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Author Topic: Can't Tell If Mach Is Actually Sending Signals - No Motor Movement  (Read 2244 times)

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I recently moved my Comet 10x50 Milling Machine. In the process I had to disassemble everything and then re-assemble it. My PC is a pretty old Pentium III running WinXP - I think I originally put it together over 10 years ago.. Anyway, the last time I ran the machine was about 3 years ago (before the move) and everything worked then.

I'm using GeckoDrive G320 servos and they are holding position as I'd expect them to.

If I startup Mach3, everything looks fine, but when I enter G01 X1 F5, Mach appears to move (the onscreen DRO changes and the red line in the toolpath display shows up) but the motor does not do anything.

Also, every time I boot up the machine I get a WinXP error that says that "WinXP has recovered from a serious error" but does not tell me what the error is.

So... Before I reinstall Windows (I don't think I even have a copy of WinXP anymore), is there some easy way to tell if Mach is actually sending signals out of the parallel port (indicating that I have a cabling problem and not a PC problem)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Can't Tell If Mach Is Actually Sending Signals - No Motor Movement
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2013, 02:55:06 AM »
If you download and run Parmon http://www.geekhideout.com/parmon.shtml this will show the state of the parallel port pins.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Can't Tell If Mach Is Actually Sending Signals - No Motor Movement
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2013, 04:50:17 AM »
you could just check the state of an output pin. Check the pin number and measure the voltage on the x axis direction pin, then change direction and the voltage will change from high to low, or low to high depending on your setup