Quote Originally Posted by jenxmetalworks View Post
The blue cable looks like an Ethernet cable and goes to female plug below parallel port in this picture the two big switches above one activates laser one motors. I don't know how machine was controlled originally there is another board underneath brake out board the coordinates change when I move machine manually and there are some flickering LEDs on board behind bob when mach3 try's to move machine motors.

I'm starting to think that this is some kind of dedicated system and I will need new Bob and start from there but I would really like to get it moving plus previous comments lead my to believe not all bobs will work with my drivers.
For now there are more questions than answers.
Don't worry about the drives signal it's just voltage requirements and this can be worked around if required. 99% will work with 5v thou may require differential signals to work correctly which again isn't problem with the correct board.

The lower board will be motion controller and 99% for sure will use dedicated software which you obviously haven't got so it's junk really. However the I/O board you show does look like quality unit so would be worth little effort to try keep. With some trial and error it shouldn't be too hard to track down which pin goes to which I/O.

However for simplicty it would be lot easier to just fit complete new setup. Ideally Decent motion controller with enough frequency and matching bob with enough I/O for your needs. This will have you fully working within few hours.

You say mach3 is showing movement on dro's when moved manually but you don't show how or what your connecting upto.?
Also when say moving manually do you mean pushing axis by hand or manually Jogging by usings keys.? If Keys then the DRO's will go around because mach thinks it's moving.

Under normal connection via Step/Dir signals mach3 does not recieve feedback from the drives so couldn't possibly show movement on DRO's unless pulses where sent out. Even Then it wouldn't show Encoder position it would just be coordinates mach3 believes it's moved to.

So If indeed you are seeing movement when pushing axis then it looks to me like you have connected the Drive Encoder outputs to the BOB Inputs and mach3 is just showing Encoder position. . . . . However something doesn't stack up here either because standard BOB doesn't have enough Inputs to do this for more than one axis and even then wouldn't show on main DRO's.

The only real way you can have feedback to mach3 is by using dedicated motion controller which provide enough I/O. Event then it will only show position and not be able to correct for positional errors. To do this you'll need card that provides closed loop and these are expensive with not many around which work with mach3.

Now thou if you just want to test if the drives work and get motion with 5v signals then that's easy enough but will require bypassing both those boards and connecting directly to the BOB you have.

It's very simple thing to do really but you will need to find the wires which enable the drives. So I suggest you start tracing wires and making notes/take pics.

To get basic motion all you need is Step/Dir signals to the drives and use output to control relay to Enable drives. Limits and all that can be ignored for now, however I would connect E-stop for safety reasons in case Servos decide to take off.

Give info on how connecting to PP/mach3 and try to show all connections etc.