Hi captainleeward,
the fact that its starting to makes noises is a good sign. I suspect your motor tuning is out of whack somehow.
Rather than trying to run a file concentrate on issuing manual commands. If you don't know G-code its time to learn!
Just to make sure on the Config/Select Native Units page confirm that they are set to your machine. Note that these are the units
you will do the calculations with to set the motors and will be the means of Mach3 doing its internal stuff. Once you set it don't
change it. If you want to run a job in mm for instance use G21 and when you finish use G20 to go back to inches if that's whats
comfortable to you.
I assume you've assigned ports and pins otherwise nothing would happen. Go to the motor tuning page, what values have you set?
My native units are mm and my steppers/ballscrews advance 1um per pulse or 1000 pulses are required to move 1mm. Ergo I've set
my Steps Per at 1000. What you set there will depend largely on the microstepping you select and the leadscrews you've got.
Don't go overboard with microstepping, while it sounds great 'my machine can make one step of a millionth of an inch' its horse s...t!
The machine accuracy is largely determined by its leadscrews, the quality of it ways and its rigidity, no amount of fiddling with a computer
will change that. Microstepping does make for smooth running tho. What does the manufacturer recommend?
If your native units are mm then Steps Per are around the 1000-2000, if inches 8000 or more.
The next thing to set is the speed, start slow and as you get used to things speed it up. Steppers stall if you try to go too fast, they just make
a squealing sound, you get used to listening for it. While not ideal it doesn't really do any harm either. My machine has planetary gear drives
and is quite slow, its set at 1200 mm/min or 60 inch. I don't imagine your machine has reducers so start at say 100 in/min or 2500 mm/min.
The next one is the acceleration, Motors can't go to max speed in an instant, they will stall EVERY time you try. Start really really slow until
you find the limits. A good starting point is 10% of your max speed. Once you've set them make sure you save them. Just experiment with on one
axis to start with, say X, once you've got the hang of it the rest will be easy.
On the MDI page on the input line enter G0 X4 <enter>. With any sort of luck the table will take off to the right 4 inches. Use G0 X100 if in mm.
A G0 X0 should take it back to where you started. G0 means 'go as fast as you can' or rapid traverse in the jargon. Its unlikely you'll want to cut
at that speed, for cutting use G1 F********* where ********* is the speed (upto the max) you want to go, the feed rate.
Try it out and let me know how you get on.
Craig