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5121

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probe

« on: November 21, 2011, 03:36:26 AM »

Johannes,

I don't know if this helps but....

By the method of assembly, all the balls are in electrical contact with the PCB and each of the silver steel pins electrically connects one pair of balls. The, two wire, probe connection is taken from the 'gap' in the PCB track, which under normal circumstances (with balls and pins fitted) is now a short circuit. Any probe contact with an object (no matter from which direction) will open the circuit as at least one pin will fail to bridge the gap between one pair of balls.
It is the software which determines the direction of probing and the probe just indicates when contact is made by breaking an otherwise continuous circuit.

Tweakie.

5122

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit/Home Switch setup question

« on: November 21, 2011, 02:33:48 AM »

So what was the problem that prevented your motors from running please ?? http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,20078.0.html
Servo's or Stepper's ??
Also it would be most helpful, for others that follow, if you could post the solution that you found in the earlier thread.

Thanks,

Tweakie.

5123

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sound with out movement (JOG)

« on: November 21, 2011, 01:59:29 AM »

Lou,

Use a multimeter set to continuity test or take the lead to someone with a multimeter and ask then to test it (check for continuity to make sure it is good and that pin 1 at one end connects to pin 1 at the other end and that pin 2 connects to pin 2 and so on).

Tweakie.

5124

General Mach Discussion / Re: Sound with out movement (JOG)

« on: November 20, 2011, 12:24:04 PM »

Lou,

Something Hood mentioned earlier. It may be a good idea to check your parallel cable for continuity to make sure it is good and that pin 1 connects to pin 1 and that pin 2 connects to pin 2 and so on. You would not be the first person to have a dodgy lead.

Tweakie.

5125

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help getting my machine running...

« on: November 19, 2011, 11:40:01 AM »

Hi Peter,

You can measure the voltage on the parallel port (Direction pins only) with a multimeter. Connect the meter between pin 3 and GND (which is pins 18 to 25) then jogging the X Axis in one direction will give approx 5 Volts and jogging in the opposite direction will give approx 0 Volts.

Tweakie.

5126

Tangent Corner / Re: A Winter Project.

« on: November 19, 2011, 07:23:14 AM »

Everything aircraft has the nuts,bolts and fittings secured with locking wire.
For anyone wondering how it is done the answer is simple - special pliers. The pliers lock when the wire ends are gripped and then, by pulling the silver knob at the end, the pliers rotate to twist the wire. Whoever thought of that idea ??

Tweakie.

5127

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help getting my machine running...

« on: November 19, 2011, 02:55:12 AM »

Hi Peter,

Your motor output pins setup and the other settings all look Ok at this stage.

The problem may be with your laptop.
The opto isolators on the 6560 controller board generally require the full 5 Volts TTL and there is a chance that your laptop printer port outputs 3.3 Volt TTL signals which is just not enough.
Is there any chance you could use (borrow) and old desktop PC just to try to see if there is any difference ??

Tweakie.

5128