Hello,

I apologise immediately as am such this is a very common question. We are very inexperienced in mach3 and we are trying to get our motors moving for the first time. We gave taken the rar file from our supplier and tried to use the settings they gave us to test one motor.
We have two nema 23s geared motors on the z axis then four nema34 geared motors on x axes and y axes.
We are just basically struggling to get our motors to move. All the wires are connected.

Here are links for the breakout board and stepper motors:
http://omc-stepperonline.kancart.com/item_detail/282-Gear-Ratio-47-1-Planetary-Gearbox-High-Torque-Nema-23-Stepper-23HS30-2804S-PG47#!detail
http://omc-stepperonline.kancart.com/item_detail/196-Gear-Ratio-13-1-Spur-Gearbox-High-Torque-Nema-34-Stepper-Motor-34HS38-4004D-SG13#!detail
https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/breakout-boards/cnc-6-axis-interface-breakout/

Hi,
I suggest in the first instance don't bother to hook your motors up to the Breakout Board (BoB) to start with. What you need to do
is establish that Machs parallel port is in fact communicating to the BoB.

Aa a first step you need to run DriverTest.exe in Mach3 folder. Take the time to read and understand all the data contained there. It
will give you a pretty good indication whether Mach3 has control of the parallel port (PP).

Assuming the PP is working now try to get the Estop pin working on the BoB. When the BoB pin is activated it should cause Mach3  to
go to disabled mode as evidenced by the Reset button blinking. Further Mach should ignore any attempt to reset until the Estop input
is deactivated.

Note that Mach3 requires an enabled Estop input, its the only mandatory input in Mach. On the Config/Ports and Pins/Input Signals page
scan down until you find Estop, in Machs default configuration it is assigned to pin 10 of port 1. Make sure that the input is enabled (a green
tick in the first column) and you can set 'active low' to suit your board. It may be that your BoB in absence of any external circuit will be
logic high so if 'active low' is unchecked then Mach3 will interpret the Estop signal as 'every thing normal'. If you then use a piece of wire to
drag pin 10 logic low by shorting to 0V on the board somewhere Mach3 should interpret that event as 'emergency' and shut everything down.

I will see if I cant find the manual for your BoB and help you hook up the Estop, if you have the manual can you post it?

Craig

Thank you for your reply joeaverage

It is much appreciated. Yes, we have done the driver test within the mach3 folder and the system came back as excellent up to 75,000 KHz. I am then assuming that there are no problems there. OK, I will configure the Estop on mach3 using the conifguration menu on ports and pins but I think we have already done that, we enabled it and set the relevant settings. Thats the real problem we are having, access to the actual manual I have tried to get in touch with the suppliers many times and always I get the same response, everything you need is on the website. There's only a wiring diagram and a rar file for the mach3 setup which am not even sure is 100 percent correct. Two blue lights come on the breakout board so I am assuming that means good connection.

Can anyone think of any other reasons why the mach3 may not be communicating well with our circuit.

Hi,
the drivertest sounds good. If you can get the Estop to work then it also establishes that communication between Mach3
the PP and BoB is working. While it is a simplistic test it often allows you to move on to more demanding communications
like pulse streams for stepper motors.

Quite frankly if the manufacturer doesn't have a manual and some proper circuit diagrams then I think you've bought a dud.
Its entirely hard enuf to get Mach working with a good BoB covered by good documentation, to try the same with a board that
you have no idea how it works internally is near impossible. If the manufacturer won't help you with proper documents insist they
take it back and if they don't throw the damn thing away and buy a decent one. By all means post your experience so that others
may avoid crap products.

Craig