Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: baghali on February 20, 2009, 06:31:10 AM
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Hi Guys,
I have recently purchased a miniature 3 axis CNC milling machine and I have not yet been able to use it. L
I have got to a stage where Mach3 communicates with the 3 axis stepper motor controller and the stepper motors make a ticking noise but the do not turn and kind of stay in one place while ticking.
I have done the wiring per instruction and I have attached a copy of my XML file so you can see my software settings.
I have also attached a photo of the machine which might help.
Here are all the other specs that I have:
(http://i1.ebayimg.com/04/i/001/24/ff/795c_1.JPG)
-Working area: 300x200x60mm
-Machine material: 6061 aluminium
-Table size: 450x240x20mm
-Motion system: ACME lead screw and hardened linear rail 4mm
-Rapid speed: 2m/min
-Cutting material: Plastic,foam,hard wood, soft wood,circuit board, light aluminium
-1.4 A 1.8 degree 1 step -stepper motors for XYZ
0There are no limit switches on the machine
- I am using 1/8 macro stepping on the card for all axis
- all the stepper motors are connected directly to the leadscrews
The parallel port setup for my motor controller card is:
PIN SIGNAL
1 CP4 - 4th axis pulse
2 CP1 - 1st axis pulse
3 CW1 - 1st axis direction
4 CP2 - 2nd axis pulse
5 CW2 - 2nd axis direction
6 CP3 - 3rd axis pulse
7 CW3 - 3rd axis direction
10 DIN1 - switch 1
11 DIN2 - switch 2
12 DIN3 - switch 3
13 DIN4 - switch 4
14 CW4 - 4th axis direction
16 ENA- all axis enable
17 RLY - relay control
18-25 GND - ground
Can somebody please find the fault and reconfigure my XML file so I can just copy and past it and it will work as I am very frustrated after a week of playing with Acceleration and Velocity in Motor turning.
By the way I have calculated steps per unit to be 9600. As I.e. 200 steps in a turn and I have 1/8 step therefore: 200 x 8 = 1600 steps per turn & have manually measured there to be 6 turns per inch I.e. 1600 x 6 = 9600. I don’t know if my measurements are correct but I know the screw lead is 4mm.
Thanks
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Try setting the Pulse width to 6 on the motor tuning page, if that doesnt help try Sherline mode, its on the Ports and Pins main page.
Hood
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Oh and if your ballscrews are 4mm pitch then that will be 6.35 turns per inch ;)
Hood
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Thanks for the hint Hood. as the result I have changed the ptep per unit to 10160. i have also activated the sherline mode but on my motor turning page the maximum for step or direction pulse is 5, what should i set them to?
Still no luck :(
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PS. I have set port 16 which is EN!(Enable all axis) to Output #1 on Ports and Pins. Maybe that is the problem??!
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Yes the enable would be needed, also if you have sherline enabled you do not need to set a pulse width. However I would at first try without setting the Sherline mode. As for the 5 being max for pulse width I think you must be using an old version of Mach as if I remember correctly it can be set higher than 5 now.
Hood
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Cheers... Finally got it to turn!! I cant believe it's doing the road runner in front of my eyes ;)
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:)
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Baghali,
So was it the enable that was the problem? My problem sounds similar.
Hollye