Need Help!- Driver and Breakout board troubleshooting

[vmipacman]

I bought the 3-axis stepper motor package with 640 oz-in motors. I was very pleased until I tried to wire it up. My problem is that I can't get any motors to turn. I have rechecked everything I can find in the documentation. I have setup Mach3 several different ways and can't get anything to work. My question is, how can I troubleshoot the driver, or the breakout board, or Mach 3 seperatly to isolate my problem area. Is there a way I can trick the driver and get it to turn a motor just to show it works? When I power up the system I hear the motors lock and will not turn. I believe this is a good sign. How can I test by BOB for high's and low's using Mach 3?

driver - KL-5056, 24V-50V, 5.6A Bipolar Driver

motors - NEMA 34-640 oz-in Stepper Motors

PS - 1 PCS 48V/ 12.5A, Power Supply, 110V/220V

BOB - C10 Breakout board, E-Stop or Limit Switch can be wired

5v PS - 5V power supply, 110V/220V

Thanks
Paul

[Kelinginc]

Hi Paul
1: check this Mach3 setup in our website
http://www.kelinginc.net/Mach3Tutorial.doc
2: Did you use straight wired Cable
http://www.kelinginc.net/CNCPackage.html

[vmipacman]

I found out that Mach3 is not compatible with most laptops. Can anyone confirm this? I am using a Dell D800. That is what I have been trying to run off of and it might be the reason for all my problems. I can't get any movement from the motors.

[vmipacman]

After reformating my laptop and only installing mach3 everything seems to work!

Paul

[jbarber]

Paul,

The majority of the problems with laptops and Mach3 have to do with power management features. Some are in hardware and can't be disabled easily, but one thing you can do is disable any you can find in Windows. You can look under the "Power" applet in the Windows Control Panel.

Other things to watch for are shared hardware interrupts, the Windows search and indexing services and anti-virus programs. Occasionally you can get lucky and find a machine that will work as a "normal" computer and still run Mach3 correctly, but the truth is that dedicated, off-network machines run much better.

My .02,
--jim