Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 04, 2013, 08:22:17 PM »

I put the CNC cabinet back together, put the 5 volts to the system from a hard drive tap and the software fired the CNC motors right up with all three axis running backwards!  I changed the dir pin to low active and the direction arrows were corrected.  The table has never been used and has sat since 2008.  The motors were grumbing a bit so I turned them off used the power feed a couple times.  This freed up the X-axis nice and smooth.  When I was doing the Y-axis, for some reason the table is phyically jammed toward the end of its travel (over 1/2" to go though) so I'll now need to look into that.  

It also it shredded a belt for one of the speeds on the lathe.  The back of the belt rides against an idler and the alignment is such that the belt easily comes off the idler and wedges up by the axle.  The fix would be to push the pully on to the motor shaft another 1/4", but this is a press fit and easier said than done with the machine now in place.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 08:26:24 PM »

I did some research and found that best case, the port can support 14 ma and with each Gecko taking 16 ma, I guess that I will be taking it from the drive cable.  I'll just run a dedicated wire out of the computer.

Thanks very much with this and I hope to get it up and running soon.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 08:07:27 PM »

From Gecko:

TERMINAL 10 Common
Connect this terminal to the controller +5VDC power supply

These inputs are optically isolated from the rest of the drive. Terminal 10 is the common anode connection for the opto-isolators and must be connected to the +5 VDC supply of your indexer or pulse generator.

These inputs are meant to be driven by standard TTL logic or other driver capable of sinking 16mA of current. The minimum logic “0” time is .5uS while the minimum logic “1” time is 4uS. Microstepping occurs on the falling edge of the step input.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 07:20:35 PM »

Can it hurt anything to try?

Thanks

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 06:54:17 PM »

OK, when I turn on my computer, I get 5.02 volts on several pins of the DB25 cable including Pins 11, 12, and 13, none of which are being used to operate the machine.  Can't I simply cut the wire off the molex plug that goes to the Gecko common and wire it to Pin 11 so that everytime the computer powers up, it sees the 5 volts?

It seems like the easiest solution and there would be ne need for a separate cable.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 06:01:11 PM »

Thanks.  That explains a lot.

At one point JT said that there should be a molex cable for the 5 volts.  It sure would have been nice to have the manual.  I don't suppose that there is any pin along the RS-232 to tap the 5 volts from?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 05:49:14 PM »

I traced out the RS-232 and the path is as most say, and I have tried several times (i.e., x step 2, x dir 3, y step 4, y dir 5, z step 6, z dir 7).  Pin 15 has a grey wire that goes to the 2-pin molex plug on the cabinet and the other pin of the 2 pin molex plug goes to the RS232 ground.  No where do I see a ground between the gecko drives and the RS-232 port.  The port marked "Common" on the Gecko drives are conneted in parallel and exit through the 2 pin (but only 1 pin present) molex plug labled "5 volts."  The 4 pin molex plug goes to the RS-232 ports 10, 12, and 13 and nowhere else.  The other molex plugs are empty.

Is there anything I should be looking at to trouble shoot the system from here (e.g., motor wiring or Gecko setting)?

Thanks

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 02, 2013, 05:01:39 PM »

OK, today I ripped off the CNC cabinet to see what's inside.  This should help.  I'm assuming that the third picture will tell the tail of where the pins go.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 01, 2013, 09:23:59 PM »

Thanks,

I guess I was hoping that someone had a ShopMaster/ShopTask Eldorado Tri-Power with factory CNC and knew the Pin and Step #s.  The PO said he didn't receive a manual on the CNC option with the machine as new and I've seen others say the same on other sites.

I've e-mailed JT at Shopmaster but received no response so far.  But it is holiday season.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Need Help Getting ShopMaster Stepper Motors Running Under CNC Control

« on: January 01, 2013, 09:13:47 PM »

Limit switches