Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: No reverse on homing y

« on: February 19, 2008, 02:39:53 PM »

Well, I replaced the switch and it works correctly. If the old one did not produce a sharp, complete break, that could be responsible. Ralph

2

General Mach Discussion / No reverse on homing y

« on: February 19, 2008, 12:53:38 PM »

My machine has taken to erratic behaviour when homing all axis. z and x ok but sometimes y will back off  the limit switch as it should and other times just stops when it hits the switch and gives  an error message. Where is the routine that controls thiis? Can it be corrected iby an edit  or is it a corruption further back? Thanks, Ralph

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated new guy

« on: January 31, 2008, 10:24:14 PM »

Ok, now the driver has failled: test shows no pulse count.  I am running a 2.4gig xp with no other programs on it. None of this is caused by peripheral equiptment. I am reading results right off the pci parallel port. thanks again, Ralph

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated new guy

« on: January 31, 2008, 09:52:21 PM »

I want to be past this stage. I am going to have big problems trying to get cad programs to understand my handmade prototypes and there is not a lot of time left.  What is this vector thing and how has it frozen everything up? and then back to the inadequate pulse problem. Please forgive my frustration. I do need help, Thanks, Ralph

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated new guy

« on: January 31, 2008, 09:36:12 PM »

More problems: driver test says "could not locate missing vectors". Like all stupid error messages, It does not give instructions for fixing the problem!!!!!

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated new guy

« on: January 31, 2008, 09:21:13 PM »

Yeh, that says everything is ok but now I cant even get the jog to work with the up down buttons.  I am not even at the stage of trying to get a real machine to work, but now there is no ouput to the port and I dont know how to fix it.  Think I can get my money back?

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated new guy

« on: January 31, 2008, 04:06:20 PM »

reading with hitatchi 20mhz scope and/or digital multimeter. I can see the puses just fine on the scope. it's just that they do not go full 
low (drop about 85mv below 3.3. This is not a logic signal.  I have switched computers but get the same results. Are there adjustment
controls for the driver to correct this? Ralph

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: frustrated new guy

« on: January 31, 2008, 12:32:50 PM »

Ground is good, signals not mixed,
to simplify everything, I am measuring the pulses right out of the pci port, direction signals work fine so the port is ok but any pulsed  signal will not move more than 1 volt from logic high (or low if you reconfigure the logic) I am going to swap out computers to see if there is a problem with the pci chips not being able to handle anything at speed but this seems like a long shot. And I don'd see how the mach driver could tell the output port to put out a partial signal.  Still confused.

9

General Mach Discussion / frustrated new guy

« on: January 30, 2008, 07:17:46 PM »

sure could use some help getting the steppers to do something besides lock up. here is the set up:

3 axis router w/ steppers
Mach 3 mill
Mdfly driver board
xp pro on dell 3.3V desktop
CNC 4u breakout C10 Rev 8.3/+5V from USB

Steppers will not run
Output on step pin (y=p4 for instance) when up arrow pushed and dro showing countup. Scope trace shows that signal (normally high,ether 3.3 coming
from port or 5 out of breakout board) low going pulses dropping 1v or less from high rail, not enough, certainly to trigger opto isolators on drive board.

I have uninstalled, including driver, Mach and reloaded. I have installed a second port and reconfigured.  Must be something to do with signal generation.


Why are the pulses not going rail to rail?

Thanks, Ralph Trimnell