should I cut and paste this question?

[235r]

G'day all, I get a funny feeling question's like mine pop-up a lot. I just bought one of those "Chinese" CNC router/engravers (that come from the UK) a 3040 p3 3 axis CNC, and I can't get mine to work I've tried a couple of versions of Mach3, now I have the latest version available (3.043). I've checked everything including re-installing the pci to parallel port card. All the settings are right as far as I can tell by the instruction manual. The (stepper) motors all lock like they're supposed too when the controller is switched on, but I can't get ANY axis to move. (edit - I should have been clearer here & said....I can't even jog any axis) Can somebody please help me to sort this out? Thanks

[RCaffin]

Can somebody please help me to sort this out?

Details!
The problem would seem likely to be generally with the electronics between Mach and the motors.
What electronics are you using?
What electronic test gear do you have?
What electronics skills do you have?

Cheers

[neilw20]

Post some pictures of all the electronic stuff.
Any manuals?
Even in Chinese. Easy to translate with google.
I did a 28 page technical manual of a hi tech driver in 6 hours.

Strange thing is, after six hours you start to recognize some of the symbols!

decode this...

見。這是很容易。

Google Translate

[235r]

Thanks to "RCaffin" & "NeilW20" for the quick replies. First of all, even though I've spent many (lonely) hours studying electronics, enough to earn a full-call HAM radio licence, I think there has to be an easier way to fix this other than opening up a piece of brand-new (no-brand) electronics. After all, it is only a week old & if I have any hope of getting warranty (please, don't laugh too hard), opening up the control box is the quickest way to lose it. So, there has to be a happy medium between sitting here grumbling and blowing (any hope of) warranty? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate & NEED the help. Otherwise, I don't have a mobile phone or any sort of camera, but I will find one & get more info on here. Although, if you google -"3040z P3 engraver" and click on one of the ebay ads, you'll see....everthing? all the photo's of the machine as well as the manual. THANKS again guys (more info coming)

[KOC62]

Troubleshooting is a process.
Next a number of assumptions are being made.
Assume that your unit works right out of the box with no shipping damage.
How do we know that you followed the manufacturer's instructions to start the machine?
Do you have the manual to know which port pins to use for STEP and DIRection? Does it require positive going pulses or negative going pulses? And pulse widths? Did you use known working cables?

You see, we don't know anything about your hookup, nor what you programmed Mach 3 to do. So it will take a methodical process to eliminate the obvious, and catch the "gotchas".

[neilw20]

Looks like it should work out of the box. Nice looking unit.
Steppers lock up when powered up. -- normal

Are you using a PC? With a parallel port? YES! PCI card. That's good. Configured correctly? Port number recognised by Windows device manager?
Some sort of a parallel port adapter? -- Typically only a smoothstepper or similar will work on USB

USB? - don't go there unless you already have a smoothstepper.

USB to parallel WILL NOT WORK with Mach3.

A laptop? -- now there is a problem. -- Use a PC to get started with.

Have you run drivertest.exe - No?
Read the Mach3 manual? At least read the installation section.

You need to setup all the pins/ports etc in MAch3 unless it came with a setup file 'somename.xml'

If the setup file exists, then use then put it in the Mach3 folder, then run Mach3 and select it as the profile.

[dertsap]

do the guys who sell the machine not support their product

[235r]

G'day guys, I thankyou for your interest. Where do I start? Maybe I should have started with...once upon a time I worked as an engraver with burr and computer. Back then (1991) it was a DOS program running a Newing-Hall TLC. I only did that for a couple of years but loved it Some 20 years later, I found these machines on ebay & wanted one. So I bought one. It arrived in the box assembled. All I had to do was attatch the 3 (stepper) motors & attatch the input/output wires to the VFD, plus about 18 changes to the Mach3 software & connect everything up. After all, there are photos in the manual, its hard to get it wrong & I have checked with the manual many times. Unfortunately there is a lot of information left out of the manual & I'm left wondering about a lot of settings. As neilw20 correctly noticed in my second posting were details of where photos of my machine as well as a copy of the manual is available. If you look at the manual, its obvious that the sellers are Chinese, (although this machine came from the U.K). Yes they do support their product, but you guys speak better english so I thought the forum might help as well. I have contacted the seller & am waiting for their response to a video I sent them. All this software (Mach3 plus CAD & CAM) is very new to me but neilw20 gave me a few ideas to start with. Sorry I didn't post the video on youtube but I had to borrow a camera & I sent the video to the seller from my friends computer & forgot to bring the file home or send myself a copy. Equally sorry I don't know more about this stuff so I could tell you more, but nobody's born knowing everything & that's why I'm here. Thanks everybody...constructive or otherwise. I'll keep you informed one way or the other.

[235r]

Well it took two months and unfortunately one keyboard (the mouse isn't to healthy either) but, my CNC engraver is finally working!!! If you check my original postings, you'll see one slightly over-the-top suggestion for working on the electronics. Well as it turned out, all I needed was.....another computer. So, I bought myself an old Pentium 4 (for $50), installed the software, made the necessary changes and violar!!! one working CNC engraver. As Homer would say...WOO HOO. Thanks for your interest.

[RCaffin]

So, I bought myself an old Pentium 4 (for $50), installed the software, made the necessary changes and violar!!! one working CNC engraver.

Out if real interest, did this old PC have a parallel port when you got it?

The reason I ask is because many (all?) PCI-parallel ports adapters do not work for Mach. It's a very well known problem. The adapters will happily drive a printer, but lack the 'extra' functionality needed for Mach.

Cheers

[neilw20]

It is not a matter of Mach having a problem.
Some hardware is not 100% 'standard'.
I have had PCI cards that won't drive properly and BOB cards that load some cards too much. Some marginal ones don't give enough noise margin between '0' and '1' and are then prone to noise pickup and missed steps.
I have a 'bad' computer, that I use for testing, to ensure reliable compatibility for bad cases.

[RCaffin]

It is not a matter of Mach having a problem.
Some hardware is not 100% 'standard'.
I have had PCI cards that won't drive properly and BOB cards that load some cards too much. Some marginal ones don't give enough noise margin between '0' and '1' and are then prone to noise pickup and missed steps.

The Parallel Port was built around a very old NMOS chip. Driving a printer took only some of its functionality. Driving Mach, or PicoLog data loggers (as examples) uses some extra functionality that was in the original chip. But when people build PCI-PP adapters these days, they usually only include the bare minimum functionality needed for a printer, not all the extra I/O functionality. To the best of my knowledge, there are NO PCI-PP or USB-PP adapters on the market which can drive a PicoLog data logger (I have tried, and PicoLiog have tried.) So I keep an old IBM ThinkPad laptop just for its native PP.

The BoB card problem is due to some PP outputs being built with 3.3 V logic chips rather than the older more powerful 5 V logic TTL chips. If the BoB requires a 5 V TTL input ... problems. That's where the noise margin comes in. Me, I think building a PP with 3.3 V logic is just lousy design.

These are just some of the reasons why I went to the Ethernet Smooth Stepper.

Cheers