Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Catco on September 14, 2009, 10:16:33 AM
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I have multiple questions, hopefully someone can give me some insight. I'm building a 4 axis benchtop mill for home use. This mill will have additional features such as ATC, manual overides for spindle speed and feed rate, etc. My plan is to get the (4) 400 oz. in. 4 wire stepper motors to move on the benchtop before proceeding with any of the other features. Thus far I've been unsuccessful. Let me start by saying that I purchased Mach 3 and installed the license file but the software doesn't seem to recognize that the license file has been installed. Not sure that matters, but I thought I'd throw it out there. The OS on this computer is XP. 512 RAM. One of the initial problems I noticed is that I'm unavle to reset the E-stop on on the blue and silver screen set that I also downloaded, so I moved on to one the generic screens for the moment. The folks that provided me with BOB and drivers (Probotix) were trying to give some help, but admittedly they are Linux users and not completely up to speed on Mach 3. The first thing we tried was to change the setting in the bios for the parallel port (which is married to the MB) to EPP. It was originally set at PS2?????. Anyway the system didn't like that and almost immedaitley crashed. They indicated that I shoud get an add-on parallel card, which I did. Installed that, and I'm still in the same boat. Not sure if I'm fighting a hardware problem, or a software problem Windows or Mach. This parallel card also comes with a 9 pin COM port piggybacked onto it (actually there are 2 if you chosse to install it ) but only port (LPT1) shows up on the hardware tab when yoy look at it. Can I assume they share the same port and cannot be used at the same time? Not sure what the next move should be. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ???
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It doesn't appear that you said exactly what was wrong? The motors don't turn? Are you trying to run g-code, or jog? Do the DRO's change? Do the motors lock up with power applied?
Triple check all the ports and pins settings, and the port address.
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Sorry, no the motors do not turn. Prior to changing the setting in the bios on the port that is married to the MB - the motors were locked up and vibrating a little, but no shaft movement. After the change to EPP in the bios, the computer crashed. After the install of the add-on parallel card I noticed no vibration and the computer crashed soon afterward. As for the settings in the port and pins, I would ask this question: The port and pins page allows you to change the address on what they have labled as port 1 and port 2. my new parallel card is on LPT3 - will Mach find it, or? Thanks for the response.
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If you put the address of the new card in as Port 1 in Mach it should be fine. Mach does not care whether windows sees it as LPT 1 or 3 or whatever, all it cares about is the address is correct.
Hood
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Thanks Hood. I've gone over the settings in the pins and ports tab again - still no response from the stepper motor. If I write a little program in the MDI the DRO moves, but not the stepper. I DO NOT have any of the home / limit switches hooked as of yet. Can this be causing some or all of my problem?
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No, the DROs wouldnt move if you had the limits set wrong for none connected.
What address have you put in for port 1?
Hood
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0378
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You need to look in device manager and the resources for your PCI card, think you said LPT3, and get the address, its the first 4 digits, could be something like C000
Hood
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I don't see anything that resembles that, but here is what I do have: Driver version= 5.1.2600.0, Details= Device Instance Id and ACPI\PNP0401\4&B4063F4&0, Resources = 0378-037F and 0778-077F, Location Intel 82801BA LPC Interface controller. As I indicated in my first post, this parallel card also has an additional 9 pin com port piggybacked onto it. My assumption is that the 0378 address is for the DB25 and the 0778 is for the 9 pin, perhaps not. Maybe I should change the address in Mach and try it again?
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0378 is the onboard ports address, it is unlikely your PCI card will have that address.
Can you post a screenshot of your device manager open at the ports .
Hood
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Not immediately. I don't have the internet in the garage yet. So I'm emailing you from in the house. I could go into the bios if there is something in particular you are looking for.
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Bios is no use if its a PCI card you are using, the BIOS will only show the on board ports.
Hood
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Suggestions? I'll go look again and see if I can see something that looks like you suggest
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Ok in device manager it should say Ports (Com and LPT) expand that so you see all ports, you will have several there but at least two will be LPT . Double click each LPT in turn and look at the resources of each. 0378 will almost definitely be your onboard port so it will be one of the others you need the address of.
Hood
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Com1 = 03F8-03FF IRQ 04 / Com 2 =02F8-02FF IRQ 03 / LPT3 = 0378-037F and 0778-037F. In the resources tab for LPT3, just below the I/O range 0378-037F and 0778-077F there is a drop down down menu called "setting based on" in the box next to it it is set at "current configuration", but if I open the drop down menu I have the option to change from Basic configuration 0000 to basic config. 0009. Below that is a box that can be checked or unchecked that says "use automatic settings" and to the right of that is a button the says "change settings" Hopefully this will be of some help
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So you only have one LPT?
If so then it sounds as if your PCI card is not installed properly.
To make sure go to Start button then all programmes then accessories then System Tools then System Information.
In the window that pops up go to Components then Ports and Finally Parallel. You should see at least two ports there, your onboard and the PCI one you have added.
Hood
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You were right -it only shows up as having one parallel port. There are 4 open PCI slots on the MB, does it matter which one the new card goes in? Currently it's in the one nearest the middle of the MB
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Some motherboards used to be picky about which PCI you used but nowadays I dont think they bother. When you put the PCI card in did Windows detect it on first startup and ask for drivers or install them automatically?
Hood
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No, and that probably should have been my first clue. I guess I'll start again from the beginning, but at least I now know what to look for. Thanks for all your help. I'm a whole lot closer than I was an hour ago. How's the weather there in the fall? We've been talking about taking a trip to Scotland and the UK in the fall. Again, many thanks for your help!
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Weathers not too bad, never great here in this part of the coast but never really bad either, we even had two or three days of sunshine last week ;D
Hood
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Did you install drivers for the new card?