I’ve been helping a local high school where they have a 24R CNC router that has a bad Z-axis stepper motor driver (Tormach 32000 / Leadshine 3ND883). While waiting for the schools purchasing department to get a replacement Tormach driver, I went ahead and bought a Leadshine 3DM883 as a temporary replacement to get them back in business a little sooner.

Tormach’s 32000 driver uses a 10-pin (5x2) IDC flat ribbon connector for the step and direction signals whereas both the Leadshine 3ND883 and the Leadshine 3DM883 both use the standard Phoenix-style connectors.

Attachment 501456
Attachment 501458


Unfortunately the Tormach IDC pins and the Leadshine Phoenix pins don't have simple one-to-one relationship. I found this very useful thread that helped a lot on the pin relationships. I traced the 10-pin IDC connections on the Tormach 32000 and confirmed that the pins matched the picture below, I.e. only pins 3,4 and 5 of the ribbon cable were being used.

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/torma...r-pinouts.html

Attachment 501454

Attachment 501460

Attachment 501462


The last two pictures show how I converted the Tormach female IDC connector to the Phoenix-style connectors on the drive.

After installing the temporary Leadshine 3DM883 and the modified signal wires, I am unable to get any movement on the Z-axis motor. I confirmed that there is 69 Volts DC between the VDC and GND pins at the driver.

In an effort to troubleshoot, I tried to find the +5 Volt on ribbon pin 3 by disconnecting the ribbon cable from the drive, but I got confusing readings of 0 VDC and about 24 VAC on all the pins 1 through 6. I was even getting readings of 3.3 VAC on the unused pin 6 through 10. These readings were taken at the female 10-pin IDC connector going back to the Tormach control board. I’m not even sure what the pin 3 signal level voltage is supposed to be, or even whether it is AC or DC?

Any ideas or suggestions?