charge pump

[michaelf]

Thanks Jeff and Peter.
Peter, it’s probably just me, but I don’t understand what you mean by going to general config and ticking the charge pump in the EStop check box.
In the input signals I have the EStop ticked, port 1, pin 14 and in output signals I have charge pump ticked, port 1, pin 16.
Is there any way of checking if the controller is receiving information from the PC through the parallel ports?
I am using the G540 CNC Stepper Motor Driver Controller assembled by Keling.
Mike

[arturod]

You can find more information on this circuits and how to implement them here: http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/index.php?cPath=23.

Arturo Duncan
http://cnc4pc.com

[Jeff-Birt]

The G540 is made by Gecko, NOT Keling.

If you look in the Config menu in Mach you will see a selection called 'General Config'.

Go over to the machsupport.com website and look under the documentation tab. Find your self the Mach users manual and download it. You will save your self a lot of time, trouble and frustration by looking through it so you have a general idea of what is in it and then having it to refer to when you need to change things.

[michaelf]

Jeff, you are right, Gecko isn’t made by Keling, but Keling do make a complete controller using the G540, have a look at the bottom of the page. http://www.kelinginc.net/ControlSystem.html

[phomann]

Mike,

You need to select Config->General from the Mach3 drop down menus. You should see the screen as attached. In the general configuration area, there is the 'ChargePump on in Estop'

You need to check this checkbox.

Cheers,

Peter

[michaelf]

Thanks Peter, I checked the box but still have the fault light lit.
The only other variation I have is in the BIOS set up;
I have ON BOARD PARALLEL PORT "378h"
PARALLEL PORT MODE "ECP"
PARALLEL PORT IRQ "7"
On the Gecko drive set up it shows the above as;
EPP MODE SELECT "EPP1.7"
I am now wondering if my parallel port doesnt support "EPP"

Mike

[phomann]

Hi Michael,

There are only a few reasons why the charge pump signal is not working,

1. The charge pump signal generated from Mach3 is not being presented at pin 16 on the printer port. This is either due to you configuring the ports and pins incorrectly, or the printer port is not in the correct mode (EPP)

Since your steppers do not move even when you disable the charge pump make me believe that the axis aren't set up correctly, let along the charge pump.

Have you uded the GeckoDrive profile file for setting up Mach3?
http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/540B.xml

If not then use it do do the initial setup. If you are using it, then you need to check that you have sent up the printer port address and number correctly. It is done on the config ports and pins page.

The standard setup is to use Port #1 and have its address set to 0x378

Cheers,

Peter.

[michaelf]

Thanks Peter, I think my problem is not being able to set the printer port to the correct mode "EPP", I will have to find away to fix that before anything else.
Mike

[Jeff-Birt]

Finding a PC that will work with the parallel port driver is a bit of pot luck. That is why I like to include a SmoothStepper with my systems. If you can't configure the built in parallel port you might be able to add on a parallel port via a PCI card. If you search the machsupport.com website you can find some folks mentioning the types of parallel port cards they have used that have worked.

[michaelf]

Thanks Jeff, will need to do some more research.
Mike

[michaelf]

A quick update, regarding my problems. I decided to check the parallel cable and found that there was only 4 pins connected, so I bought a new cable checked all the pins first, hooked it up and all my problems have been solved.
Thanks again everybody for your help.

[phomann]

Originally Posted by michaelf A quick update, regarding my problems. I decided to check the parallel cable and found that there was only 4 pins connected, so I bought a new cable checked all the pins first, hooked it up and all my problems have been solved. Thanks again everybody for your help.

My guess is that the cable was a DB25 serial cable and not a parallel printer cable.

Good to see it is fixed.

Cheers,

Peter