Rich,
I will be replacing later this week hopefully (pending shipping). Thanks Rich!

Let us know how it works out.

RICH

As noted in previous posts, the format of the DRO is not associated with your problem.  But if this annoys you (as it would me) then you can correct it. Bring up your screen.set in Screen4 and increase the height of the Z-Position DRO by one or two pixels. It should then revert to bold.
HTH,
Al

well I guess from your reply to me you did take a tad offence at what I said which is a shame.

Just go back through your thread and ask yourself who's been with you on this consistently. Who took the time to google your kit description in post#3 to get the datasheet of your driver. who cleared up the issue of bi-polar vs uni-polar motor confusion. Who suggested your bold DRO concerns were not the issue. Who suggested the route of repair to save you money and who gave you a start on finding your chip. Take all MY posts out of your thread and see what you'd have left.

If I've wound you up simply by suggesting you post links to your kit and then do a little googling so be it.

Ian

I have a similar problem

I have replaced the motor still z does not lock.
Mach3 shows movement and smoothstepper diag shows movement.
When I change the position of z in mach3, then regen the code changes but no z movement.

I believe my problem is the controller or the smoothstepper driver Ver 17efb, 37, 2.08.36.

jaybone - no offence but maybe YOU need to do a little work on this.
WADR we're here to help - not to do it all for you.

No offence taken.
Its just the fact that YOU don't need to assume what others are doing while asking questions and asking for suggestions. Its really a shame that you would voice your on own conclusions when its based off of a total guess. I fully understand that just reading a thread isn't going to fix the problem I have with my CNC router. We are all adults here, I think everyone has a grasp of how to use google this day and age.
I don't want to get in a pissing match, just want to get back up and running again. I do fully appreciate all of your assistance throughout.

So moving on to the machine. I took a closer look at my board and to my surprise (and i apologize for the complete OVERLOOK) but I do have the HobbyCNC Pro (http://www.hobbycnc.com/products/hobbycnc-pro-chopper-driver-board-kits/) so I was able to buy a replacement driver right from the website! I have replaced old driver from board with the new one. I have not had a chance to give a full test yet and will be out of town the next few days. I will hopefully test over long holiday weekend and update if problem is gone or still exists.
Thanks!

Update:
so this weekend I had time to finally test machine. Well, Z-axis now WORKED!
but now the bad news...
now it is the Y-axis not working. Acting the exact same way the Z-axis did. I have bought 2 more driver chips (1 replace, 1 back up). So i will replace the Y and cross my fingers that all axis will work appropriately now.

I have looked into issues with HobbyCNC driver chips and them failing. I have read that they can fail by using the stop button on mach 3? Has anyone heard of this problem? I have the exact Vref voltage that is supposed to be running to the motors (.14*1.75A=.245) and i am reading 5.1V on the board for the regulator circuit (5.0v-5.2v). Just scratching my head as to why these driver chips are acting this way. I am running 24vdc input (42vdc max-12vdc min input voltage). Tested all connections to motors with positive connection to all.

I have read that they can fail by using the stop button on mach 3? Has anyone heard of this problem?

No.
Suggest you ask Hobby CNC directly for a definitive answer and if they confirm please post their repsonse about their  problem with their board as it's not a Mach problem.

RICH

Suggest you ask Hobby CNC directly for a definitive answer and if they confirm please post their repsonse about their  problem with their board as it's not a Mach problem.

I have and hopefully I will be getting some sort of reply on the matter. If anybody was wondering where this came from here is the thread and the quoted text:

"Recently a CNC builder friend mentioned that I should never Stop the machine with the Stop button in Mach3 without first using the feed hold or I risk blowing chips ??
After some thought, both boards failed after Stopping with the Stop button in Mach to avoid a broken cutter.
Question , are there any guru's out there that can throw some light on this."

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/hobbycnc_products/128669-smoked_yaxis_chip_hobbycnc_pro_board.html

Again, I will post response if there are any truths to this for other HobbyCNC/Mach3 users.

I'll waite for HobbyCNC's answer as there are conditions which can blow a drive and they should modify their drives
to address those issues or at the very least make it known to the users of their drives on how to protect the drive.

Hopefully HobbyCNC will provide support to you on this matter.

RICH