Messages

3941

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 for embroidery machine

« on: September 10, 2014, 06:40:19 AM »

Still some way to go on this but I am making progress...

I've read the book, watched the film, soon I am going to have the T-Shirt 

Tweakie.

3942

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hall of shame

« on: September 09, 2014, 10:40:40 AM »

Hi Poppy Ann,

Guess that was the name of your sailboat ?

Mach3 is free to download and use but it has a number of limitations (eg. only running a Gcode program of 500 lines). Once you have tried it and are satisfied that it will run your machine as you require then you can purchase the license which then removes the limitions mentioned above.

The license can be obtained here http://www.machsupport.com/licensing/

Tweakie.

3943

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 for embroidery machine

« on: September 08, 2014, 01:59:25 AM »

Thanks to Khalid for his work on machine embroidery  - I finally decided that I had to give this a try.
Just running a Tajima test pattern and ignoring thread colour changes my machine set-up appears to be running OK so I can now start to investigate the software side of things, hopefully to create my own designs.

Tweakie.

3944

General Mach Discussion / Re: No Motor Movements -- Newbie

« on: September 05, 2014, 04:54:59 AM »

An ‘Active Low’ signal is normally high (approx. 3.3V or 5V) and goes low (0V) when it is enabled.
It is the opposite for ‘Active High’ they are low (0V) and go high (approx. 3.3V or 5V) when enabled.

As said, your motors should ‘lock’ when the board is powered-up (irrespective of any combination of step and direction pin settings / allocations) so you need to find which pin or pins provide the Enable signal / signals. It will, of course, be one or more of the Output pins 1-9, 14, 16, 17.
Try them each in turn first active high then active low – when you can’t rotate any of the stepper motors then you have found the pin / pins and it’s / their active state.
Then you can proceed to confirm which are the correct step and direction pins for each axis (although I think you already know that but check again to be sure).

Tweakie.

3945

General Mach Discussion / Re: No Motor Movements -- Newbie

« on: September 04, 2014, 05:50:53 AM »

Hi Giongnuts,

When you power-up the board (connected to the PC and with Mach3 running) Do your motors lock ?? (cannot be rotated by hand like they can when it is switched off).

If they lock then you are on the right track.
If they do not lock then you have not yet found the correct Enable pin numbers.

Also check...
That you have the correct parallel port Port Address set in Mach3 and that it is Enabled.
That you are using the correct Pin numbers for Step and Direction in Motor Outputs.
Try Step Active Low (ticked) and see if that works.

That's about it really, I have run out of ideas for you except perhaps buying a Gecko G540 


Tweakie.

3946

General Mach Discussion / Re: No Motor Movements -- Newbie

« on: September 04, 2014, 04:50:04 AM »

Hi Giongnuts,

I appreciate it is not your doing but these boards are total crap and hardly worth the effort to get them going. However...

You need to have Enable signals (active high [X]) set in Mach3 / Ports and Pins / Output Signals, for the respective pins. Try...

Enable1  Enabled(tick) Port#1 Pin Number 4 Active Low(cross)
Enable2  Enabled(tick) Port#1 Pin Number 5 Active Low(cross)
Enable3  Enabled(tick) Port#1 Pin Number 17 Active Low(cross)

Make sure that those pin numbers are not Enabled anywhere else in Mach3.

See if that let's you get motor movement.  

Tweakie.

3947

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: September 03, 2014, 12:25:05 PM »

Wow ! - it all seems to be coming together faster than I anticipated. 

Thanks Art.
Thanks Steve.

Tweakie.

3948

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: A Wee Prober

« on: September 03, 2014, 09:24:19 AM »

 

(now it has been spotted, thought I had better correct the typo).

Tweakie.

3949

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: September 03, 2014, 02:05:04 AM »

Thanks Art, I look forward to trying your setup, allbeit at a much slower feedrate  (4500mm/min with my steppers and ballscrews) when details become available.

Tweakie.

3950

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: A Wee Prober

« on: September 03, 2014, 01:55:00 AM »

Hi mc,

No sarcasm intended sir - it is certainly a great project - please keep up the good work.

Tweakie.