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Author Topic: Motor Setup Problem  (Read 3107 times)

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Motor Setup Problem
« on: August 08, 2008, 06:35:34 PM »
Hello all. I am new to the boards and this will be my first post. 

I am in the process of building my first CNC Router and am having some problems.  My electronics are from Probotix and I am running Mach3.

My problem:  I have wired up everything according to the manufacturer diagrams, set all the jumpers, programmed the ports and pins into Mach3 and my z-axis motor doesn't work.  I get x and y reliably with no problems.  Early on I would have x and y or x and z, but not all three.  Now I just get x and y.  I checked the Inhibit and enable features in Mach3 and they are not inhibiting z-axis movement.  when I run a program the DRO for the z axis changes, but no motor movement. I also measured the voltage at the driver board for the z axis and get no voltages at all.  The x and y axis driver boards show voltages.
So I am down to the following conclusions:
1) Bad driver board (will test this tonight)
2) Bad breakout board (will also test this tonight)
3) Setting I missed in Mach3 (Need help with this one)

Anyone have any other possible sources of errors?

I thank you in advance for your help!

Offline Hood

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Re: Motor Setup Problem
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2008, 06:58:24 PM »
Easiest way to know if Mach is set up correctly is remove the parallel port cable from the breakout and test the Dir pins for the axis with problems. You put a voltmeter between the Dir pin and ground, jog the axis one way then the other, the voltage should change between 5V and 0V.  If thats OK then put the voltmeter to milivolt range and test the Step pin to ground, jog the axis and you should see a voltage, stop and it should read 0V.

Hood
Re: Motor Setup Problem
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2008, 04:23:27 PM »
I found the problem.  The pinouts for the enable signals actuall needed to be reversed (active high/low).  I also found that the pinout for the x axis enable was wrong... but it still all worked anyway. Strange.
Anyway it all works great now!
Thanks for your help!