Hello,

I've been searching for a whole day on how to do this with no luck.

I have 5 driver boards (DQ542MA) and a parellel breakout board (pictured, not sure of make etc)

What I cant work out is how I:

a) wire them up (50% know)
b) workout the ports ad pins settings for mach3.

Any help will be greatfully appreciated, any more info needed on these to help?

Pog

Hi Pog, looking at your photos you have it wired wrong.

In Mach Config / Ports & Pins / Motor outputs set X step Pin#2, Dir Pin#3 ; Y step Pin#4, Dir Pin#5 ; Z step Pin#6, Dir Pin#7 and set these active low then on your breakout board P2 will be X axis Step and P3 will be X axis Direction and so on.
P2 (X step) will connect to your driver PUL-  and P3 (X dir) will connect to your driver DIR-  and so on.
Your breakout board needs it's own + 5Volt and GND supply connection.
As far as I can tell the controller enable is left unconnected as is PUL+5 and DIR+5
Make sure your steppers are connected correctly before trying anything out (incorrect connection of steppers can be fatal to the controller).

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.

Hi Pog, looking at your photos you have it wired wrong.

In Mach Config / Ports & Pins / Motor outputs set X step Pin#2, Dir Pin#3 ; Y step Pin#4, Dir Pin#5 ; Z step Pin#6, Dir Pin#7 and set these active low then on your breakout board P2 will be X axis Step and P3 will be X axis Direction and so on.
P2 (X step) will connect to your driver PUL-  and P3 (X dir) will connect to your driver DIR-  and so on.
Your breakout board needs it's own + 5Volt and GND supply connection.
As far as I can tell the controller enable is left unconnected as is PUL+5 and DIR+5
Make sure your steppers are connected correctly before trying anything out (incorrect connection of steppers can be fatal to the controller).

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.

Thanks for your reply!

O.K so I have the PUL- connected to pin #2 and DIR- to pin #3 so thats right atleast.
Can the 5volt power supply come from one of the drivers?

I have DIR+ (+5V) connected to GND on the BOB and PUL+ (+5V) connected to +5v on the board. Is that correct?
theres ENBL+ (+5V) and ENBL- (ENB) with no connections on the driver.

In mach3 I have: step pin #2 dir pin #3 in motor out puts.

Output signals is where I get lost, I have no idea what I have to do there, what pins are they? port #1 but pin?..

Motors are wired correctly.
Sorry for all the questions, but thanks for the help

Hi Pog,

My opinion ........

Can the 5volt power supply come from one of the drivers?

No - you need a 5 Volt supply connected to +5 and GND on the BoB.
What DC voltage are you using for your drivers ??

I have DIR+ (+5V) connected to GND on the BOB and PUL+ (+5V) connected to +5v on the board. Is that correct?

No - these should be left unconnected.

theres ENBL+ (+5V) and ENBL- (ENB) with no connections on the driver.

This has yet to be established but leave unconnected for now.

Output signals is where I get lost, I have no idea what I have to do there, what pins are they? port #1 but pin?..

Open Mach / Click on Config (in menu bar) / Click on Ports & Pins / Click on tab Motor Outputs / Enter Pin# here and select active low.

Tweakie.

Pog,

After some further reading up on these motor controllers I have discovered that the ENBL+  PUL+ and DIR+ should all be connected to + 5 Volts. The ENBL- can, I think, be left open circuit for testing purposes but if necessary, to enable test operation, connect this to GND.

Tweakie.

Okay, i have 2 ideas on possible ways to connect these up.

Attatched is a wireing diagram i have found, which looks like what you have said above.

So first thing first i need a 5 volt charge to +5v and GND on the breakout board. Then wire them as they are in the following fiagram and see where that takes me.
They ahve told me the ENBL are for limit switches and leave them empty for now?
I am pretty sure this will work now, the motor outputs are pin #2 - #3 etc. with dir active low.

What about my output signals, what pin numbers are these?

I am fairly confident i will get these running soon, after 2 weeks on them

Cheers.

Pog,

Setup Mach as shown here.

Tweakie.

Thanks for that Tweakie!

O.k. We have the motors running.

Another snag. the velocity in motor tuning is set to 1000mm per minute, but when jogging the motors they are moving very slowly, maybe 100rpm, even though mach is reading that they are moving at 1000mm a min.
Steps per is set to 2000 so they should be turning much faster than this?
Anything that i'm doing wrong. Are the chips set wrong on the driver, all 8 are "off".

Cheers.

Great news Pog, extremely pleased you have got your motors running and you are making progress 

The motor tuning is related to many factors and rather than repeat stuff here it is best described in the Mach manual http://www.machsupport.com/documentation.php

Calculate your steps per unit based on leadscrew pitch, set microsteps, motor steps and any gearing you may have - the velocity setting relates to your machine's resistance to motion and the acceleration relates to the mass of the moving parts with both of these settings usually found by trial and error. The velocity setting needs to be set some 20% or so below the maximum you can achieve in order to get reliable machine operation.

Tweakie.

Hi pog could u pleasr help a fella out i need to know exactly what you did to accomplish your motors to run..im blomd as furrrk when it comes to this iv got everything but nothings happening i know i made a bad id appriciate if you give me full (blond proof ) insttuctions on both wiring as well as pin config