Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: woodchuckshane on March 26, 2010, 04:07:55 PM
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Hello forum, I'm new, and confused
I am having trouble with the direction signal sent.... I'm not sure if it a difficulty with mach 3 or my motor drive (logitrol cnc 7 amp extra duty 4 axis stepper driver)... but I think it really is in the mach software, for it even happens when I am using the keyboard for movement in the motor tuning area.
The difficulty is the machine will not recognize the correct direction.... when jogging one way, and then trying to jog the other way, it only sometimes listens..... more often than not it will just keep going the same direction, no matter how many times I key the joystick to make it reverse directions.
It also happens when a program is run.... i tried cutting the cross.tap file and ended up with a lot of squiggly lines... mostly in one direction, but sometimes it did reverse and squiggle the other way.
I am not sure of the social customs in here, and I hope this isn't to simple of a question that I could have figured out by myself.... but the electronics part is way over my head, hence the reason I bought a kit for the motors.
Although I can use a volt meter, I am not skillful with one......so checking the port to see if the correct signal is being sent to the motor driver is a mystery to me. I also thought about reloading the software to clear up any driver issues, but decided i should ask for help before I under take reloading everything. There might be a less time consuming fix
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Sounds like your Dir wire is loose or maybe even your breakout board is faulty.
Hood
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Oh meant to say, to check the Dir signal just put a voltmeter between the Dir pin and a Gnd pin and jog one way then the other on that axis and you will see the voltage go etween 0v and 5V depending on the Dir you jog.
Hood
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This can also be a symptom of one of your stepper wires being loose, generally it will run rough also.
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Thank you both for the advise.... i will check the the wiring to see if it is loose, I will also check the voltage at the dir pin this weekend and report the findings.