now...

[DRock]

So I re-wired the X-Axis and Y-Axis today and the Y-Axis works great but the X-Axis makes a horrible screeching noise, is that what losing steps sounds like? I loosened the gibs some and it still makes the noise...but it also moves to the right no matter which direction I jog, X+ and X- both move in the same direction on the mill but correctly on the DRO. I swapped pins on Mach3 and the motor just didn't move at all or respond to anything when I did that. Have you guys seen this before?

[hoss2006]

That's a sign that one of the step/dir or motor wires is not making good contact at one of the pins or is broken, recheck carefully.
I had that happen when I accidentally pushed the wire too far in the lug and clamped on the insulation.
Hoss

[DRock]

Just finished checking and everything seems OK...not sure what the problem is but I am starting to think it might be a faulty driver.

[DRock]

I just installed the C35 and RJ45 driver adapters, sad to say it didn't seem to help anything. I know the cables are not to blame because they are made and certified before shipment from an IT company and I have swapped them around and it didn't solve anything. I have tried wiggling the RJ45 adapter and the block it is connected to as that seems to have helped some other members but it hasn't made a difference for me.

What confuses me is previously I had this all working on the bench so I doubt the driver is faulty...but I can't seem to find any issue with my wiring so I am not sure what is to blame here.

[doorknob]

If you're still seeing the symptom where jogging the axis in one direction and then changing direction does not change the direction of the motor, then you should use a multimeter to check the direction pin voltage on that axis when jogging on one direction and then when jogging in the other direction. It should be close to 5 volts in one direction and around 0 volts in the other direction. If you can, check the voltage at both the breakout board and at the Dir- pin of the driver.

If you see no change, then a good next step would be to see if it is possible to probe the direction signal at the input to the breakout board while performing the same test (or if you can carefully test the direction signal at the DB-25 cable connector), and again do the same test while checking the voltage right at the 25-pin parallel port connector. The goal here is to try and isolate the point at which the direction signal for the axis stops behaving properly (to try and pin down whether it is a bad cable or a problem in the breakout board or in the wiring between the breakout board and the driver, or something wrong with either the Mach3 definition or the parallel port itself).

[amyers]

I have the DIP switches set to max current and all others off, as they were before, and I have used the "auto tuning" feature by switching the state of SW4 twice and all three motors responded with a noise of some sort.

just curious how do you know what the microstepping is with this method? what did you enter in mach 3 for the steps/per? i followed hoss's instructions on his site and set the switches like he laid out and it works perfectly.

[DRock]

doorknob: Thanks for the help, I am going to start probing around to see if I can find anything. Previously I have had this setup running on a separate, newer, computer and this is the first time I am running it on the older "shop" computer which will be dedicated to the mill. I just swapped out all new cables and upgraded to the C35 BOB with no change in behavior...I think it is either the connector block on the driver (not likely) or the parallel port from the computer...time to find out!

amyers: After reading Hoss's FAQ #6 I set my drivers up like he instructed, I haven't messed around with the steps/in setting yet because I am just trying to get it moving. I am not sure what the "auto tuning" feature does exactly but I know it has helped solve many problems so I thought I would give it a try.

[Madda]

Are you also using C34KLD boards for easy connecting RJ45 cables? Well on my setup they weren't making good connection with 5056D and I had to adjust them to a weird angle to get everything working right. One driver was working and the other two seemed to be faulty like you described. All the signals were there but no movement until I repositioned the C34 boards. Just a suggestion.

[DRock]

I read your other post describing the same thing so I have been wiggling them back and forth and nothing has helped so far. When you say forward, which direction are you referring to?

[Madda]

By forward I mean all the directions that you can push it to Just wiggle them and hold the jogging button down and see if it starts moving.

[DRock]

Thanks, I will give that a try today when I get home.