Messages

5161

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 26, 2013, 08:27:29 AM »

Hi Gary,

I may have misunderstood one of your earlier posts when you said that M3 brings the board alive so as a last resort...

There is the possibility that Mach3 is not communicating with your parallel port.

1) Run the Mach3 “Driver Test.exe” which can be found in the Mach3 folder. How does that look ??

2) If you are using WinXP as your OS then Parmon  http://www.geekhideout.com/parmon.shtml can be used to test the outputs from your parallel port.

2a) Another alternative is connecting your multimeter between pin 25 and pin 4 of the parallel port and within Mach3 – Config / Ports & Pins / Output Signals set Enable 1 to Enabled, Port#1 Pin Number 4 then toggling Active Low / Active High should give the readings (approx.) 0Volts / 5Volts.

Tweakie.

5162

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 26, 2013, 06:34:31 AM »

As an update to my earlier post…

It is the actual pin numbers you are trying to find – If the pin number entered in Enable 1 does not lock the X axis motor (or any other motor) there is little point in trying that same pin number in any other Enable. Just move on to the next pin number.

Tweakie.

5163

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 26, 2013, 05:57:10 AM »

Hi Gary,

Good news that you have found 4.29 Volts on the LPT port.

Now the tedious bit starts (remember that successful fault finding requires you to be very methodical – take it one step at a time and only change one thing at a time).

I am making the assumption that your controller board does if fact work and that you have the 24 Volts ? applied to the board and everything else connected correctly.

The first thing is to get the stepper motors to ‘lock’ when the system is powered up. This appears to be related to Config / Ports & Pins / Output Signals / Enable 1 to Enable 4 settings. So try all output pin numbers (1 to 9, 14, 16 & 17)  both Active High and Active Low until you find the right combination to ‘lock’ the motors.

Once you have achieved this than I will suggest a possible next step in the procedure.

Tweakie.

This is what my little helper gets up to in his spare time.  

5164

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 26, 2013, 03:18:50 AM »

Hi Gary,

Your cable should be straight through, with all pins connected, pin1 to pin1, 2 to 2 etc.

Tweakie.

5165

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: First set up problems with on board and pci parallel port.

« on: March 26, 2013, 02:41:08 AM »

Hi Will,

I am pleased that you have the problem sorted. 

Tweakie.

5166

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: First set up problems with on board and pci parallel port.

« on: March 25, 2013, 01:37:33 PM »

Hi Will,

Welcome to the forum.

As your are using WinXP, Parmon http://www.geekhideout.com/parmon.shtml will show the states of your parallel port pins, if this is any help.

Tweakie.

5167

General Mach Discussion / Re: Anyone have this happen to a design?

« on: March 25, 2013, 12:13:43 PM »

Hi Carl,

Must admit that I have not seen that before.

If you could attach the .tap file I would be interested to see it.

Tweakie.

5168

General Mach Discussion / Re: Installing two Mach3 versions - to run one or the other

« on: March 25, 2013, 12:06:31 PM »

Hi John,

I don’t know if this is any help but I run the same installation of Mach3 in a number of different ways, each with a different configuration (Port and Pin settings etc).

All I do is create a new profile (one with a different .xml file) and then add the shortcut for the new profile (appropriately named) to my desktop.

Tweakie.

5169

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with KL-4030 1st time testing problems

« on: March 25, 2013, 11:45:45 AM »

Hi Kris,

Welcome to the forum.

Check if you have 5V & EN (on the C10) and CW & CP+ (on the KL-4030) all connected to +5 Volts.

Also that you have a common GND connection between GND (on the C10) and GND (on the KL-4030).

Tweakie.

5170

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: March 25, 2013, 07:23:32 AM »

Hi Gary,

The stepper motors should lock when power is applied with Mach3 running and the CNC connected to the PC.

What I have here for the step / direction (blue board) Mach3 configuration is as follows;

Xaxis  Step16  Dir1
Yaxis  Step14  Dir7
Zaxis  Step3   Dir6
Aaxis  Step9  Dir8

Enable1  Pin4
Enable2  Pin17
Enable3  Pin5
Enable4  Pin5

Output#1 Pin2

Does this match up with the instruction you have been supplied ??

Tweakie.

(As Jim has pointed out there are so many variants of pin connections with these boards and the suppliers instructions are often incorrect so they can be difficult to get going).