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    Default Motors quit working

    I had three axes working but my x and y have stopped. Only the z runs now. The led's are lit on all the drivers, What do you think is causing it? Thanks
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    OK. I swapped the z axis motor with the x and the x motor works on the z axis........
    so it's not the motors. It's either the breakout board, the driver, or the software.



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    Gold Member doorknob's Avatar
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    Do you have a multimeter available?

    A quick voltage check on the Dir pin(s) of the inputs and outputs of your breakout board for each of the axes (when you jog in one direction and then the other, or when running some Gcode that uses both directions) will tell you whether you are getting (at least) the direction signal from Mach3 through the parallel port and the cable - look for close to 5 volts in one direction and 0 in the other direction. If you do not see that signal on the axes other than Z, then you should do further troubleshooting in Mach3, the parallel port, and the cable.



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    Ok, I measured between the COM and DIR terminals on the breakout board, with G-code running and got no voltage on either the x or y axes.
    I don't see how it could be the parallel port since both the z axis and the wired e-stop are communicating. Must be Mach3.



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    I did a second test measuring between the DIR terminal and the aluminum enclosure chassis. This time it read 5.25v on both the x and y axis. So now it's looking like it could be the drivers. At about $50 a pop that's not looking good. They were working fine when I tested the motors Thursday.



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    Gold Member doorknob's Avatar
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    I'm a little bit uncertain of how to interpret your results because I may not have enough information. The more completely you can describe what you are seeing, the better I can help diagnose the problem.

    It sounds like you are measuring the DIR pins between the breakout board and the drivers, a.k.a. at the output of the breakout board (and not at the breakout board input from the cable).

    There are two ways to connect the breakout board to each driver. In one way, the COM terminal is running at +5 volts, and the DIR output should show +5 volts in one direction and 0 volts when the axis is jogged in the other direction (with the voltage measured against ground). In the other type of hookup, the COM terminal is at ground and the DIR pin would be at +5 volts in one direction and ground in the other direction.

    It is not clear to me whether you see the expected result on the Z axis but not on the X or Y axis, or something else.

    If I am correct about where you are measuring, and that you see the expected behavior on Z but not on the X or Y axes, then it may not necessarily mean that you have a fault in the X and Y axis drivers. To help resolve the issue, it would be good to compare the behavior of the DIR signals at the input to the breakout board to the behavior found at the output of the breakout board. Just because some of the pins are getting through to and from the parallel port does not guarantee that all of the pins will do the same. So it's best to get as complete a description of the behavior at both the input and output of the breakout board as possible (and maybe also at the parallel port, on the other end of the cable).



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    Quote Originally Posted by doorknob View Post
    I'm a little bit uncertain of how to interpret your results because I may not have enough information. The more completely you can describe what you are seeing, the better I can help diagnose the problem.

    It sounds like you are measuring the DIR pins between the breakout board and the drivers, a.k.a. at the output of the breakout board (and not at the breakout board input from the cable). Correct. I put my positive probe on the DIR output terminal of the breakout board, and the negative(BLK) I grounded to the enclosure chassis.

    There are two ways to connect the breakout board to each driver. In one way, the COM terminal is running at +5 volts, and the DIR output should show +5 volts in one direction and 0 volts when the axis is jogged in the other direction (with the voltage measured against ground). In the other type of hookup, the COM terminal is at ground and the DIR pin would be at +5 volts in one direction and ground in the other direction. My breakout board is the "C10" and my drivers are "KL4030's" both from Automation Technologies(Keling).
    On the x axis of the breakout board
    I connected the black wire(COM) directly to DIR+ on the driver and jumpered that to PUL+
    I connected the #2 pin directrly to DIR-
    connected the #3 pin to PUL-
    I did the same for the y (pin 4,5 and COM) and z axes(pin 6,7 and COM)
    This is the way their diagram shows. http://www.automationtechnologiesinc...030WithC10.pdf

    The other two wires connected from

    It is not clear to me whether you see the expected result on the Z axis but not on the X or Y axis, or something else. The numbers in the x and y axes are moving.changing in Mach3 when the g-code is started but the x and y motors are not moving...only the z is moving.

    If I am correct about where you are measuring, and that you see the expected behavior on Z but not on the X or Y axes, then it may not necessarily mean that you have a fault in the X and Y axis drivers. To help resolve the issue, it would be good to compare the behavior of the DIR signals at the input to the breakout board to the behavior found at the output of the breakout board. Just because some of the pins are getting through to and from the parallel port does not guarantee that all of the pins will do the same. So it's best to get as complete a description of the behavior at both the input and output of the breakout board as possible (and maybe also at the parallel port, on the other end of the cable). I'm not sure how to do that, but I disconnected the parallel cable from the breakout board, ran the file in Mach3 and measured the voltage coming off the pins. I was getting 4.32v off pins 1,2,3 and 4. Zero volts off pins 6,7,8. 4.32v off 9,10, 11, zero off 12 and 4.32 off 13(measuring on the "wide" side of the parallel connection.
    Thanks



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    Got the x and y axes working again. Enabling "digital trigger" in the "output signals" function of the software took care of it but it wasn't enabled when they worked before. Why does computer stuff have to be so complicated? Anyway, the next hurdle will be tweaking the 'resonance', acceleration and speed, then learning how to 'slave' two motors on one axis. I hope I did the right thing on enabling the "digital trigger". Thanks

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    Well, I am at a loss to explain how enabling "digital trigger" might have fixed your problem, but I'm glad to hear that you have it running...



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    Thanks



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Motors quit working

Motors quit working