Chip,
I have applied 5v and 0v to the digispeed board and the relay then functions as expected, so the board appears OK.
checking or X on pin 17 in config only alters the direction( if I remember correctly) but does not give CW and CCW

tmsmith

OK, just realised you are saying that if you alter the state of pin 17 the motor direction will change but that MDIing M3 or M4 doesnt make a difference. So sounds indeed like you do have something wrong in Mach. Might be worth renaming the Mach3 folder and then downloading and installing Mach again to see if it makes a difference. The reason I say to rename is so that Mach will install  completely fresh and then you can set it up again and see if things work this time. Bit of a pain but will be worth it if you get sorted.

Hood

Thanks Hood,
I will try that.

tmsmith

Check all the  pin assignments, you may have two things using the same pin. If you suspect a bad pin in the port move the dir output to another OUTPUT pin, just make sure you tell mach which one you are using.

To check the port shut down the computer, unplug the cable hook a voltmeter to the pin/0v  and boot up the computer, the computer should pulse the port/pins on startup. I have use this from time to time. Also you may try printing to the port with a meter hooked up.

(;-) TP

Hood & vmax,
I have followed Hoods sugestion and installed the latest version, Mach3v2.075 after changing the name of the old Mach3 folder.
Moved my mill.xml file into the new Mach3 folder and removed the one already in the folder.
Having rebooted the xml file was not recognised and I had to reconfigure ports&pins manually.

On the MDI screen entered S500 and M3 and the spindle revolved CCW; M5 and it stopped; M4 and it revolved CW!!!! - Hurray.
It should be easy to change the direction of revolution.

Thanks very much for your and persistance, and I am pleased there was no fault with Peters cards - must now post the spare back to Oz.

One question while I am here.
In the spindle section of the main screen there are DRO's for RPM, S-ov and 'programmed speed'.
Hood could you explain what the first two mean, my RPM is about 4 times the programmed speed and very erratic. And S-ov ?


tmsmith

Glad you are sorted.

Changing the direction should be as easy as changing the active low  state in motor outputs for pin 17.

Dont have a clue on the spindle speed question, never even looked at it as my mills spindle is just manual controlled and the lathe is worked through a PLC and is operated by clutches.
 Will have a look in a bit and see if I can make any sense of it.
Hood

OK just loaded the standard Mach screen and I think the S-ov will be spindle speed override, move the slider and see if it is.
For your eratic speed is there any tuning on Peters board? If not have a look in the motor tuning and see if you can adjust the sindle in there.
Hood

It is not the spindle speed that is erratic but the DRO displayed figure.
Under Spindle config. there is on option to use rpm averaging which I use but the indicated RPM still jumps about.??

tmsmith

Try increasing the Index debounce, that should help. What type of sensor are you using?
Hood

RPM is the actual rpm as seen by the sensor,

 Sov is Spindle speed override, You can adjust this UP/DOWN on the fly while machining.

Programmed speed is the actual S value you requested in the Gcode.

Now while you have spindle speed control and the spindle index signal you can also program a delay in mach to allow the spindle to come up to full speed before mach will start to move. You can also sync the spindle to the axis (G95) to run in feed per rev mode (great for threading, SRT is as close as it gets to rigid tapping and works great for me. to watch it work you would swear it is rigid tapping. CLose very close I can usally maintain inside of 2 thread tolerance at 100-200 rpm tapping

Good Job on the trouble shooting, I love it when the plan finally come together !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(;-) TP