Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: pgsierra on September 14, 2008, 08:39:56 PM
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Hi folks, this is my first Post.
I'm hoping to get some guidance... based on everything I've read here over the last few months, and the huge experience pool that clearly exists in this forum, I'm very confident that the answer will be obvious to most of you and perhaps be able to quickly point out what I've done wrong...
Well, I just recently finished building my machine, and started setting it up.... Everything seemed to be working, but then the motors stopped responding. I was trying to tune them at the time and must have dome something wrong.
My machine has one bipolar motor, and two 8 wire unipolar motors wired in bipolar parallel.
Drives = 3 Gecko 201's
All of my limit switches are all normally closed with an external 5 volt supply to pull high on pin 13.
EStop is wired similarly to pin 10.
Ground is pin 19
Ground Limit Pin 18
Z = Step Pin 7
Z = Dir Pin 6
Y = Step Pin 5
Y = Dir Pin 4
X = Step Pin 3
X Dir Pin 2
I have attached a word doc with a few screen shots... Didn't know how to include the XML file ( or if I was looking in the right place)...
Thinking that someone else will see it right away....
Thanks in advance for your help.
Pete
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Pete, you find your xml file in your C:\Mach3 folder. Will be Machmill.xml or whatever profile your using. If it is a default profile name, you will need to rename it before you can post it. In your motor tuning page, set the step and direction times to 5 and see if that helps. Also make sure your not getting an e-stop signal and that jog is enabled.
Brett
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Pete,
I'm curious why you have the step signals set to active low in the pin config? Also, I'd disable all the limits until you have the motors working right, just to eliminate a possible are of confusion.
When you try to move, do the Mach DROs indicate Mach believes the axes are in motion?
Regards,
Ray L.
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Ray, I am curious why you are curious why he has step pins set active low :)
Pete
Do the DROs for X Y and Z move when you jog via keyboard?
Hood
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Hood,
I'm curious why you're curious why I'm curious.... :-)
Setting the step polarity wrong can cause lost steps on direction change with some controllers, depending on what the timing is, delays through the BOB, etc.
Regards,
Ray L.
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The reason I was curious why you were curious was I was curious as my G202's are set active low.
Hood
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Hood,
Yup, with drivers having opto inputs, active low is the way to go. But for others....
Regards,
Ray L.
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OK so as the OP has G201's he is best active low as he has then?
Hood
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Wow!
Thanks for all of the feedback!
Very much appreciated....
looks like I had two challenges... Almost hate to admit it....
1) As Brett suggested, I looked to see if Jog was on and in fact it had been turned off...
and 2) One of the wires to one of my motors had become disconnected due to a poor solder joint.
Great Idea to disable the limit switches...
Everything seems to be working ok now except the Estop tends to get triggered too often......
Thanks again.
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Sounds like noise on your limits, do you have shielded cables? If so do you have the shielding grounded at the control end only and all at the same point? Try setting the debounce to 2000 and see if that helps, if it does then lower a bit at a time until you hit the problems again.
Having the debounce at zero is the ideal you should aim for so shielded wiring for limits is really a must but the debounce will let you know if its noise or not.
Hood
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Hood,
I have shielded cables for my limit/ home switches but I did not have them grounded. After your recommendation I grounded to the chassis of the enclosure that I have the Geckos in, but unfortunately I still have the problem....
Debounce is set to 10000 and I still have the issue...
Funny thing is, every 30 seconds or so, while watching the diagnostics page, I see the M3 home switch activate briefly, then all of the limits get thrown and I get an E-Stop.
Additionally, I see the number 4 pin continuously lit... even without Jogging - #4 is the step for the y, so not sure why that would be happenning...
Pete
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Not sure what you mean by the pin 4 being lit, is it the port1 pins current state or the lights below that?
You may have very sensitive switches so that the slightest movement makes them bounce, try tapping the switches one at a time and see if they activate.
Also if you attach your xml I will have a look and see if I can find a problem.
Hood
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Yes, I am referring to the lights under the port 1 pin listing on the diagnostics page. I have one that is lit all the time, it is the fourth pin from the left top row. ( I assumed it represented pin number 4) which is my directional pin for the Y axis.
Normally nothing lit there...
On another note, I am using a Toshiba Laptop, and the driver test is 99% good however, every now and then I get a spike. Think it is resulting in the motors stalling everynow and then... Going through optimization steps today. Not sure this would trigger the e-stop.
I attached the XML file... Thanks in advance for taking a look.
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Dont see anything wrong in your xml from a quick look. I suspect its bad switches try removing them all except one and see if you can get it working. You can jumper out switches if its hard to actually remove them from the circuit.
Hood