Just saying 'hi'.

[SirRustalot]

Can't see anything printed on the board.

Tell you what, though, I've made some kinda progress this evening. After a bit of research aided by wine, I discovered that Mach3 isn't that keen on 64bit processing. So, in a fit of being productive, I dug out an aged laptop. After doing a Windows XP re-install, checking that it's a 32bit outfit, I then installed a Mach3 demo. I plugged it all into the mill but still nothing happened. However, after a Driver Test (all excellent, I'm reliably informed) the diagnostics seems to confirm that the port 1 pins current state is lit for eleven of the twelve bar of lights. If I enable port 2, the bar underneath lights up with three greens (pic attached). Pulse frequency is 24599, give or take.

There's clearly something happening but still no life from the mill motors. I expected it to burst into life after inputting a few G-codes but it's still treating me like a contemptuous cat. Yes, e-stop is all green.

[cropwell]

First of all, it is not advisable to use a laptop to control Mach3. Mach3 takes over the printer port and needs full control. Laptops have power saving features that interfere with this. You may find this out later, but for now, it'll do to get you up and running.

Have a look at this ftp://ftp.machsupport.com/Docs/Mach3...20Tutorial.pdf It is worth going thru the steps to get your steppers stepping. Do you know what pins your machine uses - useful info to have this written down.

Cheers,

Rob

PS I have never figured out what those green thingies mean on the diagnostics screen.

[magicniner]

This may seem a daft question but do you have the USB connections to the same ports on the computer as when it was last seen running properly?

I ask because recent experience with USB to Parallel converters for my label printers has been interesting to say the least and highlighted the importance of not getting the USB port in use for a converter wrong when moving a working system.

[SirRustalot]

This may seem a daft question but do you have the USB connections to the same ports on the computer as when it was last seen running properly?

I ask because recent experience with USB to Parallel converters for my label printers has been interesting to say the least and highlighted the importance of not getting the USB port in use for a converter wrong when moving a working system.

I bought the machine on good faith. I had never seen it running but my gut (since proved correct) was that the machine was well-cared for and had a boatload of money thrown at it with a full and comprehensive conversion package from Mike Gaynor at Routeout CNC. It came with loads of add-ons and spares. It just needed correctly configured.


SOLVED!

In short, two things:

1. I needed to download and auto install the driver for the UC100 that I'd identified as a motion controller (and not simply a port adapter, as I initially thought).
2. The charge pump setting wasn't configured correctly, in fact, it wasn't configured at all!

The thing burst into life once that was set. (Grateful thanks Mike Gaynor!!) Now I'm in the process of tuning the motors. I'm running two laptops, side-by-side. One is the control/default; the other is for tweaking/meddling, and I swap between the two to identify what the changes do to the CNC, if that makes any sense.

[magicniner]

UC100?
Where was that mentioned before? :D

[SirRustalot]

UC100?
Where was that mentioned before? :D

I had no idea it was what it was. Anyhoo, it's a learning gig. Once I'd connected up the two usb thingies (both have to be connected, apparently. One is for the talky bit from laptop to CNC; the other is to provide a particular voltage to the board) then things started to happen.

Exciting stuff!

[magicniner]

I had no idea it was what it was.!

Yup, just pointing out that you can miss out one bit of info and render everyone completely unable to help.
You can never supply too many (good) photographs and too much component identification information ;-)