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Offline Catco

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Multiple questions
« on: September 14, 2009, 10:16:33 AM »
I have multiple questions, hopefully someone can give me some insight. I'm building a 4 axis benchtop mill for home use. This mill will have additional features such as ATC, manual overides for spindle speed and feed rate, etc. My plan is to get the (4) 400 oz. in. 4 wire stepper motors to move on the benchtop before proceeding with any of the other features. Thus far I've been unsuccessful. Let me start by saying that I purchased Mach 3 and installed the license file but the software doesn't seem to recognize that the license file has been installed. Not sure that matters, but I thought I'd throw it out there. The OS on this computer is XP. 512 RAM. One of the initial problems I noticed is that I'm unavle to reset the E-stop on on the blue and silver screen set that I also downloaded, so I moved on to one the generic screens for the moment. The folks that provided me with BOB and drivers (Probotix) were trying to give some help, but admittedly they are Linux users and not completely up to speed on Mach 3. The first thing we tried was to change the setting in the bios for the parallel port (which is married to the MB) to EPP. It was originally set at PS2?????. Anyway the system didn't like that and almost immedaitley crashed. They indicated that I shoud get an add-on parallel card, which I did. Installed that, and I'm still in the same boat. Not sure if I'm fighting a hardware problem, or a software problem Windows or Mach. This parallel card also comes with a 9 pin COM port piggybacked onto it (actually there are 2 if you chosse to install it ) but only port (LPT1) shows up on the hardware tab when yoy look at it. Can I assume they share the same port and cannot be used at the same time? Not sure what the next move should be. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ???

Offline ger21

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2009, 12:41:31 PM »
It doesn't appear that you said exactly what was wrong? The motors don't turn? Are you trying to run g-code, or jog? Do the DRO's change? Do the motors lock up with power applied?

Triple check all the ports and pins settings, and the port address.
Gerry

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Offline Catco

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2009, 12:56:28 PM »
Sorry, no the motors do not turn. Prior to changing the setting in the bios on the port that is married to the MB - the motors were locked up and vibrating a little, but no shaft movement. After the change to EPP in the bios, the computer crashed. After the install of the add-on parallel card I noticed no vibration and the computer crashed soon afterward. As for the settings in the port and pins, I would ask this question: The port and pins page allows you to change the address on what they have labled as port 1 and port 2. my new parallel card is on LPT3 - will Mach find it, or? Thanks for the response.

Offline Hood

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2009, 04:37:02 PM »
If you put the address of the new card in as Port 1 in Mach it should be fine. Mach does not care whether windows sees it as LPT 1 or 3 or whatever, all it cares about is the address is correct.
Hood

Offline Catco

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2009, 04:50:14 PM »
Thanks Hood. I've gone over the settings in the pins and ports tab again - still no response from the stepper motor. If I write a little program in the MDI the DRO moves, but not the stepper. I DO NOT have any of the home / limit switches hooked as of yet. Can this be causing some or all of my problem?

Offline Hood

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2009, 04:52:27 PM »
No, the DROs wouldnt move if you had the limits set wrong for none connected.
What address have you put in for port 1?
Hood

Offline Catco

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2009, 04:56:29 PM »
0378

Offline Hood

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2009, 04:59:48 PM »
You need to look in device manager and the resources for your PCI card, think you said LPT3, and get the address, its the first 4 digits, could be something like C000

Hood

Offline Catco

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2009, 05:18:22 PM »
I don't see anything that resembles that, but here is what I do have: Driver version= 5.1.2600.0, Details= Device Instance Id and ACPI\PNP0401\4&B4063F4&0, Resources = 0378-037F and 0778-077F, Location Intel 82801BA LPC Interface controller. As I indicated in my first post, this parallel card also has an additional 9 pin com port piggybacked onto it. My assumption is that the 0378 address is for the DB25 and the 0778 is for the 9 pin, perhaps not. Maybe I should change the address in Mach and try it again?

Offline Hood

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Re: Multiple questions
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2009, 05:22:55 PM »
0378 is the onboard ports address, it is unlikely your PCI card will have that address.
Can you post a screenshot of your device manager open at the ports .
Hood