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Author Topic: Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors  (Read 4781 times)

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Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors
« on: October 25, 2016, 07:48:40 PM »
I have connected a Mach3 5 axis breakout board with all of the proper connections. I have Powered the breakout board with USB connection from computer and 24 volts from a power supply. I have connected my step and direction on pins 2 and 3 respectively. I have connected the motor to the driver with sequencing as directed. I have the 24 volt power supply hooked to the driver as required. I have checked the parallel port for proper volts and confirmed the pins. I have set the step and direction in Mach3 on the X axis to step and direction pins 2 and 3 respectively. I cannot get the motors to run!!! Any help would be appreciated.

Offline rcaffin

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Re: Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2016, 04:55:57 AM »
Well, you have not told us the vital details yet: what brand/model BoB and what brand/model driver? These things do matter.
Cheers
Roger
Re: Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2016, 06:08:42 PM »
So many issues to get just right.  Mach3 will not run on 64 bit and I think it does not like Win 7 and higher, XP is better.  You must install Mach3 correctly but running the Drivertest first and there is the critical reboot according to the installation instructions.  I am confused by USP port and parallel port that you mentioned. You may have an issue with proper installation of drivers for parallel ports used with USB boards 

Last week my system did the same thing with no movement on the motors. I had to get a new computer and it was using Win 7. It worked for a day just fine.  Something happened with the parallel port driver at the bios level.  All tests were excellent with voltages, Drivertest, motors lock on reset etc but no movement.  Even the digitizer on the second parallel port was dead.  I finally went back to Win XP and started over but it was not fixed.  Then I went into the bios and changed the parallel ports to AT version then reinstalled but Drivertest indicated no drivers for the parallel ports.  Then I switched back to the default PS2 version of parallel ports and reinstalled Mach3, and ran Drivertest then rebooted! and everything started working again.  Maybe these comments will help.  I hope to pay back for the help I have received in this forum!!

Offline rcaffin

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Re: Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2016, 06:24:40 PM »
Mach3 will not run on 64 bit and I think it does not like Win 7 and higher, XP is better.
Mach3 will run on Win 7 32 bit quite happily. That's what is running my CNC.

The big thing is whether you use the parallel port or not. 64 bit Windows does not support the LPT any more. However, if you use an external engine for the pulsing, then W7/64 is OK. It just talks to the USB or the ethernet and that's it. I would strongly recommend using the ethernet rather than the USB connection.

There is an LPT driver for later versions of Windows - it is the Darwin driver.I don't know whether it will run on a 64 bit system. It is NOT signed by Microsoft and may not install on W10.

Drivertest only applies to the parallel port. It is irrelevant for use with an external engine.

There can be a problem with modern PCs and some BoBs. Older PCs used 5 V logic, and a lot of CNC stuff is designed for that. Newer PCs often use 3.3 V logic, which is not enough to drive older stuff based on 5 V logic. OK, it can be marginal.

Basically, if you are at al serious about playing with a CNC these days, you skip the parallel port. it is obsolete.

Cheers
Roger
Re: Mach3 5 axis breakout board not driving motors
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2016, 09:53:35 PM »
Thanks everyone for the advice. What I figured out was the ST-7128 Drivers and breakout board were the problem. I changed to a xylotex 4 axis board with built in drivers and everything is working great. I could not find much info on the Drivers on line so it took some time to figure out the problem. Thanks everyone