Messages

5861

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: April 18, 2011, 06:15:15 AM »

Yes.

Pins 18 to 25 are ground (negative lead of multimeter) connect the positive lead to a step pin and then jog the axis one way it should read approx. 5 Volts and the other way it should read approx. 0 Volts.

Tweakie.

5862

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: April 18, 2011, 03:53:03 AM »

Hmmm, sounds about right then for motor current. I will give this matter some more thought. 

The driver board is not the best but it is not bad either so should work OK. There is an issue with some opto isolators requiring the full 5 volt TTL levels and PC parallel ports only outputting the 3.3 volt TTL logic signal. If you can, it may be worth checking your LPT port to see if the direction signal pins swing approx 0 to 5 volts when jogging an axis or if they only make 3.3 volts.

Tweakie.

5863

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: April 18, 2011, 01:58:19 AM »

The basic setting up instructions for this board are here http://fozztexx.com/CNC/HY-TB3DV-M_3Axis_Driver.pdf  may be worth checking the settings against against your setup of both the board and Mach.

My guess is that you have tight spots or binding (perhaps lead screw, perhaps linear slide) which are causing the motor to loose the steps and thus produce the inaccuracy you describe. Providing the motors are not getting hotter than you can keep your hand on comfortably then you could try increasing the drive current and or increasing the drive voltage to 36 Volts.

Tweakie.

5864

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Just Stops

« on: April 17, 2011, 01:18:41 AM »

Hi Dave,

I am glad you have got it sorted.

In an ideal world you should investigate and resolve the noise problem rather than just rely on the de-bounce but 500 is not over the top and many use a higher figure than this. 

Tweakie.

5865

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shopbot with Mach3 homing issues

« on: April 16, 2011, 08:42:45 AM »

John,

I don't actually use the "ref all home button" but this is a VB button which means that it's function is user configurable (Operator / Edit Button Script / click on flashing button). There is a chance that it is configured incorrectly for your setup of using a slaved axis.

Not much help really but that's all I know about it. 

Tweakie.

5866

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shopbot with Mach3 homing issues

« on: April 16, 2011, 07:07:50 AM »

John,

We all like to help and provide support on this forum but we do not in any way condone software piracy.

No offence intended but I am a bit concerned that you have one of the "Ivan..... " licensed versions of Mach3 - perhaps you would clarify this situation please.

Tweakie.

5867

General Mach Discussion / Re: Driver chip burnout!

« on: April 16, 2011, 01:32:52 AM »

If your motors are not getting hot then I would look for an intermittent or poor connection between the board and motors (a sudden open circuit here can destroy the driver chip) connectors, soldered joints etc.

Tweakie.

5868

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Engraving With CamBam And Mach3...

« on: April 15, 2011, 12:47:07 PM »

Pleased to help.

There are some really nice guys here who helped me a lot when I started (in fact they are still helping me  ).

Tweakie.

5869

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem with "Y" axis

« on: April 15, 2011, 12:26:11 PM »

I forgot to mention that the Y axis negative move (when you press Goto 0) is related to the actual GCode being offset from the X,0 Y,0 position.

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.

5870

General Mach Discussion / Re: x axis moves one direction

« on: April 15, 2011, 12:16:13 PM »

Each axis moves as the result of step and direction signals.
If 100 step pulses are sent and the direction signal is low then the axis will move in one direction - if 100 pulses are sent and the direction signal is high then the axis will move in the opposite direction. If the direction signal is not connected then the axis can only move in one direction.

You need to check that you have the X axis direction signal wire connected correctly and configured correctly within Mach (correct port and pin etc)

Tweakie.