Hi there, I scoped out the three pins for "step" from my parallel port and had a fairly square wave, a little slope was present especially on the signal hi to low part of the wave but nothing to write home about, but worth mentioning here. there is nothing but very low voltage (less than .15v) "noise" on the BOB's output. I am at a loss. the best thing to do at this point is wait for the replacement board to come and see what happens when i replace it.

Thanks everyone for your help to up to this point, keep those suggestions coming.

Does your ground pass thru from your parallel port to your RJ45 connector? Do you have +5v at the RJ45?
Is the power supplied to the BOB at the connector next to the EN pin?

Jen,

You should have contacted me if you were having trouble with this.

From what I understand the problem is that step and direction signals are not getting to driver.  Here are some things to keep in mind:

-   There is an LED that shows the status of the outputs, it should be lit.  This tells us that the signals from the parallel port are getting to the driver (or any other output device).  What is the status of this LED?

-   3 conditions must be met to enable the outputs:
o   The board needs to be connected to a parallel port.  There is a watchdog using pins 18 and 19.
o   There should be +5vdc on the EN terminal, use the terminal next to it to source the +5vdc to be sure.
o   The Safety Charge Pump must be disabled or enabled and active in the controller.  I suggest for trouble shooting purposes, to leave it disabled for now.

-   Are you sure you are connecting the correct step and direction signals? It is very common to confuse the pin order in the RJ45 connector. The first revision of one of our manuals had them backwards, that confused a lot of people.

-   What drivers are you using? Are you sure you are connecting the correct common for the drivers?

-   We offer driver connector boards, which ease the connection to the driver.  Especially when using servos, with complex enable/disable and driver monitoring features: http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/index.php?cPath=33_59 

-   You can always put a scope, or by using a multimeter, you can see that the direction terminal is changing stats.

Please check this and let me know how it goes.

Arturo Duncan
http://cnc4pc.com

Thanks Arturo,

Thanks for your advice, yes i have insured that all of the conditions you mention are correct. When i bought the BoB i also purchased the RJ-45 connector boards for the controllers. I have "rung thru" all the pins on the cables to ensure that i had good connections from the BoB and the controllers. it is very puzzling. the only thing left is the board itself. I have even gone as far as attaching an o-scope to the parallel port to ensure that the signals generated by the computer via Mach3 are of the correct wave shape, duration and voltage.That's why i ordered another board from you. when it gets here i suspect the problem will be cured. if not i will contact you. the price is so reasonable it is not worth returning it. It should finally be here today (Friday) or tomorrow at the latest.

The router works perfectly when i bypass the breakout board, so i can assume that the controllers are working as designed. They are very common controllers, these were purchased from Keling as model 4030's, but i have seen them for sale under a number of brand names. they are the black metal type that have ten dip switches to control the stepping and ate current to the motors. The BoB "output" light does work, and i have tried both ways with  the charge pump in use and not in use, on pin 17 i believe.

thanks for posting your reply,
Jen

One more thing:

I did use both a VOM and an O-Scope on the BoB, i get zero output from it. also teh "output" status led does change when i disconnect the BoB from the parallel port, so some of the logic circuts of the BoB are "alive".

I only suggested checking the grounds because when i connected my board (C11G) I did not
realize my amps had both a signal ground and power ground that were not connected internally.
I got lights but no action. If you do not have +5v on pin 5 of your RJ45 then you will not enable
your amps and I believe you are right about a blown chip.
I hope you have better luck with your next board.
 

Thanks Richard,

the new board finally arrived on Saturday, i will install it tonight and see what happens. stay tuned for the answer.

Jen

Jen,

The important thing is that you confirm the step, direction, and enable are getting to the driver.

You did not say if the EN (enable) terminals in the Keling drivers were getting +5vdc.  The C35 should do a hardware enable on this driver.  Use a multimeter on the terminals of the driver to confirm this.

Remember that the dir terminals are easier to measure on the driver; they should change states as you change direction.  Use Dir+ and Dir- to measure this.

I appreciate your feedback.

Arturo Duncan
http://cnc4pc.com

Arturo,

if you mean the stepper motor controller when you say "driver" then the answer is definately no, nothing is comming out of the old BoB. i will know the answer tonight when i have some time to mess around with it. I am hoping the new board cures the problem. i have correct voltages and wave form comming out of the parallel port, when connected directly the controllers they work just fine. All necessary voltages and signals are going into the BoB, but nothing comes out of it. I am almost willing to bet a dinner on it. but it could still be something really silly that i have overlooked.

most of my low level electronice experience involves RF circut design and construction, from my ham radio interests. while this device is quite simple, i cannot say i am very experienced on these logic devices. It seems easy enough, basically a signal goes in and a matching, but isolated from the source signal should come out. i have validated that the correct signals are going in along with the proper support voltages to run the board. the little LED that says signals are comming out is lit, yet there is nothing reaching the controllers (drivers?). it pretty much must be either the board or the wiring. i have used those cute rj-45 boards that match the BoB, that is a nice touch and why i bought that particular board. I have replaced the rj45 jumpers twice, even crimped my own one time. i have "rung thru" every lead on the RJ-45 jumpers several times. It almost has be a board level issue.

again thanks for all your interest, this forum has a bunch of really nice people who are most helpful. It is nice to find people willing to take their time to help a stranger.

Jen

 

Jen,

If you are not even getting the enable terminal, I doubt it would be something associated with the board. This is enabled just by sending +5vdc and it's ground from the BOB.  If it was not for this, I would suggest you check the guide on troubleshooting chips: http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=38_66&products_id=298.

If this does not work with the new board, it is better we go over this over the phone.   I will not be available on the phone this afternoon, but do expect to be in all day tomorrow. 

Arturo Duncan
http://cnc4pc.com