Driver help

[Doddy]

No doubt there are those who will say it's too complex a bit of gear for some people to use

I agree 100% with the sentiment of your post, but you hit the nail on the head here. Not that, as a tool, it's complex - yes they can be (and heaven forbid you ever try a LeCroy which - despite warnings - I bought one through the company and hit myself every sodding day for the reversed timebase/Y-deflection controls (everyone warns you about it - but you think you'll get used... you don't!) The problem is that a lot of people know what signalling is expected, and a scope would work for them - but even without a scope knowing what to expect allows a whole load of diagnostics with nothing more than a meter, LEDs, bits of wire and a cup of coffee with a hobnob.

For those that don't understand the signalling, a scope would just be a gateway to the unknown.

Perhaps we need a sticky for the typical signalling across a CNC system and easy approaches to test each node. But that assumes a convention to the controller design. There's no easy win to this.

It's frustrating as hell to try to help someone a couple of hundred miles away over a few days or weeks when you realise that in the long run it'd be quicker to just jump in the car and fix the problem yourself. No disrespect to anyone intended - we all have our own areas of interest/experience.

[Kitwn]

I agree 100% with the sentiment of your post, but you hit the nail on the head here. Not that, as a tool, it's complex - yes they can be (and heaven forbid you ever try a LeCroy which - despite warnings - I bought one through the company and hit myself every sodding day for the reversed timebase/Y-deflection controls (everyone warns you about it - but you think you'll get used... you don't!) The problem is that a lot of people know what signalling is expected, and a scope would work for them - but even without a scope knowing what to expect allows a whole load of diagnostics with nothing more than a meter, LEDs, bits of wire and a cup of coffee with a hobnob.

For those that don't understand the signalling, a scope would just be a gateway to the unknown.

Perhaps we need a sticky for the typical signalling across a CNC system and easy approaches to test each node. But that assumes a convention to the controller design. There's no easy win to this.

It's frustrating as hell to try to help someone a couple of hundred miles away over a few days or weeks when you realise that in the long run it'd be quicker to just jump in the car and fix the problem yourself. No disrespect to anyone intended - we all have our own areas of interest/experience.

And I agree 100% with yours! Everything is easy when you know how, that's why we employ specialists to perform specific tasks. I wouldn't trust a brain surgeon to service my car or a car mechanic to sort my head out. Actually I don't think there's anyone clever enough to do that, but I digress. One of the key elements of a hobby like ours is attempting to become an expert in several different and complicated disciplines in next to no time and with no formal training.

Knowing how to trace faults in electronic equipment is a skill in itself. I have followed some of your past efforts to help others at a distance and am genuinely impressed at your patience and perserverance in the face of dificulties. I do like the idea of a sticky thread covering some of these issues. What the various signals consist of, how you can trace them through the equipment with simple, inexpensive test gear and what you can and cannot properly measure with an ordinary digital mulitimeter (the one you simply cannot do without if you expect to build you own machine) would be very useful to many.

Kit

P.S. We spent today at Steamfest in Sheffield. One of the junk stalls (sorry, "vintage tools emporium" ) had a lovely old bakelite AVO meter for $80. I was very tempted. It was the same as the very first piece of test equipment the BBC trained me to use when I was a lad.