Axis Only Moves In One Direction

[Hood]

Are your physical axis all the same, ie same pitch screws? same gearing? same microstepping on the drives?
 Hood

[AdamF]

My initial guess would be that they are, as all motors are of the same type and appear to be connected similarly. However, seeing as how I had no hand in the fabrication of the machine I can't say for certain.

The stepper motor is of this make:
http://motionking.com/Products/Hybrid_Stepper_Motors/23HM_Stepper_Motor_57mm_0.9degree.htm?ID=9&fenlei_id=2&products=23HM%20Stepper%20Motor%20-57mm%280.9%20degree%29
Model Number: 23HM8430.

I used the stepper calculator to roughly determine that the Steps per mm should be around 640, but without knowing the other variables such as Pulse/Step, gearing, and pitch screw details it's hard to tell if that value is accurate.

[Hood]

Ok well your motors are 400 steps per rev rather than the normal 200 steps per rev. If you can measure the pitch of the screws and see if there is any gearing between motors and screws then it would only leave the microstepping of the drives to find.
The other thing you could do is go to the setting page in Mach and use the Set Steps button, it will only be as accurate as your measurements and you may have to do things a few times for each axis but it should get you close.
Hood

[AdamF]

Thanks for all the help so far! As far as measuring the pitch, which screws should I be measuring? After looking at the picture, it would appear that the cylinder coming out of the stepper motor is smooth, but I'm guessing that's the one that I need to measure? Lastly, what should I be looking for to determine the gearing between the motors and screws as you mentioned?

I think I'll just e-mail the motor manufacturer to figure out the microstepping.

[Hood]

The motor manufacturer wont be able to tell you the micro stepping, that is determined by the drives and the setting you have on these drives (if adjustable)
Sorry dont follow what you mean by

After looking at the picture, it would appear that the cylinder coming out of the stepper motor is smooth, but I'm guessing that's the one that I need to measure?

Can you attach a picture of your machine, especially pictures of the drives and axis connections would be good.
Hood

[AdamF]

It might be a little until I can get pictures of the machine itself. But it is a Minitech Mini Mill 3 Pro. I found a sheet of the machine and drive specs, and it appears that they have a large range of micro stepping modes, so I'm thinking that maybe the axes are on different step modes. Could this potentially be the issue? If so, how do I go about checking/changing the micro-stepping modes? Here's a link to the machine specs.

http://minitechcnc.com/mini%20mill%20Pro%20More.htm

Interestingly enough, it says that the stepper motors operate at 200 steps/rev in full step mode, but on the motors there is a sticker saying "0.9deg/step".

[Hood]

Look at this page and then click on the downloads link and then sign up and see if they can provide a xml, that will save you a lot of problems.
http://minitechcnc.com/software09/software.htm

Hood