Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: avirostick on June 09, 2009, 09:46:47 AM

Title: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 09, 2009, 09:46:47 AM
I have a Zenbot with 4 wire bipolar 285 ounce in nema 23 steppers. It worked great for a few months and then it started having problems it seems after I had disconnected the tower for a few days. The axes just bump and grind and bounce around, do not jog. I checked the mechanical, its all good. I replaced the ic drivers on the board, adjusted my configurations in the ports and pins many times, and got mixed results. Sometimes an axis would jog smooth, then another one would act up. I think the problem is between the pc and the driver now. Mabye my settings in the computer's device manager are not right. I'm using a Dell Optiplex tower with plenty of memory and gig.
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: Hood on June 09, 2009, 09:52:39 AM
Test with a volt meter at the parallel port. Put the meter between  a Dir pin and ground then jog the axis one way then the next and see if the volts go between 0 and 5 depending on the direction. You can do the same for the step pins ut its not so easy to see as the voltage change will be smaller but you should still see something. If that all checks out then it is outwith the computer that the problem lies.
Hood
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 09, 2009, 12:37:07 PM
I tested it. It looks fine. How do I open device manager screen and what do I need to look for? Thanks Hood
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: Hood on June 09, 2009, 01:11:18 PM
Not sure what you are meaning by device manager, if its windows device manager then there is no need to as the only thing you would need for Mach in there is the Port address. As you are getting the correct voltages out of the port then Mach has the correct address and your problem is further out than the computer. You could try increasing the Pulse widths to 5 on Motor tuning page or maybe even try Sherline mode as possibly your drives need a wider pulse.
Hood
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 09, 2009, 01:51:11 PM
I ran it fine for two months. 
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: Hood on June 09, 2009, 02:03:20 PM
Well unless somehow the pulse widths have changed it looks like you have problems with the hardware (Drives or BOB) could be something simple like loose connectors. As you have tested that the pulses are coming out of the computer then you need to look further out to the rest of your components.
Hood
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 10, 2009, 08:01:16 PM
I just replaced more parts in the driver, no good. Tomorrow a fresh 3 axis driver board will arrive from Mechatronics. My parallel port settings says it is working fine. When I try to jog using the xbox 360 controller, it just erratically bumps from one place to another. Sometimes even jogs in the opposite direction it's supposed to. The sound is very strange too. It's louder than before. If the new driver doesn't fix it, it has to be in the ports and pins configuration, right? Thank you for all your suggestions.
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: RICH on June 10, 2009, 09:41:19 PM
What Dell Optiplex tower are you using?
What velocity for the steppers are you are trying to run at?
Do you remember what the steppers sounded like when they ran?
( Did you hear anything like a clunk, clunk, clunk....sort of like hitting them with a little rubber mallet?)
Are you running off the motherboard PP or another PP?
Does that computer have on-board graphics?
RICH
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 10, 2009, 10:04:18 PM
I'll check it out in the morning, getting late now. Thank you Rich.
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: RICH on June 10, 2009, 10:45:10 PM
Here's why i ask. I have a GX520. I also use a SS with it with no problems. Suggest, if  you can, see what the quality of the PP signal is like using an oscilloscope , as it may have ringing on the signal and there nothing your going to do about it. Stepper velocity here with PP  is max 10 IPM and with SS have tested it to 120 ipm or so.
Not sure if it's the PC, as you said, worked great before.
RICH
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 11, 2009, 07:29:49 AM
The tower is a GX270, from 2004. The velocity for the steppers is 199.98 and motor tuning screen says they are 1112 steps, acceleration is 40. Step pulse and dir pulse are both 4. The first 2 months they sounded like they had the normal hum when traveling, and seemed to move smoothly. Now it's much louder, and does do the clunking sound. As far as the PP, if you mean post processor, I don't know how to tell. Back in March,  I downloaded the Mach trial ,got an xbox 360 control and plugin, the guy sent me the xml, and the machine was awesome. It ran great for two months. I don't believe we had an electrical storm or power loss, but I had the tower disconnected for a couple days, so I could get on the internet and download some programs. I'm thinking it was after this when I began noticing problems. It started with just the z axis behaving like I previously stated ( bumping up and down, jerking erratically). But this problem was obvious to recognize because it was plain to see that the motor configuration got altered somehow in the z axis. I simply changed the acceleration from 30 to 40 and it was fixed. How it got changed in the first place I don't know. I tried different settings in the ports and pins configurations,( checking and unchecking dir low active and step low active. I followed other threads posted on this and achieved no real results. I have replaced the ic drivers, step pulse optocouplers, and direction and enable signal optocouplers on my board. If anything, my z axis seems to be a little better, but I don't feel I have remotely addressed my problems. I will have a new driver board in today or tomorrow and have that finalized as to whether or not my problem lies within the driver. If not, and my motor configs and ports and pins configs are right, that narrows it down to what else? Thank you for your help,    Corey.
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 11, 2009, 08:06:35 AM
PP = parallel port. Oh, duh. Sorry. The PP is motherboard.
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 11, 2009, 08:10:01 AM
I hope I don't have to obtain an oscilloscope. I'd probably go buy a new tower if I have to get that deep into it.
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: RICH on June 11, 2009, 10:02:32 AM
You can get past xmls, which worked before, as they are stored in the C:\Mach\xmlbackups. Look at the readme file in that sub directory to see what you need to. 

You have an Xbox 360, did you remove the dll for the Joystick and ShuttlePro out of the plugin's directory since that can create problems if memory serves me.

Since you tested and confirmed you have a signal coming out the PP, and it was a Dell with on board graphics, the signal quality came into question, but at reduced velocity ( drop it down from
200 ipm to say 50 with acceleration ) the effect of a poor qulity signal may be diminished.
If you have or can borrow an osciliscope to look at the signal, fine, but  i wouldn't go out and buy one just for test.

This stuff happened, post going up on the internet. You should have the PC dedicated for CNC.
Could now have something now interfering with Mach.

Just some thoughts which can cause problems and don't require modifications to the hardware.
Simply put, if it worked before, it should work now, so take a moment and go back thru the
whole process and reaffirm Mach configuration and all connections.

Can't help you  with the configuration because you give no specifics on  the machine or dirver your using.


RICH

 
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 11, 2009, 06:38:57 PM
I'm using a Zenbot cnc router, driver is Mechatronics. 4 wire 285 ounce in nema 23 steppers. The joystick and shuttlepro keep coming back on, though I usually try to cancel them out before startup. I just installed a fresh driver board. It is now jogging better, but has no power. The slightest resistance causes it to cease jogging and the steppers just grind. It actually will jog now. But it's so weak the z axis won't even raise the weight of the mini router. Before installing the driver board, I uninstalled the mach 3 program, and re- downloaded it, and reinstalled the xml. After the new board was installed, I again went thru various configs in the motor tunings and ports and pins. The only thing I haven't done is test the stepper motor current using the test probes on the driver board, ( I have the manual explaining this process using a multimeter to test and adjust the V-REF and PFD potentiometers.)The potentiometers haven't been touched or adjusted by me. Could this be the  problem? I'm pretty sure I checked the PP signal correctly. Just to be sure, what's the best way to confirm that the signal coming out of the PP is good? Thank you for your help.   Corey
Title: Re: Can someone give me a walk thru for device manager settings?
Post by: avirostick on June 11, 2009, 08:32:47 PM
Thank goodness!! I got it fixed. The weakness was simply the potentiometers not being adjusted. I think they were at their lowest setting before I adjusted them. For the record, I do not know what originally the problem was, as I did just replace the driver board. It could have been anything. Thank you all again for your dear help. It's a scary thing when one's machienery is not working properly. Thanks again.