Troubleshooting non responsive machine- Mach3/Syil x4

[IhateDoug]

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.

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?



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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[Doddy]

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?

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



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.

[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?

[IhateDoug]

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?

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


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[Doddy]

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