Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: crash5050 on February 18, 2010, 05:39:08 PM
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First of all I just wanted to say hello to everybody. This is my 1st post on the forum and sadly it has to be a problem.
I have a gecko g540 running 4 stepper motors. I need to slave the A stepper to the X stepper to drive the dual Rack and Pinion gears. Here is what I have ch3eck3ed so foar.
1. Downloaded the Gecko G540.xml from the geckodrive website.
2. Checked to make sure that the motor was enabled in ports and pins.
3. Set the slave options under the config menu to slave a to X
4. Unchecked the Rotational checkbox for A axis in general config.
5. Tested the motors on X axis and they all test good.
6. Checked the home slave checkbox.
I still can not get the A stepper to move. If anyone would have any insight into my problem I would really appreciate it. I am attaching my xml file for review.\\videos
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Xml looks fine from first look. Not familiar with the G540 , could you need an enable of some sort on the A axis drive?
Hood
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There are no switches save the charge pump switch. I have that off at the moment so the drive will come out of fault.
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What about if you change the pin assignment for X and A, does the A axis now move and X not?
Can you physically swap the drives around in these G540 easily, if you can it might be a good idea to swap out the X and A and see what happens, could be a bad drive.
Hood
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nothing is ever easy, is it?
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Hood the G540 is an all in one, i do believe that they use sub d plugs and sockets
Crash5050 MAKE SURE YOU POWER DOWN AND WAIT BEFORE UNPLUGGING THE DRIVES
Other than that i can offer no other advice
Phil
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I thought the G540 had individual drives inside it so you could swap out if one went bad. Not sure how easy it is to do that though but I am 99% sure it is.
Hood
Edit
Now I am 100% sure, Geckos site says it uses 4 G250 drives and "Easy to service, removable drives"
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Hood yes but as the motors plug in it's easier to swap plugs. ;D
Phil
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But that wont tell you if its a drive fault or some config/mobo fault, he has already said both motors work on X ;)
Hood
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My gecko does not have the option to move the drivers, they are static on a motherboard that attatches to the main board.
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Thats not good :( Is it an early revision as the site suggests that they can be easily removed. Have you swapped pin assignments in Mach for X and A to see if the A works and X doesnt? If its still A not working then it would suggest that its a drive or mobo issue and probably best to contact Gecko to see what they suggest.
Hood
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My gecko does not have the option to move the drivers, they are static on a motherboard that attatches to the main board.
I think you're mistaken. They should just plug in. The website even says "Easy to service, removable drives"
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ok, let me pop that sucker open and give it the once over...
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Ok, I see how this thing works now, the drivers are seperate on the botom main board. I have switched out A for X and X still works, and A does not...Same symptoms with thedriver boards swapped. It has to be a software config problem.
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I think you have a cable problem.... you said the charge pump was switched off to get it to come out of fault but looking at the xml I think the charge pump should work properly... the charge pump on in e stop was checked and the pins looked correct.
Check the cable for continuity on all the pins.
I dislike the female connector on the g540 simply because a male to female cable will usually be a straight through / extension cable, but a male to male cable is more likely to be a serial or crossover or custom configuration...
but I think thats the only thing about them I don't like , I have several male to male adapters from days gone by ;)
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As Pandinus says it could well be the cable, you know the motors are good, you know the drives are good so that leaves Mach, the parallel port, the cable or the G540 mobo as the culprits.
If you swap pins for X and A in Ports and Pins and the X motor still works then you know its a config issue, if the problem swaps then its hardware.
Hood
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Hey Crash,
When you jog "X", does your "A(4)" DRO show movement as well ? Assume you did the restart after the slave setting.
Anybody....I"ve tried all I can find and cannot simulate A slaved to X .
Is the A dro disabled when slaved ? The manual suggests removing the slaved dro due to it not displaying offsets correctly to avoid confusion.
Un-slaved, it jogs and simulates as it should, slave it and restart then no dro movement for a.
I farted with this for quite a while last night and gave up.
I must be overlooking something. Tried ver 04, 20, 29 and 33.
Russ
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The DRO on the main screen shows up, I do not know how to remove it.
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Crash, the dro shows up here too as it should.
I'm asking you if your A dro displays the same positions as the x dro when you are jogging x.
On mine, the A dro never changes, always 0.0000
Russ
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no, it stays at 0.00000
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HMM....
I took a look at the XML, and also tried playing with it.
I may suggest the following. Make a modified xml with all the fancy stuff off ( PWM, HOMING SWITCHES,SURGE PUMP, ETC). Set the the A axis up as not slaved and as an index or spindle.This way you can tell that the drive / cabling is all workiing. Back to basics kind of thing.....
Then add in one by one all the other stuff.
if you do that "emulate the Estop and also disable the spindle / or finish the associated
configurations. the spindle settings will overide the a axis settings for A as an indexer
FWIW,
RICH
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RC dont think the DRO will show any movement as you are not really moving the A Axis, you are moving two X axis :) You should however see the A axis dir pin change state when you jog X and also see a voltage when jogging the X on the A step pin.
Hood
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Hood, yep, you're right.
I didn't want to unplug my printer to check the voltage on my sim pc so I temporarily reconfigured my small lathe.
Slaved A (used X motor) to Z and it works just fine, just no #4 dro movement.
You know me, RTDM first. That's how I get confused. :P
It must have been changed internally somewhere along the line and no mention made of it.
All is good,
Thanks
the clip is from the new manual.....same as the old one.
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Crash,
You having any luck ?
Sorry to barge in, just trying to keep up with ya.
Russ
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Well, I finally figured out what the problem is. The 4th Axix stepper driver in my Gecko is bad. I took the X and A axis boards and swapped them out, restarted mach3 and guess what happened? The A motor turned and the X did not. Just to be on the safe side, I tried a different motor on the X axis, no joy... So Gecko Folks, if you are watching, I need a new driver board!
Qualls
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hmmm...thought you did that back at reply #13 ?
Better call them, bet they wont call you.
Russ
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Hello,
Have you made a special script to test prox switches on both drives to square the gantry when homing ?
Kind Regards,
DAniel