Need helpwiring up from scratch

[irving2008]

George,

Sounds like your motor wiring is right if the motors lock on power up. Anyway, might not be of much help but here is a wiring diagram for that combination of boards showing the X-Stepper only, Y and Z would be similar...

[irving2008]

Irving,that diagram doesn't show the enable +&- does that mean they are dismissed?

There's one wire there that I had in "ena-"

The Chargepump circuit on the DIYCNC board acts directly on its outputs so for a stepper circuit it makes no difference. The external enable would be used to power down a servo where there is external 'intelligence' driving the motor. The reason I'd leave it disconnected here is that the DIYCNC board outputs an 'Active Low' enable signal, but the drivers use active low to "enable the motor for manual operation", i.e. disable it!

If you suspect the problem is the chargepump not enabling the outputs, jumper J3 on the DIYCNC board - which is normally left off - can be fitted temporarily to override that and enable the outputs permanently...

[GeorgeD]

Done all what you have stated Irving and still no life out of the motors :-(

[irving2008]

OK... let me have a think, go get some shuteye :D.. i'll be back on later...

one quick question tho... what are you connecting the PC to the BoB with? are you 100% sure its a 25way pin to pin cable... we've seen lots of 'printer' cables that aren't..... and they simply dont work...

[GeorgeD]

Plugging the breakerboard directly into the parallel port.

Yeah,think I'll call it a night...erm day. :)

Cheers Irving.

[GeorgeD]

Well I've a nap,basically she gave me a dig to get up :twisted:

Had another bash at this darnnone motor tuning.

Connected 1 drive and one motor,the motor was nt the one I was using ealier but one that came ut of a big office printer/fax which was fully working before I cannibalised it :twisted:

Still no joy,the motor is in the lock position and gets warm,Mach3 goes through its process of executing a loaded G-Code....so what the dickens can it be?

The components on the System1 breakout board don't even get warm to the touch ie the high voltage reg thats strapped to the heatsink,normally any compnents strapped to a heatsink get warm or hot underload.

[irving2008]

George,

One other thing I forgot to ask... have you been through the 'motor tuning' section of the MACH3 manual? What settings do you have for steps/mm, acceleration and step pulse width (should be at least 5).

If you have a mutlimeter, check the 5v output from the BoB, confirm its 5v and its getting to the + pins on the driver (orange wire on my diagram). Also measure voltage between the ENA output and the 5v rail. This should measure close to 5v if the system is enabled. If its not, try putting J3 in place to override the chargepump and confirm that the enable output goes low (i.e. measures 5v between it and 5v rail). The 'chargepump' CP LED should be on as should the POWER LED.

A simple test ypu can do is to disconnect the 'step X' wire from the BoB, (in my diagram the blue wire to PULS-) leave everything else connected. Set the motor driver to full step. touch the step X wire to the ground terminal, the motor should step each time you do that.... if it does then the issue is with the Bob or the MACH3 configuration.

[GeorgeD]

Hi Irving

Are you the only techie on here?

Ok I'll peform some steps(bad pun) later on today as I need a rest from this.

I figure it just might be the bob as the charge pump led come and goes as does the power led,this board is basically naff because what happens is the led without pwer supply attached to 70v rail,glows dimly and when you attach the power supply its bright,I never known a piece of equipment that functions on the power side like that.

The charge pump led comes on and goes off when I reboot the computer ie it comes on just as it boots into the initialising screen and then goes out when windows is about to boot.

[GeorgeD]

What settings do you have for steps/mm, acceleration and step pulse width (should be at least 5).

This step and pulse does it automatically calculate the required number or have we to put it in?

Just had a quick browse of this PDF file http://www.kelinginc.net/Mach3Tutorial.pdf of setting up Mach3 and I can't work out the required parameters.

[John S]

Hi Irving

Are you the only techie on here?

Ok I'll peform some steps(bad pun) later on today as I need a rest from this.

I figure it just might be the bob as the charge pump led come and goes as does the power led,this board is basically naff because what happens is the led without pwer supply attached to 70v rail,glows dimly and when you attach the power supply its bright,I never known a piece of equipment that functions on the power side like that.

The charge pump led comes on and goes off when I reboot the computer ie it comes on just as it boots into the initialising screen and then goes out when windows is about to boot.

You need to step back and check thru logically, read up on what you can and if you can't understand anything ask first.
Don't start experimenting as that the way to damage components.

It only takes one crossed wire to damage a component.

Wire up the power supply and test it.
Make sure you know which is positive. and what voltage it's putting out.
Then connect this to the BOB, Do you have a power light ? are you getting 5 volt and 12 volt from the auxiliary supply points at the side of the power in ?
Connect the power supply to the drivers, do you get the power on LED lit up ?

Now connect the steppers to the drivers taking note of how they need to be wired.

Do the stepper clunk and lock on switch on ?

That proves the power side first.

As an aside what computer are you using ? and does it have an inbuilt parallel port or an add on card.?

There is nothing wrong with Roy's boards, I have fitted well over 70 - 80 different models and never had any trouble with them.