Troubleshooting non responsive machine- Mach3/Syil x4

Noob needing a hand to trouble shoot what’s wrong with my machine.

Info

Syil x4
Mach 3

Was working fine up until moving it. Since reconnecting it to the pc - the pc has no control what so ever, as if the the cords not connected.

I have
- Checked all boards have power with a multi meter
-checked the ports configured
-checked the parallel cable is plugged in, checked continuity of cable and replaced the cable
-replaced the pc (was on it way out anyway)
-I jumped the COM and FWD pins on the inverter and the spindle starts (sunfar E300)
-checked the diagnostics screen for life and no limit switch’s show, e-stop doesn’t show, is literally as if the machine is not plugged into the pc
-Just ran the “config check” in Mach3 and seems “output 7” is configured wrong?

Have read through a heap of threads but am really quiet clueless where to start looking, any input would be greatly appreciated
Attachment 26254Attachment 26256Attachment 26255Attachment 26253Attachment 26252Attachment 26251Attachment 26250Attachment 26249Attachment 26248Attachment 26247

What is selected under the motor outputs tab ? Possibly the output error relates to the motor control setup.

Edit - Nevermind :)

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Originally Posted by routercnc

What is selected under the motor outputs tab ? Possibly the output error relates to the motor control setup.

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Attachment 26273Attachment 26275Attachment 26274



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Quote:

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Originally Posted by IhateDoug

Attachment 26273Attachment 26275Attachment 26274



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Not the ‘output’ tab, the ‘ motor output’ tab. Second tab from the left. This is where you set the motor ports and pins to control the motors.

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Originally Posted by routercnc

Not the ‘output’ tab, the ‘ motor output’ tab. Second tab from the left. This is where you set the motor ports and pins to control the motors.

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Dumb moment sorry - thanks for the input also really appreciate it
Attachment 26276

Just noticed that the machine doesn’t have the charge pump connected - has jumper between pin 2-3. Could this have something to do with it?
Attachment 26277

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Originally Posted by IhateDoug

Dumb moment sorry - thanks for the input also really appreciate it
Attachment 26276

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Think you have them set wrong this is from a working machine:

Attachment 26278

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phill05

Think you have them set wrong this is from a working machine:

Attachment 26278

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Copied yours and still no sign of life


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by phill05

Think you have them set wrong this is from a working machine:

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Depends entirely on the pin mapping on the BOB - not all are the same.

OP: Let's start from the beginning - you say nothing work. You suggest that you can measure voltage?, so let's concentrate on one signal and see where that takes us.

It would be useful for an image of the input pins, as well.

With all plugged in and ready.

1) Within Mach, can you cause the DROs to change by using the cursor right key?, if not, can you do so with a "G0 X10" on the MDI? If so continue...
2) Within Mach, can you cause the DROs to change by using the cursor left key?, if no, can you do so with a "G0 X0" on the MDI?, If so continue...
3) Connect a meter to the BOB pin for X Axis Direction pin (whatever it's called - unfortunately I can only guess without a clear image of the BOB, but pin 17 if your settings are correct). Connect red lead to X Axis Direction, black lead to 0V. (The X Axis being the screw terminal around the periphery of the BOB).
4) After (2) above, either press right-arrow to increase the DRO (X) value, or enter MDI "G0 X10". Measure and report here the voltage measured at X Axis Direction output.
5) After (4) above, either press left-arrow to decrease the DRO (X) value, or enter MDI "GO X0". Measure and report here the voltage at the X Axis Direction output.

(4) should measure either 5V, or 0V, whereas (5) should measure the opposite. You're basically changing the direction signal from one way to the other.

The purpose of this is to verify a number of things. That there is at least basic signalling from the PC to the BOB. That this is compatible with the BOB (e.g. if the motherboard is using RS232-5V signalling and not e.g. 3.3V), that the cabling is good and that the motherboard printer port is active and working. If you can't get this far then we can start isolating the problem(s).

If you can confirm the expected behaviour at (4) and (5), if you can repeat for the Y axis (pin 8), and Z axis (pin 16) (amending the MDI commands of course, and/or different cursor/pageup/down keys).


From the behaviour that you describe - I'd expect that the voltages measured at the (17), (8) and (16) remain constant throughout. This would certainly describe a fault with the interface from the PC to the BOB.

At this stage I'd really like a close up image of the BOB. The image above suggests a ribbon connected to the board, and another IDC header on the board, I can't see what the relationship with this is, but I'd like to understand if you can possibly try the following:-

6) Disconnect the parallel cable. Short the pin 17 on the DB25 parallel port on the BOB to ground. Measure the X Axis DIR output voltage and record here.
7) Short the pin 17 on the DB25 parallel port on the BOB to +5V. Measure the X Axis DIR output voltage and record here.

As before, between (6) and (7) you should see the X DIR output set to either +5V or 0V (I'm guessing that this will take the same sense as the voltage on the DB25 pin 17 input). If not, then the BOB is not behaving as expected.

8) If not as expected, without shorting any pin on the connector, measure the voltage on pin 17 of the parallel port output pin on the printer cable, plugged into the PC and disconnected from the BOB. Repeat (4) and (5) - again, we expect the measured voltage to change between 0V and 5V.

9) If not as expected, move the measurement to the parallel port on the computer. Pin 17 to PC ground, and repeat. If this doesn't change between 0V and 5V.

... and if that doesn't resolve anything, buy my wife and I air tickets to Brisbane for, say 2 weeks, and I'll bring my meter :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

Depends entirely on the pin mapping on the BOB - not all are the same.

OP: Let's start from the beginning - you say nothing work. You suggest that you can measure voltage?, so let's concentrate on one signal and see where that takes us.

It would be useful for an image of the input pins, as well.

With all plugged in and ready.

1) Within Mach, can you cause the DROs to change by using the cursor right key?, if not, can you do so with a "G0 X10" on the MDI? If so continue...
2) Within Mach, can you cause the DROs to change by using the cursor left key?, if no, can you do so with a "G0 X0" on the MDI?, If so continue...
3) Connect a meter to the BOB pin for X Axis Direction pin (whatever it's called - unfortunately I can only guess without a clear image of the BOB, but pin 17 if your settings are correct). Connect red lead to X Axis Direction, black lead to 0V. (The X Axis being the screw terminal around the periphery of the BOB).
4) After (2) above, either press right-arrow to increase the DRO (X) value, or enter MDI "G0 X10". Measure and report here the voltage measured at X Axis Direction output.
5) After (4) above, either press left-arrow to decrease the DRO (X) value, or enter MDI "GO X0". Measure and report here the voltage at the X Axis Direction output.

(4) should measure either 5V, or 0V, whereas (5) should measure the opposite. You're basically changing the direction signal from one way to the other.

The purpose of this is to verify a number of things. That there is at least basic signalling from the PC to the BOB. That this is compatible with the BOB (e.g. if the motherboard is using RS232-5V signalling and not e.g. 3.3V), that the cabling is good and that the motherboard printer port is active and working. If you can't get this far then we can start isolating the problem(s).

If you can confirm the expected behaviour at (4) and (5), if you can repeat for the Y axis (pin 8), and Z axis (pin 16) (amending the MDI commands of course, and/or different cursor/pageup/down keys).


From the behaviour that you describe - I'd expect that the voltages measured at the (17), (8) and (16) remain constant throughout. This would certainly describe a fault with the interface from the PC to the BOB.

At this stage I'd really like a close up image of the BOB. The image above suggests a ribbon connected to the board, and another IDC header on the board, I can't see what the relationship with this is, but I'd like to understand if you can possibly try the following:-

6) Disconnect the parallel cable. Short the pin 17 on the DB25 parallel port on the BOB to ground. Measure the X Axis DIR output voltage and record here.
7) Short the pin 17 on the DB25 parallel port on the BOB to +5V. Measure the X Axis DIR output voltage and record here.

As before, between (6) and (7) you should see the X DIR output set to either +5V or 0V (I'm guessing that this will take the same sense as the voltage on the DB25 pin 17 input). If not, then the BOB is not behaving as expected.

8) If not as expected, without shorting any pin on the connector, measure the voltage on pin 17 of the parallel port output pin on the printer cable, plugged into the PC and disconnected from the BOB. Repeat (4) and (5) - again, we expect the measured voltage to change between 0V and 5V.

9) If not as expected, move the measurement to the parallel port on the computer. Pin 17 to PC ground, and repeat. If this doesn't change between 0V and 5V.

... and if that doesn't resolve anything, buy my wife and I air tickets to Brisbane for, say 2 weeks, and I'll bring my meter :)

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1) Within Mach, can you cause the DROs to change by using the cursor right key?, if not, can you do so with a "G0 X10" on the MDI?
Yes dro changes - machine does nothing

2) Within Mach, can you cause the DROs to change by using the cursor left key?, if no, can you do so with a "G0 X0" on the MDI?
Yes Dro moves with left key (machine does nothing

- Really stupid question and I’ve legit spent hours googling but where are the pins? My board seems to be different. Are they the pins labeled “A””X””Y” or are those limit switch pins?
Attachment 26279

Really appreciate it and would take you up on that - I’m on Stradbroke island, more beach and less concrete [emoji907]


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

Depends entirely on the pin mapping on the BOB - not all are the same. :)

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Well I must be very lucky have setup 5 different machines and used the very same setting and they all worked, you live and learn.
Any odds on Lotto this weekend.

The pins are ultimately the screw terminals on your breakout board. For example in the photo you can see estop and home. It would help if you could upload a photo of the whole board.
You are looking for a screw terminal with the label step and the label direction. These send signals out to the drivers to turn the motors.
So to follow Doddys help touch one probe of the multimeter onto the screw terminal marked direction for the axis that should be moving and the other onto something marked ground. When you use the keys to go left and right that terminal should switch between 0V and 5V.

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Originally Posted by phill05

Well I must be very lucky have setup 5 different machines and used the very same setting and they all worked, you live and learn.
Any odds on Lotto this weekend.

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Lotto?, no, unfortunately. And if I could guess against the odds then I might be bold enough to assume the OP's wiring to the BOB.

Examine https://softsolder.files.wordpress.c...d-overview.jpg for example, that looks to put X Step and Direction onto pins 2 and 14, respectively. The parallel port is configured - not by Mach, but by the utility of the parallel printer interface to provide 12 outputs and 5 inputs. These are hard bound to the whateveritis pins, and most BOBs will present these notionally for particular functions (like X step, X dir), but actually they are only generic inputs and outputs. There's nothing stopping you using a X-DIR for your Z-Step, for example, though you'd be sadistic to try (I did once swap one of the primary axis onto the A-Axis when one output on a BOB failed).

My one issue is that the OP changed many things, but not the BOB wiring (unless he didn't mention that). The pin mapping is... not the last thing that I'd check... but certainly not the first.

I've only had the pleasure of 3 machines, but probably enough architectural changes on two to get close to your five. I know that there isn't a hard pin mapping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

Lotto?, no, I'm keeping that to myself.

Examine https://softsolder.files.wordpress.c...d-overview.jpg for example, that looks to put X Step and Direction onto pins 2 and 14, respectively. The parallel port is configured - not by Mach, but by the utility of the parallel printer interface to provide 12 outputs and 5 inputs. These are hard bound to the whateveritis pins, and most BOBs will present these notionally for particular functions (like X step, X dir), but actually they are only generic inputs and outputs. There's nothing stopping you using a X-DIR for your Z-Step, for example, though you'd be sadistic to try (I did once swap one of the primary axis onto the A-Axis when one output on a BOB failed).

My one issue is that the OP changed many things, but not the BOB wiring (unless he didn't mention that). The pin mapping is... not the last thing that I'd check... but certainly not the first.

I've only had the pleasure of 3 machines, but probably enough architectural changes on two to get close to your five. I know that there isn't a hard pin mapping.

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Literally havnt changed a thing - I found the XML file that comes with these and it matches the one I’m using. I’ve literally unplugged it from the power point and unplugged the parallel cable from to the pc and loaded it on to a trailer - moved then plugged it back in again.
Now I think of it the last time I used it it the x axis was jamming and skipping every now and then if that’s relevant.

I’ll be near it in about 15min and will take some picture of the board.



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Attachment 26283


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Other thing I noticed is this board kinda looks burnt?
Attachment 26284


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OP: Thanks, that helps a lot. Random googling of the board name/model suggests that these were boards installed by Syil as part of their standard build. There's easy reference to Syil 3's and 4's having the same board. I wouldn't necessarily trust the info from blind but there looks to be some level of consistency. The following was taken off another thread referencing a '3':-

This might be close!!!
Signal name pin I/O of the Signal
7. X pulse
17.X dir
6. Y pulse
8. Y dir
5. Z pulse
16. Z dir
4. A pulse
14. A dir
2. Spindle pulse
1. Spindle dir
3. Signal 1 relay1?
9. Signal 2 relay2?
12. X home input
13. Y home input
10. Z home input
15. A home input
11. E-stop input


and gives us some confidence with the content presented in the images from the OP's post and the XML file he's using.

I'd still recommend the test that I suggested earlier. Part of the logic there (I have to admit my interest petered out towards the end of the wine glass last night whilst typing away) is to understand the basic operational status of the BOB, the wiring and the PC. I know I've only identified the direction pins - that's deliberate and because these are easily measured with a meter, which from your original post I believe you have. I'd like at some point to understand that behaviour on the step pins - but let's address the easy stuff first. There's another thread of thought - actually my first - which was to trace the behaviour of the e-stop but we only now know the pin mapping of the inputs. For now, concentrate on the earlier tests that I described.

The board looks a bit grungy - but photos / lighting can be very deceptive. Again, the tests above will help understand if the board is working.

The statement that you believed you might have been losing steps earlier - that's interesting - it shouldn't result in the absolute freezing of the machine, nor that the e-stop isn't recognised, but might yet be another problem to be resolved. Let's concentrated first on just getting an axis to move.

Mike

I’m standing in front of it atm with a multimeter - just can not figure out where the pins are [emoji848]

Actually disregard that - they are labeled ‘pin xx’ on the board correct?


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You're absolutely correct, and I've fallen foul of my own criticism of assuming too much. Looking at the board the axis drives are presented onto the IDC headers (the 16-pin black connectors, 5-of) on the board. Okay, that gives us a bit of an issue to understand how these are wired.

I'm guessing there are at least 3 ribbon cables normally plugged into these (I think I did see this on an earlier piccy).

I'm going to change tack back to the e-stop, but I'll post this for now knowing that you're stood in front of the machine scratching your head. Give me 20 minutes to write up another thought.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

You're absolutely correct, and I've fallen foul of my own criticism of assuming too much. Looking at the board the axis drives are presented onto the IDC headers (the 16-pin black connectors, 5-of) on the board. Okay, that gives us a bit of an issue to understand how these are wired.

I'm guessing there are at least 3 ribbon cables normally plugged into these (I think I did see this on an earlier piccy).

I'm going to change tack back to the e-stop, but I'll post this for now knowing that you're stood in front of the machine scratching your head. Give me 20 minutes to write up another thought.

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No rush - I got plenty of other broken things around the shed I can stand in front of, when ever you get a chance is fine.

There are ribbons normally connected to them, I removed them for the photo (numbered them to insure they go back in the right place)


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The ribbons go to these black boxes - I can draw a rough wire diagram of helps?

the black boxes are the stepper drivers. they in turn are connected to the motors

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Originally Posted by johngoodrich

the black boxes are the stepper drivers. they in turn are connected to the motors

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I’ve tested these before and they had 5v from memory


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First thing - have you checked the integrity of the fuse, F1, on the board?

Okay, I'm going to post a link to another site that has the schematic for a Syil 4 axis controller board - for no other reason that it will give a good idea of the pinouts of the IDC headers

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/syil-...lp-please.html

The pin bindings are clearly different from this BOB to the BOB on the Syil 4, so I cannot determine which pins on the IDCs are STEP and which are DIRECTION, but I can say that these are EITHER pin 1 or pin 3. Pin 2, 4 and 6 are set to +5V (so the step/dir will be driving the cathode of the opto-isolator on the stepper-drivers in the machine, low-side switching). Pin 5 confuses me - it's a common pin across all axis connected to a 3-pin connector on the 4-axis schematic... possibly an Enable signal to the stepper drivers. Now, I would ask for an image of where ONE of the three ribbons plugs into on the other end - Im expecting into another PCB or a module, and I'd be particularly interested any marking/engraving. ...ah, you've posted already. So you could perform the original tests against both pin-1 and again against pin-3 on the IDCs - one should behave as expected, the other won't.

But, now we know more about your pin mapping and an awful lot more about your BOB, I'd be keen to change from looking at motors and more against the e-stop. It's easier to apply some logical diagnostics against and understand the apparent total lack of interface with the PC.

So, starting again:-

1) Establish a supply ground (we know the BOB is AC driven with onboard rectifier/regulator), so we need a signal ground. You've suggested that you have already measured board supplies etc - do you have a DC ground available to you?, I'll assume you have - you can pick one off the GND on the spindle connector, the centre pin on the 3-pin TO220 packaged regulator, or the "-" pin on the chunky capacitor.
2) Establish which is the signal wire on the ESTOP input to the BOB - measure between either wired input on ESTOP and ground, with the ESTOP activated, and not activated. One of the pins should be consistently 0V (according to that schematic), and the other should switch between 0V and 5V depending on the ESTOP button position. Confirm this.
3) with the IDC ribbon to the DB25 connector for the parallel port on the Syil connected to the board, but with the parallel printer cable disconnected, then I'd measure the voltage from 0V to pin 11 on the parallel port connector on the Syil. Confirm that this changes from 0 to 5 or vice-versa on the actuation/release of the E-Stop.
4) Connect the printer cable from the Syil to the PC. Confirm the behaviour of the Estop control within Mach3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

First thing - have you checked the integrity of the fuse, F1, on the board?

Okay, I'm going to post a link to another site that has the schematic for a Syil 4 axis controller board - for no other reason that it will give a good idea of the pinouts of the IDC headers

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/syil-products/114477-syil-sx3-bob-pinout-help-please.html

The pin bindings are clearly different from this BOB to the BOB on the Syil 4, so I cannot determine which pins on the IDCs are STEP and which are DIRECTION, but I can say that these are EITHER pin 1 or pin 3. Pin 2, 4 and 6 are set to +5V (so the step/dir will be driving the cathode of the opto-isolator on the stepper-drivers in the machine, low-side switching). Pin 5 confuses me - it's a common pin across all axis connected to a 3-pin connector on the 4-axis schematic... possibly an Enable signal to the stepper drivers. Now, I would ask for an image and of the three ribbons plugs into on the other end - Im expecting into another PCB or a module, and I'd be particularly interested any marking/engraving. ...ah, you've posted already. So you could perform the original tests against both pin-1 and again against pin-3 on the IDCs - one should behave as expected, the other won't.

But, now we know more about your pin mapping and an awful lot more about your BOB, I'd be keen to change from looking at motors and more against the e-stop. It's easier to apply some logical diagnostics against and understand the apparent total lack of interface with the PC.

So, starting again:-

1) Establish a supply ground (we know the BOB is AC driven with onboard rectifier/regulator), so we need a signal ground. You've suggested that you have already measured board supplies etc - do you have a DC ground available to you?, I'll assume you have - you can pick one off the GND on the spindle connector, the centre pin on the 3-pin TO220 packaged regulator, or the "-" pin on the chunky capacitor.
2) Establish which is the signal wire on the ESTOP input to the BOB - measure between either wired input on ESTOP and ground, with the ESTOP activated, and not activated. One of the pins should be consistently 0V (according to that schematic), and the other should switch between 0V and 5V depending on the ESTOP button position. Confirm this.
3) with the IDC ribbon to the DB25 connector for the parallel port on the Syil connected to the board, but with the parallel printer cable disconnected, then I'd measure the voltage from 0V to pin 11 on the parallel port connector on the Syil. Confirm that this changes from 0 to 5 or vice-versa on the actuation/release of the E-Stop.
4) Connect the printer cable from the Syil to the PC. Confirm the behaviour of the Estop control within Mach3.

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Can a bolt on the frame be used as ground? If so neither have power (I tested bolt to a known power and it showed its power so I take it as the bolts grounded?)
Just my spindle doesn’t have a middle pin and I think I’ve located this capacitor you speak of but unsure where it’s - is?

Attachment 26286

I’ve tried a few different things and it’s weird
I used pin 4 on the spindle connector (because it has a green and yellow wire coming from it?) with estop on both are 13v and off both are 10v

If I go from the bolt (is reading different then when I first did it above) with estop on both are 0 and estop off the red one is 11 and the white wire 0



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Estop off

Red wire

Attachment 26287

White
Attachment 26288


Estop on

Red
Attachment 26289

White
Attachment 26290



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So estop off and disconnected from the pc
White wire to pin 11 is 1v

Estop on is 0

By white wire I mean this pin
Attachment 26291


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Cable removed from machine
Estop on 1v

Estop off 0


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Machine and cable connected to pc and nothing shows in Mach 3


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by IhateDoug

Can a bolt on the frame be used as ground? If so neither have power (I tested bolt to a known power and it showed its power so I take it as the bolts grounded?)
Just my spindle doesn’t have a middle pin and I think I’ve located this capacitor you speak of but unsure where it’s - is?

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Okay, I've looked again at your pictures provided, on this one...

Attachment 26292

On the Y-Home set of terminals (3 off) there's I think "VCC", "S" and "GND" - with no wires in any. Unscrew the GND terminal post a few turns and put a bit of insulated stranded wire (end stripped) into the terminal and tighten up - this is your ground/0V/whateverIcallit reference point. Wrap the other end of that wire around the meters black probe and insulate that connection - now you're just probing with one hand.

The measurements you've provided from the estop wire make be believe that white is the switch, and the red is the 0v reference. Now that I've realised there's silkscreen printing beneath the terminals you can probably easily verify that.

The one volt measured - surprises me quite a bit, but I'm not convinced that's measured against the correct 0v reference. To drop 4V across the on board pull-up resistors would mean that the logic on board is sinking 2mA into the inputs - feels very wrong.

Okay, from what you've done already - can you reconfirm using the 0v reference from the start of this reply. I do expect that you'll get a more decisive voltage reading on the meter - I'd expect a lot higher than 1V on the white wire / pin 11 as you describe.

Rather than taking images - if you can just rattle off the measured volts - the images are a bit low contrast once they reach the UK :) - also, I guess from what I can see the meter is auto-selecting AC/DC ranges based on it's own determination?, obviously we'd expect DC voltage readings - an AC setting is likely to read 0V even if the pin has a DC voltage on it. I did quickly check - that Fluke looks like a T5-600 which auto-senses AC/DC - not an ideal meter for this but we should get something out of it - but I'm only trusting non-zero voltage readings if the DC indicator is present.

OP: Sorry, I might have ignored some interesting and relevant info that you posted. I *think* I'm right in my understanding that you've measured from the white wire (that I think you've decided (correctly) is ground/0V and pin 11 of the DB25 connector, and you're getting either 1V or 0V indicated depending on the state of the E-Stop?

If that is true, and I'm being cautious with what I think you're saying and my understanding. But if that is the case then there is something badly wrong on this breakout board. Can you measure the voltage (with reference to 0v/ground on the white wire) - the 5V supply voltage from the voltage regulator. You might find it easier picking this up on pins 2, 4 or 6 of any of the IDC connectors. There's many other places to pick it up off the board - you might be able to pick it off the "VCC" terminal on the Y Home sensor terminal block (I'm assuming that this is sourced from the on board 5 regulator).

Another question - are any (and if so, which) LEDs illuminated on the board?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

OP: Sorry, I might have ignored some interesting and relevant info that you posted. I *think* I'm right in my understanding that you've measured from the white wire (that I think you've decided (correctly) is ground/0V and pin 11 of the DB25 connector, and you're getting either 1V or 0V indicated depending on the state of the E-Stop?

If that is true, and I'm being cautious with what I think you're saying and my understanding. But if that is the case then there is something badly wrong on this breakout board. Can you measure the voltage (with reference to 0v/ground on the white wire) - the 5V supply voltage from the voltage regulator. You might find it easier picking this up on pins 2, 4 or 6 of any of the IDC connectors. There's many other places to pick it up off the board - you might be able to pick it off the "VCC" terminal on the Y Home sensor terminal block (I'm assuming that this is sourced from the on board 5 regulator).

Another question - are any (and if so, which) LEDs illuminated on the board?

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That’s correct - I’ll double check however.
There are 2 leds illuminated “led1” and ‘led2’


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Plugged into pc
-Estop off
Red 11dc
White 0
-Estop On
R 0
W 0

Unplugged from pc 0-pin 11
-off 1dc
-on 1dc

Cord unplugged from machine
-off 1dc
-on 1dc


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If I go white to pin 3 on the db25 cable I get 5v?


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All very interesting. I'm getting confidence with your meter. Pin 3 is an output from the PC, likely pulled-high on the board - so measuring it disconnected from the PC at 5V makes sense to me.

Right, let's have some fun. Only proceed if you're happy that you can safely do this with your computer printer port (or at the end of the cable that you can plug into the printer port) - rather depends on whether you can insert a pin or socket (I forget) over/into a pin without cause a short circuit. If you have a spare DB25 connector of the correct gender it's a lot easier.

FOR CLARITY - this is done only with the computer, not with the machine connected.

What I'd be interested in is whether you can connect the pin 11 on the PC side to 0v or 5v. You don't have 5V available as-such on the parallel port, but you do have 0V. A cunning alternative is to use the X-DIR OUTPUT from the PC and use this to drive the E-STOP input, simply - short pin 17 and pin 11 on the DB25 connector - without shorting any other pin!!

If you're satisfied that you can do this safely/sensibly, disable the ESTOP input on the mach3 Inputs, then you can use cursor left / cursor right to change the e-stop signal on the printer port. Use the diagnostic screen to verify the state of this (I've not used mach3 for a long while - I expect you can also see the state of the Direction signal on P17 as well).

If you can verify that, then I think the problem can be localised to the BOB.

Conscious that OP is viewing this, I need to post the "FOR CLARITY" bit separately...

The above step is on the computer ONLY, without the machine connected.

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Originally Posted by IhateDoug

There are 2 leds illuminated “led1” and ‘led2’
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Dammit, I was hoping for the onboard regulator to be fubarred

I disabled estop in Mach 3 and have jumped pin 11 and 17

Unsure what now - nothing shows on the diagnostics tab?Attachment 26293


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So, my thoughts are - with the other end of the cable plugged into the computer(?) that any output on pin 17 (the X-Direction pin) will be driving the E-Stop input into Mach3. By moving the X-Axis one way you'll set the X-Dir pin to +5V, by moving the other direction you'll set the X-Dir pin to 0V. You might have to do this from the "Run" page/tab on Mach 3... then head to the diagnostic page to witness the setting of the pin-11 input (estop). Sounds obvious, but with moving the axis in one direction, pin 11 input should be active, and in the other direction pin 11 should be in-active. This is just intended to verify the behaviour of the PC/motherboard, and later to verify the binding of the pin to the e-stop input.