Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Outputs activated by hotkey?

« on: May 11, 2011, 09:42:14 AM »

Hi,

Apologies if this is a dense question, but I'm new to Mach3!

I've got a PC/Relay board attached to my LPT port, which activates relays based on an output on pins 2-9 (turn on pin 9 & a coressponding relay is activated)

I've assigned Output#1 to port 1, pin 8, and toggling active low on/off activates the relay as I want it to.

Is there a way to attach this to a keyboard hotkey? So for example pressing F1 switches output 1 on/off?

Many thanks,
Dave.

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor working in 1 direction only!

« on: March 15, 2011, 11:18:06 AM »

Many thanks for the help guys, thats working perfectly now!

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor working in 1 direction only!

« on: March 15, 2011, 10:02:46 AM »

Thanks for the edit, just had to google that one ;-)

Will have a go at that now & see how it goes!

Cheers,
Dave.

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motor working in 1 direction only!

« on: March 15, 2011, 09:42:56 AM »

Thanks for the replies!
Will have a go at shifting the pin assignments to 2&3, though should it make much difference if I've specified pins 1&2 in the outputs of MACH3?

When you say pins 6&7 to GND, is that simply left disconnected, or is there a specific place/pin I should attach those wires to?
Sorry if the questions sound stupid, this electrickery is all new to me!

Many thanks,
Dave.

5

General Mach Discussion / Stepper motor working in 1 direction only!

« on: March 15, 2011, 07:32:58 AM »

Hi All, new to MACH3 & CNC control in general, so hoping I've just got something silly wrong here!

I've got a stepper motor (Bipolar) connected to a Parker XL25 driver, connected to my PC & MACH3.

The driver can operate in 2 modes, Step/Direction, or Step+/Step- mode.

wired for step/direction, I have ports 1&2 on the LPT connected to the corresponding step/dir ports on the driver, but although the motor powers on I get no motion.

Someone suggested that by switching to Step+/Step- mode (there is a DIP switch on the driver to do this) and just wiring the Step- & Dir - pins on the driver together it would work.
Now I get motion in one direction only (presumably caused by the inputs on the Step+ & Dir+ pins, but lacking any input on the Step- & Dir - pins)
Is it possible to configure MACH3 to operate in this Step+/Step- mode, or any trick to get the Step/Dir mode working?

Many thanks for any help - much appreciated!

Dave.