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Author Topic: Motors are not Working  (Read 7468 times)

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Offline kolias

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2014, 11:59:36 AM »
Sorry Hood but still not clear with the printer port; you are saying to disconnect the printer cable from the PC end I will assume and that is what I will do next.

I have a 32 bit Windows system. On the Diagnostic screen I mean all the lights at the right where there are 4 columns, should these lights be ON or OFF under normal operation?

So far I checked the system printer port which is set to ECP at address 378 and the system says no conflicts. I also run the Driver test file from Mach3 and its working fine. Machine is not connected to the ball screws and the motors are very hard to turn by hand. The Kernel on the diagnostic page is now at 25K +, I did not right down the exact number. I checked in one driver the Direction pins and the voltage changes when I jogged that axis – so I do have the signal voltage.

Another item I'm not sure is the C10 BOB has a lot of jumper settings: I set the motor pins to be as an output instead as an input thinking that Mach3 sends signals to these pins to control the motors. Also I have set the pins for pullup or pull down to pull down

I will now go and test the printer port

Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2014, 01:06:26 PM »
The port LEDs on the diagnostics page are really a mystery as to what they represent, certainly are to me anyway :)

If you are seeing the voltage change at the drives then at least that signal is getting to them, or were you meaning the breakout side ? Either way there is no need to disconnect the port cable, it is just normally you would start with the closest to Mach and work your way out but as you found things ok further out then no problem.

Regarding the CNC4PC stuff, afraid I have never used it so cant help there.
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2014, 01:33:58 PM »
ok Hood I disconnected the printer cable from the back of the PC and with Mach3 running and power ON to the BOB I only get voltage change on pin 3 which is the X axis direction pin. All other pins show no voltage change. Then I checked the continuity between each end of the printer cable and I do have continuity on each pin. To me this indicates that the printer cable is good but I cant figure out why I only get voltage on the X axis direction pin

Your ideas as to where I should look for this problem are welcomed, in the mean time I will double check the Mach3 configuration again and my wiring

Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2014, 02:27:56 PM »
You dont need the power to the BOB at all if you have the cable disconnected and are checking directly at the port. If you do not have voltage swings on each axis direction pin when you jog that axis back and forth then you have a problem either in Mach or the computer port itself. Remember to make sure you are checking the correct pins to a Gnd pin and are not checking them back to front. I think the Mach manual shows the orientation of the computers port rather than the cables, so have a look at that.
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2014, 02:53:04 PM »
I will double check the pins Hood, I used an orientation of the computer port from Probotix which I had. My next step is to uninstall Mach3 and re install because when I installed Mach3 it was not connected to anything. Perhaps its waste of time but at least its one more step towards solving the problem
Nicolas

Offline kolias

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2014, 09:54:54 AM »
Finally I resolved the problem and for the other forum members if they have a similar situation this is what I did.

The C10 BOB has among others a DIP switch which controls if the Inputs / Outputs 2-9 should have the COM terminal to GND or +5VDC. My logic was since everything else was checked ok, the signals wiring to the motors perhaps needed the +5V to tell the motors what to do. So I gambled and set the DIP switch to +5V and now the motors came to life.

Hey Hood, thanks for your help very much but since I re installed Mach3, I now have this light on the main screen which says "Abnormal Condition" It's located just below the DRO's. What it means and how can I remove it?
Nicolas

Offline Hood

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #16 on: January 06, 2014, 01:11:27 PM »
Glad you got it going :)
The Abnormal Condition LED/Button is a real PITA as far as I am concerned and it will tell you when some things are different from your normal setup. It could be quite a few different things but really none are of concern, most likely its telling you you are not referenced or something like that. If you click on it you should get a message telling you what the abnormal condition is and you can then double click or maybe there is an OK, and that will set the condition as normal. Reason I am not sure is I removed it from my screenset maybe 6 or 7 years ago as I thought it pointless.
Hood

Offline kolias

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Re: Motors are not Working
« Reply #17 on: January 06, 2014, 01:33:01 PM »
I will take care of it Hood, thanks so much
Nicolas