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1

General Mach Discussion / Setting up Longs Motor breakout board

« on: October 16, 2019, 11:42:15 PM »

Hello All.  Once upon a time I had Mach3 configured for a micro CNC mill.  It was working great, but was outgrown by my projects.  I sold it to free up space.

Now, using what was the default profile, not the one for the previous mill, I am working on a new setup.  It's a NEMA 23 Longs Motor kit.  The micro mill ran fine at 10 IPM and 3 in/s/s acceleration.  It is set to inches in the units area.

If I turn off the e-stop, I get zero movement or buzzing with X, nothing with Y, and buzzing with Z.  Here's the fun part.  When I press the down arrow key, an LED in a row of 4 (so not the 3 green ones that says each axis is working) lights up and it locks up the X axis!  It gets hot from this until I turn it off.  I measure the XA+ and XA- and am getting 24V, which is what my power supply is.  I thought this was a failure of the board, so I asked about it.  They sent me another one and it acts the same way.  If I press the up key the light goes off and the stepper cools down.

In the Port and Pins window, first tab, I have the port #1 checked and it says 0x378 and has 35000Hz selected.

On the next tab I have:
X step: 1
X dir: 7
Y step: 8
Y dir: 3
Z step: 5
Z dir: 4

All are enabled with the check mark.  Step and dir port is set to 1 for all, just like in the manual.  The other tables match the manual too.  One thing that is curious, with the 25 pin cable it says there are enabled pins for X/Y/Z.  Those are 14/2/6.  In the output signals tab they are shown.  In the ports and pins tab, I can put these numbers in with the enabled check mark, but when I click away, it goes away.  Not sure if this matters, but I've seen it, so I'll point it out.

The dip switches are: on off on on on off for each axis.  I think this is important for the microstep, and is set to 1/2, but don't remember where to confirm this.

Really appreciate any help with this.  I've read a few threads, including this one (https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=35229.msg241737#msg241737) and a few on locked up steppers.  I'd love to even get that far.

Just for fun, I went into the MAXNC profile, which was for the old mill.  All 3 axis work, but very odd.  Sometimes when moving Y, X will move as well.  Something happened with Z and another as well.  Z movement makes the relay on the board click on and off a lot.  None of them will spin an opposite direction.  Always the same no matter which key is pressed.  I know I should expect things to be off since this isn't the profile given in the instructions, but I find it funny that it works more than the profile I made following the instructions.

The step/direction pins are as follows in that profile:
X: 6/7
Y: 4/5
Z: 8/9

2

General Mach Discussion / MAXNC-10, HSM, alignment issue

« on: June 14, 2014, 08:10:21 PM »

Machine 0,0 is at the bottom edge of my hole plate and the right edge of the 1x1x4 bar seen in the second picture.  Orientation of the cut is ok, but the position is off.  Out of ideas and could use a few.  I have not made any cuts with this machine yet, but it is set up IAW a pdf online for this specific machine and everything seems to be acting as it should.


Here is the way the job is set up.  0,0,0 is the center axis and the top of the part.


Here is what the cut preview looks like.  Looks good to me.


Here is the part on the machine.  It's hard to see, but the spindle is lined up with the axis.


Job zero, after hitting regen toolpath:

My machine does not have limit switches.  It is set up IAW the pdf in this thread: http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11409.0.html

Machine coords, same spot:


Offset tabs, just in case.  Job coords:


And machine coords:


My question is, why is the toolpath to the top left of my g54 zero?  Shouldn't it be center and below?

3

FAQs / Older MAXNC-10, no jog only steps

« on: January 25, 2014, 11:50:53 AM »

I have a pre-2004 MAXNC-10 (which means an older controller board) and when I did the setup as shown here ftp://machsupport.com/XMLs/Mach%203%20and%20the%20MaxNC%2010%20Open%20Loop.pdf .  When I press a movement key on the keyboard or click the button on the screen I see movement.  If I press and hold for either I see that same movement in the beginning, but then there is a lesser tone from the motors and they don't turn.  

Read that if you try to give the motors too much they will not move, I have tried moving the velocity from 120 to 50 and the acceleration from 10 to 5.  That changed the tone of the motors, but not the lack of a continuous jog.

I am doing this on the demo version (2.0 of M3) to start.  I ran the roadrunner program and compared to the DRO's it appeared that the table was moving at a much smaller scale.  Not sure if I was seeing things, but if it helps, I thought I'd mention it.