Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 03:26:29 PM

Title: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 03:26:29 PM
Hi guys

I have been fascinated by cnc machinery for a long time and now that they are somewhat affordable I intend to build myself one which will handle a 8 by 4 sheet of plywood.

But before running I want to walk a while so I got myself a small kit so that I can work on it in the warm spare bedroom rather than in a draughty workshop.

It is from buildyourcnc.com I got it from a guy who got  it and then tired of it.

My intention is to build it up and use it to cut the parts for my bigger one.

I have put it all together and yesterday I did the electrics and hooked it up to a PC with mach3 installed.

As soon as I plugged it in the motors "tensed" and the light came on in the control board and everything seemed ok, except that nothing moves.

I believe that I have configured mach3 properly and I have triple checked the wiring.

I installed a port monitor which tells me that the port is active when I use the scroll buttons.

I checked some of the pins with a volt meter but they show 5 volts whether red or green on the monitor.

I hope someone can help me with this as this is my first experience of trying to control something by PC

br22

Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: ger21 on December 21, 2009, 03:33:31 PM
The installation video should get you up and running.

http://www.machsupport.com/videos/
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 03:51:22 PM
I have watched those videos over and over yesterday and this evening.

I am thinking that there is probably something so simple its not even in the videos anyone (except me) probably knows .

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 04:00:04 PM
Have you made sure you have the correct port address?
Have you run the Drive Test to see what the pulse is like?
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 04:43:25 PM
Yes
correct port address and the drive test says excellent

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: ger21 on December 21, 2009, 04:46:04 PM
Do the drives require the enable pins?

Do all the step and dir pins have port 1 assigned to them?
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 04:47:11 PM
Can you attach your xml please, if using the standard profile it is called Mach3Mill.xml and its in the main Mach3 folder, you will need to rename to attach to a post.


Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: comet on December 21, 2009, 05:07:33 PM
have you checked the port is outputting a pulse? a quick way is to put a small speaker across the axis
step pin and earth(or +5v) and see if it buzzes when you jog that axis
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 05:36:46 PM
Do the drives require the enable pins?


Do all the step and dir pins have port 1 assigned to them?

Yes Port 1 is assigned to all three axis step & Dir

I don't understand about the drives enable pins

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 05:43:14 PM
Some drives require a signal to enable them. Do you have a link to the documents for your hardware?
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 05:44:55 PM
Here is the .xml file there is also one called mach3turn.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 05:47:24 PM
Some drives require a signal to enable them. Do you have a link to the documents for your hardware?
Hood

http://buildyourcnc.com/driverkit.aspx

But I followed the videos here.

http://buildyourcnc.com/wiring.aspx

I thought it would be more idiot proof.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 05:56:12 PM
These are leadshine stepper drives and if I recall they need an enable, you may have done this just by hard wiring but if not you will need to assign and wire enable pins.
The videos are very slow in loading but will have a look when they load.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: ger21 on December 21, 2009, 06:29:31 PM
I see the enable on the drives, but he didn't wire it in the video. There's also a 5V enable on the breakout board. Do you have that wired correctly?
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 06:35:51 PM
Gerry you are lucky, the first video is still loading for me, maybe its not a strong swimmer ;D
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 06:38:47 PM
I wired them up exactly like the videos.

There are two vacant spots on each driver ena + and ena - 5v

Theres a lot of vacant spots on the board.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 06:40:33 PM
Gerry you are lucky, the first video is still loading for me, maybe its not a strong swimmer ;D

A couple of times the videos stopped downloading. I had to close the page and open again before they came down.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: ger21 on December 21, 2009, 06:46:06 PM
They loaded for me in about 10 sec each. :)
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 06:50:35 PM
You need to enable the drives I think, its been a while since I wired up the coil winder but I am 99% sure the enables need a 5v input. You could just jumper a 5v supply to test but best to do via an E-Stop button once tested working.
I still dont have the videos loaded so maybe best wait until Gerry comes back and confirms what I think.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 21, 2009, 06:57:48 PM
Thanks for your help. Its time for bed.

I will wait till you are sure. Don't want to fry anything  :o

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 21, 2009, 08:22:56 PM
As Gerry says no mention of the enables, I cant find any wiring info on the guys site or any info about the actual model of the drives. I am almost certain you are needing the 5v and 0v to the enable pins but best bet would be to email the guy to make sure or if you have the model numbers of the drives we could probably find the correct leadshine docs.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 22, 2009, 07:08:39 AM
It says on the drivers.

Keling Technology inc

KL-4030

Heres the manufacturers diagram

http://www.kelinginc.net/KL-4030Wiring.pdf

I appear to have everything wired correctly except the interface on the diagram has four power input connections and mine only has three.

gnd,  5v and ena

I have 5v to the 5v and ground to gnd should I put 5v to the ena


br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 22, 2009, 07:33:15 AM
According to the wiring diags he has you do not need the enable connected. Best bet is to email the guy you got them from or Keling himself.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 22, 2009, 08:26:33 AM
According to the wiring diags he has you do not need the enable connected. Best bet is to email the guy you got them from or Keling himself.
Hood

I emailed the guy who made the videos this morning.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 22, 2009, 12:22:43 PM
Now I have 5v to the en on the breakout board. The motors lock up with a nice thunk, but alas still no movement from them.


br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 22, 2009, 01:47:14 PM
Attached pic of the end of the cable as it plugs into the breakout board.

Pins 7, 9 and 11 show 0 or 5v when I move the axis on the keyboard.

is this as it should be.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 22, 2009, 01:58:18 PM
Ok, you shouldnt get 0 to 5v toggle on these pins when jogging the axis if you have it configured as in the video, the Dir pins in the vid were 3 5 and 7 so jogging the X one way then the other should toggle pin 3 between 5 and 0v. Same goes for Y axis and pin 5 and Z axis and Pin7. Are you measuring directly on the computers port or at the end of the cable? If the cable then check it is a straight through cable, sounds like it may be a crossover.

Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 23, 2009, 08:35:33 AM
I had some spare time this morning and did some "troubleshooting"

I think the lpt1 outputs are ok now on 3,5 and 7

And there is output from the breakout board.

pins 3,5 and 7 switch between 0.08 ( probably inaccurate meter) and 6,25.

pins 2, 4 and 6 between 0.08 and .2

The motors are locked up.

I am tempted to run a 5v to the enables on the drivers. Could it do any harm to try ?

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 23, 2009, 08:42:11 AM
Thats exactly what you should see (voltages a bit high on the Dir, but  as you say probably meter) so the BOB is OK, the Port is OK, only really leaves the drives.
Personally I would hook up the 5V but thats me, docs are not great so not sure exactly what they mean, wiring shows theres nothing connected but docs seem to suggest there should be.
Dont think you would do damage but not an expert so cant say for sure.
If you hang on 10 mins I will go look at the coil winder and see what I have there, its got similar drives too yours.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 23, 2009, 08:55:08 AM
Ok I am standing by.

I guess the weather isn't so good where you are, my son is in Dundee but coming home for Christmas.

I am undecided, It would be nice to have him home but he is probably safer where he is.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 23, 2009, 08:57:43 AM
Ok just looked and there is nothing connected there on mine, have just read the manual as well on Arc Euro's site and it says 5v on the enables actually disables the drives and if you dont want to have that feature just keep connected. So connecting 5V would do no harm but unlikely it will help unless your drives are the opposite.

I am wondering, do you have the dip switches set correctly? If you have the max microstepping set your motors may be moving just that slow you dont see anything. For example if you had the dips et for 51,200 micro steps it would take 10,240,000 pulses to move one rev, if you have Mach set to the default  2000 steps per inch then that would 5120 inches worth of pulses to move one rev of the motor. If you have the default velocity, 120IPM then it would take the motor 42.6666 mins to do a rev, in other words kind of slow ;D
Hood

Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 23, 2009, 08:58:24 AM
Dundee is 15 miles from me :)

Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 23, 2009, 09:13:51 AM
I guess you are going to have to tell me about dip switches if you don't mind.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Hood on December 23, 2009, 09:21:37 AM
The dip switches on the drives determine things like max current , step/dir or CW/CCW and also the microstepping.
Just had a look at your drives specs and they have a max of 1/64th so not likely the problem :( think the guy in the vid said 1/4 stepping was what he recommended so that would be switches M1 On, M2 Off and M3 On



Hood
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 23, 2009, 10:48:17 AM
I have been all over it again for the umpteenth time

24v to each driver

5v to each driver

step & dir to each driver

4 wires from each driver to each motor

out put v from breakout board to drivers

I guess the only thing is to get another driver to test with.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 23, 2009, 12:12:33 PM
She's running

Thanks to John at kelinginc.net

He sent me excellent instructions on Mach3 I just went through all the steps and redid everything.

Kind of startled me when the motors turned.

Thanks to Hood and the rest of you guys for your input.

That's me sorted till the next prob crops up.

br22
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: Overloaded on December 23, 2009, 01:21:13 PM
So then....PLEASE don't leave us hanging. lol
What was the guilty culprit ?
Glad you got it going !
RC
Title: Re: Newbie and having teething probs
Post by: br22 on December 23, 2009, 02:40:51 PM
So then....PLEASE don't leave us hanging. lol
What was the guilty culprit ?
Glad you got it going !
RC

That's the point I didn't do anything I hadn't tried before. When it finally worked the motor outputs were set low active although I had tried that before and it didn't work. And I have since changed the x & y axis to not low active to get them to travel in the corresponding direction to the keyboard buttons.

I would be happier if I knew what was the problem but its great to have it moving.


br22