Guest
Show Posts
41
General Mach Discussion / Newbie to cnc building in need of some help please
« on: January 17, 2019, 08:44:48 AM »
Hello all, My name is Scooter. I'm a CNC machinist of over 20 years but this is my first build and I'm a bit confused at this point as to where my problem is.
A little about my project: I have a 3 axis Central Machinery mill with a conversion kit I purchased from Heavy Metal CNC. I have a Longs Motor CNC kit I purchased from Ebay (that came with no documentation) The kit included 3 Nema 23 425 oz. stepper motors. I am trying to run this unit with my laptop which is a Windows 10 version / 64 bit system. I'm also using a parallel port to USB cable.
I downloaded the Mach 3 demo to see how user friendly it is. The download appeared to go smoothly. I also printed out the Mach 3 installation and configuration manual (version 3)
I think things started going sideways when I got to section 2.4.1 in the manual talking about running a driver test. I was told by Long Motors that my kit was set up for Mach 3 so I don't know if I need to install drivers and if I do I don't know where to locate them.
I believe I have my dip switches set correctly as well as my ports and pins (I'm not 100% but pretty sure) When I power up the machine I think I hear the motors power up but I'm not quite sure because of the constant ringing in my ears caused by my years of machining. lol. I can still turn the ball screws with my hand and that doesn't seem right. Also when I try to jog the axis's thru Mach 3 the DRO shows movement but I get no movement on the machine.
I'm kind of at a loss at this point of how to troubleshoot this thing. Any advise at this point would be greatly appreciated!
A little about my project: I have a 3 axis Central Machinery mill with a conversion kit I purchased from Heavy Metal CNC. I have a Longs Motor CNC kit I purchased from Ebay (that came with no documentation) The kit included 3 Nema 23 425 oz. stepper motors. I am trying to run this unit with my laptop which is a Windows 10 version / 64 bit system. I'm also using a parallel port to USB cable.
I downloaded the Mach 3 demo to see how user friendly it is. The download appeared to go smoothly. I also printed out the Mach 3 installation and configuration manual (version 3)
I think things started going sideways when I got to section 2.4.1 in the manual talking about running a driver test. I was told by Long Motors that my kit was set up for Mach 3 so I don't know if I need to install drivers and if I do I don't know where to locate them.
I believe I have my dip switches set correctly as well as my ports and pins (I'm not 100% but pretty sure) When I power up the machine I think I hear the motors power up but I'm not quite sure because of the constant ringing in my ears caused by my years of machining. lol. I can still turn the ball screws with my hand and that doesn't seem right. Also when I try to jog the axis's thru Mach 3 the DRO shows movement but I get no movement on the machine.
I'm kind of at a loss at this point of how to troubleshoot this thing. Any advise at this point would be greatly appreciated!