My CNC router machine has worked great with the USB smoothstepper for a couple of years now.  The other day, after running a carving on the CNC I went to set up the machine for another carving and couldn't move the machine.  When trying to jog it to zero it just makes a whining noise when trying to go down on Y and right on X.  It will try to go up on Y but not right and will do the same for X.  It wont make a noise or even try to go up and down on the Z axis.  I have checked the machine to make sure there are no loose wires or anything hanging it up.  I am trying to troubleshoot the machine but figure the best place to start besides the obvious would be the smoothstepper.  The machine and computer was never turned off between the two carvings so what ever happened, happened while waiting for me to set the machine up for the next carving.  Currently on the Smoothstepper, the blue and green lights are lit solid, the red "Init." light is blinking constantly.  Any thoughts on if the SS is my problem or any ways to troubleshoot it to find out if it is?  Thanks for any thoughts. Mike

No thoughts yet?  I'm stuck.  I'm not near a know it all when it comes to this machine or the Smoothstepper. About the best troubleshooting I could do on my own is to start replacing things and hope it fixes it but I don't want to spend unnecessary money.  My gut says it is the smoothstepper but I'm not sure and have no ideas on how to troubleshoot it or even my machine.  On my machine I don't see the Gecko Drivers being the problem seeing how all the axis's don't work right, so all the gecko drives would have to be bad if that were the case.  I don't really see it being a calibration problem with the computer seeing how nothing was turned off or exited out of between carvings.  So that leaves the smoothstepper, the CNC controller itself, a wiring problem such as a short or something along that lines, or something wrong with the power supply, fuses, or circuit boards between the controller and the machine itself. Any thoughts at all will be appreciated as I have no clue where to start. Mike

The whining noise is an indication of the staller motor stalling out. This is most likely a mechanical issue. Take a stepper motor loose from what it is drving, does it now spin properly?

Thanks for your response.  That wasn't the problem.  My CNC runs off of 4 stepper motors(two for the Y, one for the x and z each) and since each axis don't work as of right now, all would have to be bad and they aren't.  I've replaced a few throughout the past and one recently so they do tend to go out easily but I took one of the Y and the X axis motors off and they were still spinning each way even with a bit of resistance.  I think the whining noise could be the fact that they are getting power and some signal but obviously not the right signal through the ports.  I've been reading on this forum and if I'm not mistaken the red light blinking on the SS means that it is OK?  Could there still be an internal problem with the SS even though the red light is blinking? Mike

Okay, I take back what I just said, I don't think they are bad but I have no way of really knowing.  Now that I had a little help watching the motors and trying to move the motors, the Y will only go one way and whine the other and the X will do the same except no whining noise. 

Well, I figured out a way to see if the motors are bad, I have a couple old motors that still worked but just lagged behind and wouldnt keep up which in turn would mess up the carving.  But, they still spun both ways so I disconnected the current motors and connected the older ones and they still don't work so it is not the motors.  I'm thinking my next step is to just replace the Smoothstepper and then go from there.

Why do you want to insist it is the SmoothStepper? Did you try the other stepper motors when they were free hanging and not connected to the machine? What is your power supply voltage? have you ohmed out stepper cables? The SmoothStepper provides a step and direction signal to the stepper drive, the stepper drive powers the motor.

Well, it wasn't the SmoothStepper. So now where to go from here.  I tried all motors, ones that are on the machine and the older ones, not connected to the machine(free hanging) and there was no change.  I ohmed out all stepper cables and they showed zero resistance.  As for the power supply Voltage I am not sure, I will have to check but I am having trouble doing so using my current multimeter.  I am not sure what the problem is and it is getting very frustrating.  Any help will be appreciated.