Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: geast on April 10, 2010, 04:41:55 PM
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Hi everybody.
I can't get the output pins 2 & 3 make them work.
I try to set them in the port and pins menu, as motor X pulse & direction outputs but nothing happens.
If i try the same at pins 4 and 5 or 6 and 7 everything works fine.
What is so special with this to pins 2&3 that they don't operate?
Has anyone any ideas?
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Maybe you have them duplicated, or maybe disabled, or your port may have those pins damaged
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What do you mean with disabled?
I enable them in the menu pins & ports, as i did with pins 4&5 or do i have to enable them somewhere else?
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Just a suggestion.
If you download and run Parmon http://www.geekhideout.com/parmon.shtml
Then you can visually see if pins 1 and 2 are changing state from your GCode program or jog buttons.
Assuming they are changing state then you may have a defective LPT cable, bad connection or bad stepper driver.
Assuming they do not change state then you almost certainly have a damaged port if these pins are enabled and the correct port selected etc.
Hope this helps,
Tweakie.
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Thank you tweake very much for the utility, but it just show me exactly what is happen at the port.
It does not matter if i program 2 & 3 pins it just keep pulsing only pins 4 & 5 and 6 & 7, although i program axis X 2 & 3 pins, port 1 and for axis Y 4 & 5 pins port 1. There is now way i can make the pins 2 & 3 work.
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In that case there is more than a good chance that your port is damaged.
Assuming the rest of the PC is running OK you need to obtain a PCI parallel port card or get another PC motherboard.
Tweakie.
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I try another motherboard,same brand, same P/N and i get the same results.
No mater how i program the motor pins for the X axis or Y the keep pulsing at the output pins 4,5.
When i program this at the second parallel port everything is ok.
Should i program at the bios setup level the parallel port somehow else?
I just set it as a normal and not EPP, or bidirectional.
For the history the motherboard is a Kontron 886LCD/ATX(GV), but i already try three of them and i always get the same results.
Any help will be appreciated.
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Try a fresh installation of a previous mach3 version, probably .036. ftp://machsupport.com/Mach/.
Make sure to start with a fresh xml.
Please send return feedback.
Arturo Duncan
http://cnc4pc.com
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Hi there I had a similar problem only mine was pins 4 & 5 tried swapping cables to different drive no change .
Put a meter across the pins and pressed the jog I could only see 0.5 volt change .
Changed the cable to pins 8 & 9 corrected the pinouts in config and all worked well so I could have a problem in the cable or the breakout board or out bound from the computer this I will look at later when I get round to changing the PC
Paul
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Hi all,
It's been a while since I was on here as I only seem to come on when I have problems. Thanks in advance ;)
I have got a similar problem that is driving me nuts so thought I would tag it to this post due to the similarity.
I have just started connecting up my axis stepper motors and (pwm controlled) spindle motor to the PC. To make sure everthing worked ok I decided to do one at once.
Configuring pin1 to spindle the oscilloscope shows a nice square wave pattern which changes as I shift motor rpm. If I reconfigure the same pin1 to Xstep nothing happens?
Changing from pin1 to pin4 has the same effect; spindle works, Xstep doesn't?
Besides that, when looking at the diagnostics screen the matrix of 'LEDs' that show the state of the pins always have the middle four illuminated no matter what I do. Considering I have no inputs or outputs connected, besides the one which I am testing, how can this be?
...Sweep
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Arturod i try the version .036, even the version 1.84.. but exactly the same results.
I forget to mention the the option "Max CL mode enabled" is selected.
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Do you have a Max CL machine?
Hood
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Hello Hood.
I'm using servo drives witch accept step and direction pulses.
This was the only configuration on mach3 that i get the right pulses to my drives.If i don't select it then i don't get pulses i need.
I really don't know what a Max CL machine is.
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Max CL will configure the outputs to certain pins and you cant assign them to anything else no matter what you put in Ports and Pins.
Pins 2 to 9 are quadrature outputs for axis A to Z, ie 2 and 3 are quad outputs for A, 4 and 5 for Y , 6 and 7 for X and 8 and 9 for Z
It would seem that if you are getting motion from your drives on some of these pins with Max CL enabled then your drives are using Quadrature input rather than Step/Dir.
I would suggest you see how to set your drives as Step/Dir and then disable Max CL mode and that way you will be able to configure things in Ports and Pins as you wish.
You will find the Pinouts for Max CL mode here ftp://anonymous@machsupport.com/ExtraInformation/MaxCLPINASSCL.TXT
Hood
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That explains everything, why isn't this documented in the installation manual?
Thank a lot Hood.