Messages

5851

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with setup of driver and breakout board?

« on: November 15, 2011, 07:18:20 AM »

Pog,

After some further reading up on these motor controllers I have discovered that the ENBL+  PUL+ and DIR+ should all be connected to + 5 Volts. The ENBL- can, I think, be left open circuit for testing purposes but if necessary, to enable test operation, connect this to GND.

Tweakie.

5852

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors not working

« on: November 14, 2011, 11:08:17 AM »

Hi Claus,

That sounds an excellent idea.

Please keep us informed of the outcome as this will no doubt be of help to those that follow.
I have read good reports and bad reports for this Chinese imported controller board and priced at around £30 GBP I am sure there are a lot in circulation.

Tweakie.

5853

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors not working

« on: November 14, 2011, 02:36:52 AM »

Claus,

Did you manage to get your voltmeter checks done ??

Check the direction pins from your computer, as Hood said, you should get approx 5 Volts when jogging in one direction and approx 0 Volts when jogging in the opposite direction.
If you only get a maximum of 3.3 Volts then your existing combination of computer / controller is unlikely to work as is. Some options are to fit a PCI parallel port to the computer which has 5 Volt outputs or try another computer, get an improved quality controller such as the Gecko 540 or possibly use an external, USB operated, motion controller such as the Smooth Stepper.

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.

5854

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors not working

« on: November 13, 2011, 08:29:49 AM »

Another point I forgot to mention.

The pdf does not show an EARTH connection to the power supply incoming mains terminal block - this is incorrect, the power supply is technically class 1 insulated equipment and must be earthed (EU countries).

Tweakie.

5855

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motors not working

« on: November 13, 2011, 08:19:39 AM »

Claus,

Just a thought but try configuring Mach / Ports & Pins / Motor Outputs as shown below. ( not sure why Mr Marchant gave you those pin numbers in the pdf ).

Tweakie.

5856

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: CutViewer

« on: November 12, 2011, 11:15:07 AM »

Perhaps you need to look at whatever program you used to create the GCode in the first place. This is not a Mach problem so why would we expect Mach to compensate for it ??

Tweakie.

5857

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Eagle & pcb-gcode help

« on: November 12, 2011, 11:07:12 AM »

Looks like you have lots of errors on that PCB.
Mach cannot help resolve those issues, the GCode needs to be right before Mach becomes involved.
The only thing I can suggest is that you practice using Eagle and PCB-GCode a bit more or perhaps ask some questions at the Eagle forum http://www.cadsoftusa.com/forums/guidelines/?language=en

Not much help really, sorry.

Tweakie.

5858

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: November 11, 2011, 09:07:33 AM »

Hope this is not considered as advertising but there is a new UK based forum just starting up which is aimed exclusively at owners of the Chinese imported laser machines. These machines use print drivers (probably HPGL based) and dedicated controllers but the system is nowhere near as versatile as GCode so I suspect there will be some refits where Mach3 and the Impact / Laser plugin will come into their own.
It is still early days yet (with a membership of just 13, myself included) but it will grow and may be of interest to those who are starting out in the world of lasers. http://oplaser.co.uk/opsupport/

Tweakie.

5859

General Mach Discussion / Re: JOG quality better than code movement

« on: November 11, 2011, 08:35:25 AM »

Imo, Mach3 is at the point where every fix breaks something else. Your best bet is to find a version that works good and don't change unless you find a bug.

I have a sneaky feeling you are right there Gerry. 

Tweakie.

5860

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with setup of driver and breakout board?

« on: November 11, 2011, 02:14:42 AM »

Hi Pog,

My opinion ........

Can the 5volt power supply come from one of the drivers?

No - you need a 5 Volt supply connected to +5 and GND on the BoB.
What DC voltage are you using for your drivers ??

I have DIR+ (+5V) connected to GND on the BOB and PUL+ (+5V) connected to +5v on the board. Is that correct?

No - these should be left unconnected.

theres ENBL+ (+5V) and ENBL- (ENB) with no connections on the driver.

This has yet to be established but leave unconnected for now.

Output signals is where I get lost, I have no idea what I have to do there, what pins are they? port #1 but pin?..

Open Mach / Click on Config (in menu bar) / Click on Ports & Pins / Click on tab Motor Outputs / Enter Pin# here and select active low.

Tweakie.