Quote Originally Posted by ravihotwok View Post
right its been a long while since i last updated this, I sent the control box back to planet CNC as it was faulty, I received it back pretty quickly a good while ago but have yet to plug it all in.......until tonight. Well the results were a bit disappointing,and now the motors will only move one way. I have sent another email to planet but even though im about £600 down on this control box I think I may need to buy another one which is wider used. Can anyone offer any advice as to if I should persevere with this box of just cut my losses and move on?
Too early to call. But I'm a big fan of fixing, rather than replacing random bits.

You say "the motors will only move one way" - you're referring to the axis stepper motors? (the last part of this thread was discussing the spindle motor, but from the tense of your comment here I think you're talking axis?.

On the assumption you're talking axis...

What's changed?, just the control box? (which eliminates, to some degree) software set-up in Mach3 (assuming this is what you're using). Assuming that it's just the control box then it's unusual to lose all three axis at once. That to me sounds more like a configuration issue than failure (though lets not rule that out!)

How are you testing each axis?, front-panel switches, or from G-Code loaded into Mach3? Have you tried both? If the front-panel - are you saying that, eg, "Left moves left, Right moves left"?, or "Left moves left, Right doesn't move"? - it helps to understand better the nature of the problem.

If following a failure-more: You're now playing a diagnostic game. At least with losing one direction off one or more axis you can do some sensible diagnostics pretty easily (the step/dir interface typical of these boards means that the direction line is somewhat low frequency and easily measurable/set-able). I'd be looking to scope the dir signal with the axis being driven alternate directions. If no scope, then DVM, if no DVM then LED & resistor, and so on. You'd be wanting to start at the control board, then move to the stepper drivers. Even a visual inspection might help, though I guess you've done this. The control box looks to be wired with IDC connectors - you might have to knock a diagnostic lead up that breaks-out the DIR line (or allows you to drive it 0/1 without shorting the control box).

For me - not enough info at this time, I appreciate you're probably frustrated - and that's the worst frame of mind to diagnose problems with - at least for me. Try breaking the problem down to succinct points and either understand each of them, or post them here to be critiqued.

Quote Originally Posted by ravihotwok View Post
There are LED's on the front of the cnc control box but I cannot find anywhere what they mean as one of them is flashing and another is flashing red which obviously means something :-(
From the manual:

2.2.11 Mk3/4 LED indicators
The user is provided with helpful feedback and live ‘status’ information via on-board LED indicators. There are four indicators.
POWER: Lights when the controller is powered.
DATA: Indicates controller functions.
LINK: Indicates controller communication.
STATUS: Blinks to indicate controller function is ‘good’.

Which are flashing?, it sounds like at least one should be.