Messages

81

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 26, 2018, 05:33:29 PM »

Scrap the 'new' profile and go back to the distributed one.
Get the output pins working (changing state) when you change the Active Hi/Lo settings in Ports&Pins/Motor Outputs.
Then set up speed& accelerations & try jogging back and forth.

Cheers
Roger

None of that worked. Set high, set low, toggle,  etc.
Nothing changed that the x axis was the only one firing.

82

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 26, 2018, 12:11:08 AM »

The BoB I have uses the USB for power ONLY. So the PP is for communication but the USB is power and there's another place to connect power from a PC that's not in the USB cable but, apparently, the power is the same circuit.

So, no power is coming from the PP. Not that I'm aware of. When I had the PP hooked up but no USB there was no power in the onboard LED.

As for being an electronics engineer... let's say I hold my ground. Pun intended.

83

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 25, 2018, 10:04:23 PM »

Isn't it nice when you can SEE the signals.
When things get really baffling I forget all about the high-level diagnostics, like board swapping, and I go back to LEDs to actually see the signal.

OK, now what happens to the Y & Z axes under similar conditions?

Y and Z and A axis don't do anything. They stay as lit in the photos. No matter what I do, they don't change.

I am a shade concerned about how the BoB goes dead when it is disconnected from the PP, but more info is needed.
First, are you supplying power to the BoB when it is disconnected? (This may be a silly Q, but it has to be asked.)

I supply power to the BoB through the USB output from the puter.

Next, what happens when you tie one of the BoB input pins to ground via a 100 ohm resistor? Does this affect the state of the output LED?

I don't have any 100Ω resistors to try.  I used all my 220Ω resistors that I usually use for pull down on my Arduino stuff. I can get more on Tuesday if needed.

A perfectly horrible possibility which you have not mentioned is whether the PP output from the computer is damaged. You can test this with the LEDs and Mach3 as well. Note that you may need to supply +5 V to the LED board.

Cheers

I don't have a lot of ways to otest the parallel port but did order a PP breakout board.  Unfortunately they won't be here for a while. Having said that, I should be receiving my new 5 axis BoBs soon (could be in the mailbox right now) so I will try replacing those first.

At this point I'm thinking it's either the BoB, the parallel port, the PP cable or the Win7 driver (I saw another thread that mentioned their PP troubles after a Win7 update).

I know my hardware is good. That's a plus.
Roger

[/quote]

84

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 25, 2018, 08:02:40 PM »

I was asked to check pins with LEDs.
Here are the results.

To explain what's going on with the board, I can select to ground the LEDs on one rail or supply +5 to the LEDs on the other rail.
The 8 LEDs represent the 8 output pins. X-axis is on the right side. Step pin is first, then Dir pin.

I have verified that the diagnostic board I made is functioning properly.

There is more to read after the images.

First I added +5V to the LED array. This is the result.



The lit LEDs are showing ground on the breakout board.
There was nothing else spectacular here.

Next I grounded the LEDs on the other array.



The X-Dir pin is lit and when I toggle the direction, it goes out



And when I engage the X step I can clearly see the X step LED working



NOW the interesting part
Or maybe not so interesting, depending on how much you know about this stuff.

If I have power to the breakout board, and it's hooked up to the computer through the parallel cable, I get the outputs above.
If I disconnect the parallel cable, the board, essentially, goes dead as far as the output pins are concerned. There is neither +5 nor ground once the parallel cable is disconnected.

So, the LED test verified exactly what I saw in the motor test. Only the X axis is getting a signal. The step and Dir on the other 3 axis is not functioning, whether set high or low in the output pin settings.

So, is it a bad cable? Bad port driver? Bad breakout boards? Time will tell.

85

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 25, 2018, 12:59:23 PM »

this profile is completly empty.

I'm guessing that means the profile doesn't actually save til you exit the program? Or am I supposed to do something I didn't do to not have a blank profile?

The two profiles I've used were the standard Mill one that comes with the download and the New one that appears to be empty. The only thing I did with the new profile was set the motor outputs as that's all I need to focus on until I have them working.

86

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 24, 2018, 07:13:35 PM »

Back to checking wires and pins with LEDs.

Cheers
Roger

I'm still trying to determine what I will see with the LEDs that I don't already see.
I have a few small breadboards and will certainly wire one up to see.

I'm assuming I should be connecting them to the Dir and Step pins?
I figure I can hook up 16 LEDs (18 with the enable) and set them to indicate high or GND, right?

87

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 24, 2018, 02:22:56 PM »

can you post your new XML

Absolutely.
Here it is

http://www.fernohosting.com/CNC/TheNew.xml

88

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 24, 2018, 01:41:53 AM »

New profile did not yield different results.

89

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 22, 2018, 10:11:47 PM »

Just started a blank profile. This should be fun

/sarcasm

90

General Mach Discussion / Re: Only X-axis motor is working

« on: March 22, 2018, 10:01:41 AM »

The cheap BoB is to build the machine, When I'm done building the machine, a better, more reliable BoB will be added. In the meantime, if I did burn up two boards then I'm only out a few bucks.

I am not sure about how to build a new profile for a new XML file but will give it a little effort in learning how. I'm sure it's not technically difficult, just time.

I do have red LEDs. I had a blue one already out. I can switch to red. Not a  big deal. (I bought over a thousand LEDs for a project that was later cancelled).

I appreciate all the assistance.