Machsupport Forum
Third party software and hardware support forums. => SmoothStepper USB => Topic started by: Alax7 on June 05, 2013, 09:13:08 PM
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Hello CNC world. I'm new to CNC and this is my first conversion. I bought a mini x2 and used it as a manual mill until I could save up to convert it to a CNC mill. Well I have everything installed, wired, downloaded, but I cannot get motor movement. I am guessing my issue is which pins to assign to what. I have been searching for 5 days online and on this forum but I am still stuck. I looked at the mach3 tutorial videos, the first one that reads "installation and basic configuration" and according to this, I just need to go to config>ports and pins> motor outputs. Then enable my X,Y,Z axis, set STEP pin# to 2,4,6 and DIR pin# 3,5,7 which is how I have them on the BOB. Then go and work on the Estop so mach3 will get out of emergency when I press the RESET button. After this, the video shows going to motor tuning and being able to get movement after moving the vel and acc around and continuing to adjust the vel and acc according to how the motor movement sounds. Does this sound right? Should I be getting movement with these few steps or is there more to it? Jog mode is ON as well which I read was the issue in not getting movement from the arrow keys for some.I have also found docs that show the input and output signals, which I wouldn't know where to start to assign them, but I was thinking that since I'm using an ESS I don't need these or my settings are different since I'm not using the computers PP, which it doesn't have. On mach3, the x and y axis move when I press the arrow keys but the motors don't move.Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Welcome to the forum Alex,
What operating system are you running? Have you looked at the Mach3 Mill Install and Config. Guide (not the video but the manual)? It can be found at the top of this page in the support tab, documentation.
Brett
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Sorry, I forgot to add that.
I am running vista 32-bit.
I did check out the manual and it did not help.
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What kind of hardware do you have? motors, power supply, drives, breakout board etc.? Do you have any wiring diagrams you created?
Brett
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I have this kit and I followed the instruction for mach3 found at the bottom of link with the kit.
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/stepper-nema23-3-axis-kits/cnc-stepper-motor-3-axis-kit-3
Wired it up like this
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/08/KL-4030WithC10.pdf
I don't have limit switches wired up or the mater switch. I do have everything else wired up exactly like that, only with x, y, z, not an A.
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I called that company to see if they could help. He asked if when I turn everything on, do my motor lock up and in fact they do.. After that he asked me mach3 questions and then just told me to watch the tutorial videos which did not help me get motor movement.
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If you don't have the master switch wired in do you have a jumper in its place?
Brett
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I didn't but I do now, no change. I assumed this was just to interrupt the power not to allow it to turn on, meaning if I didn't have anything on EN it would still work,
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50 bucks in your paypal account to whoever can get this working for me, if that's allowed here.
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Can you post a copy of your profile here?
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Where would you find that?
Like I said, I'm new to this
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When you start up Mach3 look in the lower right corner of the screen. The name of the profile you are using will be printed there. Now shut down Mach3 and open the Mach installation directory C:\mach3. Look for an XML file with the same name as your profile, i.e. "machmill.xml".
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got it
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You do not have a port number specified for the step/dir ports, see screenshot below.
Hood
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I changed them to port 1, still no movement.
At what point should I be able to get motor movement? The minimum settings needed once starting to set mach3 up to get the motors moving?
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I also set it up on my laptop and no movement either. Anybody?
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What you have set in your xml, with the addition of the port values, should be enough to get movement. That assumes you have entered the correct port and pin numbers and do not need any enables for your drives or breakouts. Without knowing what hardware you have that last part is impossible to say.
If you look on the diagnostics page what does it say in the Frequency DRO?
Hood
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Thank you, at least I know I'm on the right track.
I have this kit by the way
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/stepper-nema23-3-axis-kits/cnc-stepper-motor-3-axis-kit-3
ESS
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/breakout-boards/smoothstepper-ethernet-motion-control-board-for-mach-3
Wired like this
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/08/KL-4030WithC10.pdf
I did read on the mach3 manual that you can use an db25 LED tester, I guess I'll go this route to test and see if the signals get through.
If anybody comes up with anymore tips, my offer still stands
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Swap your step and Dir numbers around, according to the wiring diag X Step is 2 and X Dir is 3, you have 3 and 2. You also have them the wrong way round for the other axes.
Hood
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Nice catch. Switched those around, still no movement.
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I get communications through, my emergency LED under diagnostics lights up when I press and release my estop.
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Do you definitely have the power enable to the BOB connected?
Are you definitely connected to Port 1 on the ESS?
Also can you answer the question I asked before, what does the Frequency say on Diagnostics page?
Hood
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Yes, connected to port 1 on the ESS, port on the top left corner that has 1 on the bottom side of the board.
I have a jumper cable from the +5v power source over the EN pin.
There is no value for frequency, it just says external. I attached a snap shot of the diagnostics screen.
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Ok thats all as it should be so unsure what could be wrong other than possibly some wiring issue.
If you have a scope you could check to see if the ESS is outputting pulses from the pins you have set for your motors.
I dont have an ESS here so I dont think I can view your ESS config but if you look in the config make sure it is set to step/dir rather than quadrature.
Hood
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Thank you for everyone's help. 2 days after the last post I got movement!!!
The issue was smaller than I thought, just had to find it. The issue turned out to be a wiring mix up. I followed the wiring diagram exactly as it was shown on the website, but the problem was the diagram was wrong or outdated for the current boards. The common signal on the board went into the + signal on the driver, but on the diagram it had the board as + going into +, which my board was not set up as. Once I flipped the wires, I got movement. I was so excited to finally get movement after a week or so of trying to figure it out that I have been using it almost non stop since. CNC is a lot of fun and I can't wait to see what else I can make.
Thanks guys.