How to wire the enable pin on a stepper drive?

[cncJim]

Great, thanks for that Jazz I will give it a go. :)

Follow up question, should there be a power up order for the PC, BoB, stepper drives, Vfd etc?

Cheers,
Jim

[Clive S]

Great, thanks for that Jazz I will give it a go. :)

Follow up question, should there be a power up order for the PC, BoB, stepper drives, Vfd etc?

Cheers,
Jim

It is always good to power the PC up first the BOB and Drives would come on together and it is optional for the VFD as you might want to get the holding down and zeroing done before powering that up.

[JAZZCNC]

Clives correct but really if control is done correctly it would go like this.!
PC First then turn on Power to control box which turns on the BOB and Low voltage PSU for safety. Then the drives etc come on when you push the Reset button and only if every thing is safe do so.
This way if the Control software isn't in control and ready. ie: PC crashed Bob will disable motor outputs because no charge pump.
Or if the E-stop is pressed safety system won't turn on the drives, vfd etc.
Or if limit is pressed the system will reset and drives will turn on but won't enable there outputs and also shouldn't allow control softare to reset.

[cncJim]

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the replies and advice Clive and Jazz.

I am following the sample circuit from the Mach3 manual:-


Would using this give everything needed or is there something extra to do/add?

When talking about the charge pump, is that essentially the ENA- pin of my BoB?

Thanks,

Jim

[cncJim]

Hi all,

I haven't got round to testing the enable pins on the drives yet as I need to order the correct connectors (http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/non-fu...locks/1896010/ in case it's useful to others).

I have tested the enable pin on th BoB and got a slightly odd result:-

1. BoB off, PC on - 2.26v
2. BoB off, PC on, Mach 3 loaded - 1.09v
3. Mach3 loaded, BoB on, emergency stop active - 4.97v
4. Mach3 loaded, BoB on, ES reset - 195mv
5. Mach3 not running, BoB on - 4.9v
6. PC off, BoB on - 4.9v

So they all look ok to me except for number 2. From what I understand TTL levels a Low is 0v to 0.8v and a High level is 2v to 5v so a voltage of 1.09v is neither low of high which may or may not cause problems.

Anyone expirence this kind of thing before?

Thanks,
Jim