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Hello to all,
Having recently purchased a second hand cnc router the bits and pieces arrived by courier today.
Less than impressed by the state of the machine as bolts had worked there way loose etc in transit.
Attached are some images of the router but the main question I have is how do I connect the controller to the pc. The controller has a male connector and my pc also has a male connector.
Any help would be apprecited.
Sounds like you might need a gender changer for the parallel port lead:
http://www.diskdepot.co.uk/acatalog/...BELKIN_2d01592
When you get going you might one some of these to tidy up the wiring:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IGUS-ENERGY-CH...item4cf15bdf7d
Good luck with it all
Never seen a PC with a male Parallel port.
If it has holes in it then it's female, if it has sticky out pins than it's male.
Biology 101.
You quite right, my pc is female and the controller is male. I guess I need to get a cable that is female/male?
Yes, but make sure it is wired 1:1 and is not a serial cable. Something like this available in 1.5 to 10m lengths
Snap, thats just what I was looking at!
Or this one £2.86 plus vat.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/s...duct&R=0480541
Gents,
Can anyone advise on how I connect the power supply as shown on the first photos? I assume that I need a fused plug and lead connected to the L, N and Earth thus providing 240v inout but which terminals do I then connect the L, N and Earth of the control unit as shown?
I thought all if this would have come assembled from the gent I purchased from but alas not!
Thanks to all in advance.
PS, I have now ordered a cable as suggested.
The photo's are not big enough or clear enough for anyone to help you safely.
Attachment 2920Attachment 2919John, hope this helps. Thanks
Clearly marked, the 3 on the left.
If you are not sure then please get help.
John,
Thanks, I know the first 3 are Live, Neutral and Earth, which I assume will take the power from the socket but what connectors do I link the controller 2? Any ideas?
any one of the commons and +VE
However you need to know the correct way round.
I'd seriously try to get some help on the job, if we are to help from a distance we need more information like what voltage the power supply puts out and where it goes inside the control box.
Sorry for being so vague but it only tales a millisecond of crossed wires to damage the drivers etc.
Any COM and +V will give you the output voltage stated on the PSU, its like having 3x live and 3x Neg, so where COM is meaning - , and +v meaning + if you have a multimeter to hand to check polarity.. that would help if your unsure.
Also for info, on the far right is a potentiometer which you can adjust with a screw driver. This will vary the voltage up a or down within a range, depending upon the spec of the supply. This might be set too high for the drivers so you need to check the output with a voltmeter as mentioned above. Assuming this is the right supply for this box then setting it low might be a good start point.
The white lead coming out of the main box is probably the power supply lead, but you need to know which is + and which is -. Is the control box easy to open, might be obvious which is + and - if you are able to peek inside. Might even state the max voltage on the board. Posting a photo of the inside might even show what make the bits are and lead to more detailed help.
You can use 'ring terminals' to make all the connections to the power supply - these crimp onto the end of the cable (remove a bit of the insulation first). Make sure they are good and tight by giving them a pull afterward. You can buy crimping tools to do this.
Once it is all working, obviously the mains terminals are dangerous (!) so you need to decide how to cover these, or place the unit somewhere safe. Mine is inside the overall control box, with a small fan (ignore the date, the camera is faulty):
Gents,
Lead to the PSU fitted, power on, 24v selected as per sellers email. Controller connected and on power up the fan starts and a hum/buzz from the x,y and z motors. The next issue is once connected to the computer via the parallel port, silence apart from the fan and no movements in mach3.
Where am I going wrong.
Any suggestions, within reason, welcomed.
Hi sfallan,
Download the Mach3 manual and give it a read.
http://www.machsupport.com/documentation.php
Also, I posted some Mach3 setup info which works for my system. Depends on your breakout board pins, but some are possibly similar:
http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showth...llenge?p=16257
You need to identify the port address, activate the axes, set up pins, set up motor calibration, velocity and acceleration, and set up hotkeys to do the movement.
Do you know what pins are used on your board?
RouterCNC thanks for the info, which I have now tried and still nothing.
A question I still cannot answer is why the controller LED's light fully and the motors buzz before the PC is switched on and then nothing when it is? I would have expected all to be powered even when connected to the PC and only control configuratrion required?
Am I correct in my assumption?
Firstly are the motors free with no power on?
Then do the motors lock up when power to the driver box is switched on?
Are they still locked when the computer is switched on ?
Do you know what pins are used for each axis ?
John,
How would I check your questions?
John,
I have checked the following;
Motors rotate, using pliers, freely when no power. They lock when powered. Nothing when PC on, as in no noise from the motors at all and no LED's on the controller.
Wonder if it is some kind of charge pump problem. This is a safety feature and needs to be either configured in the pins, or overriden on the board directly (to bypass).
On my system this is pin 1 (port1). In the ports and pins menu, if you scroll down one of them lists the charge pump. In this table you need to add the pin and port required.
As John has mentioned, if you know the pins required for this controller it would help with setting it up. Could you take the lid off and tell us the make of the parts inside? They are possibly off the shelf bits and will have pin outs listed.
Attachment 2950Hope this helps.
Oo, looks like one of those TB6560 boards from ebay, better wait until someone can confirm this, but meanwhile...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-Axis-CNC-Ste...item2a09a9f81c
you can find the set up document about 2/3 down the page, it's written for Mach3 :)
I've got one of those TB6560 boards, attached is the user manual for it=> Attachment 2951 Hope this helps...it enabled me to set up mine which worked first time I powered it up...
Gents,
Thanks for your comments/advise. You may notice that the board is actually a 4 axis not 3 therefore i'm not sure how that would affect the settings suggested.
Ahhh just looked more carefully...there is a thread http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showth...-Driver-Boards started on here, may help?
A-ha. So here is the 3 axis ebay listing, link to manual down the page...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-Axis-CNC-Ste...item2a09a9f81c
also...
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_t...All-Categories
Following the instructions as per NJ's link I have movement in the Y axis only and only in 1 direction no matter which key is pressed. Any suggestions on how I can get it to move in the + direction?
A good start.
Thanks to all for the help so far.
Sounds like you've got the 'step' set to the right one in Mach3 for the Y axis, but not the direction pin...try changing it.
Jonathan, i've just run throught all the direction pin settings with no change.
That doesn't sound good. I take it none of the other axis' moved when you were trying different pins?
Sounds like it might be a problem with the driver board itself but I don't think that that's that likely. [too many that's in that sentance!]
whats do you think the problem could be? the board, then you say it couldnt be? im confused?
so far ive got 1 cable working on 1 axis in 1 direction.
i then changed the cable to test each motor, they worked again in 1 direction no matter which direction you pressed the only went 1 way.
one thing i noticed is the x axis (long axis in this case) was forcing the z axis to raise and lower as it moved, only by mm but noticable. wave like motion, what could this be.
i'm trying to establish if ive been sold a dud? does anyone know what rights i have to complain?
ive spent 2 hrs speaking with the guy who sold me the machine prior to actually getting 1 motor working, with him saying try this and try that.
again, thanks for all comments/suggestions.
Don't give up hope just yet. Can I just check that you are setting both the 'step pin' and 'direction pin', and the 'step port' and 'direction port'. I think the port ones are probably '0' by default, and should all be set to '1'.
Could you post a screenshot of your Mach3 menus:
Ports and pins > Port setup and configuration
Ports and pins > Motor outputs
Also, in Config > motor tuning, what are your 'steps per' , 'velocity' , 'acceleration', 'step pulse' and 'direction pulse' values for each axis?
RouterCNC I will take screen shots as currently working and post these later.
Yes, I think the ports are set to 1 for direction, basically following advise from all corners and 1 motor/pin setting is working but only in one direction.
I'm sure is something simple but im now worried about the movement up and down when I tested the x axis motor. At least all the motors are working.
Attachment 2957Attachment 2956Attachment 2955Attachment 2954Attachment 2953Attachment 2952A selection of screen shots as current. Comments welcomed. Note that the Y axis is working but in 1 direction only.
Firstly I'd try putting the kernel speed down to 25Khz. I doubt that's causing a problem at the moment, but it may do later on. Do you really need it at 35Khz for the feedrate you anticipate?
Here's the manual for the 4 axis board...
http://www.savebase.com/infobase/dow...xis_Driver.doc
If you trust the settings shown there, then yes I see no problem with how you've set it.
The only thing I can think of doing now is to trace the pins on the PCB. i.e. look at each pin on the parallel port connector on the PCB and see where it connects. You should be able to verify the step/dir settings quite easily doing this. I once did it for an unknown stepper driver board....
are you 100% sure the parallel cable is ok? can you buzz it out and confirm its wired 1:1?
As Jonathan says the configuration looks basically ok, but can you bring up the motor tuning page for each axis and take a screen shot.
Another thing to try is swap X and Y axis.... so make X-step, X-dir 14 & 7 respectively... then try jogging X... which should cause Y to step. Incidentally I was led to believe that you must stop and restart MACH3 after making each change so that it saves and rereads the new configuration (I read this somewhere).
What test equipment (multimeter?) do you have at your disposal?
Morning all,
I have a multi meter to hand and guidance on what i need test and how to test it would be apprecaited.
With regards the cable, there are 2, one connected to the PCB then one connected to that, an extension cable. This is due to the configuration of the box. I can try connecting direct without the extension.
How would I testAttachment 2960 the cable as being 1:1, I purchased the one suggested by a member here however the one in the box was already there (found it when I opened up)Attachment 2959
http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/images/misc/pencil.png
Have you tried the original cable ?