Totally Lost

[AirbusMan]

Hi anybody,

I bought a chinese 3040z router, followed the set up instructions to the letter and (after hitting my head into the proverbial brick wall) can get zero life out of the machine.
Boy do i need help, if anybody has any tips or similar issues, please let me know.

Dan

[EddyCurrent]

Have you watched this ?; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1AKKl4kcZc

[JAZZCNC]

Hi Dan,

Need more info to be able to help properly so please give a bit more detail to what's happening or not and in mean time here's some questions and few suggestions.

Q1: First did you restart Mach3 after installing.? You MUST restart otherwise the driver doesn't install correctly and you won't get any movement.
To test if the driver installed correctly go into the Mach3 folder and find Drivertest file and run it. If it works regardless of result then the driver is installed correctly. If the result is poor then Machine should still shows signs of life but will be unstable while working.

Q2: Does Mach3 reset or do you keep getting the flashing Red/green Reset light.?

Q3: Presuming you set all the Motor input pins correctly and Inputs for E-stop etc if you go to the diagnostics screen on the right are there any Led lights lit.?
If so which.!

Q4: Do the Motors go Stiff when you turn on the power.? Some times they will make a clunking noise and jump when turned on or hiss. They will also get warm when stood still.

Q5: Are you using a Laptop.? If so then don't as they are not suitable due to power management etc. This shouldn't stop movement but could cause problems when working.

Q6: Are you using any type of converter on the parallel port cable.?
It's very very important that you use correct parallel port cable which is one that is wired straight thru IE: pin1 to pin1 etc. Some printer cables or converters don't and cross over wires to differant pins. This would cause loss of movement or erratic movement. The cable you need is so times called a Dull Modem cable or Patch cable.

Answer these and will take it from there or alternatively I'm going to offer my phone number via PM give me a ring and I'll try and talk you thru things to check and try.

[AirbusMan]

Hi JazzCNC,

Well, i spent from 7 am this morning going through everything and i kinds got up and running to test stage, but my Z axis only works in + direction. I feel its something set in my set up page in mach 3 but not sure.

Excuse the fact that i am a relative novice to this, but i thought i was getting there slowly but then .............. bang !!!!

Dan