Quick! Help with controller!

[erase42]

12 v is not too much, im not sure what you have in the way of resistors in your setup. but 12 should be ok untill we know better. someone else can advise you on the resistor values for your motor/power supply situation. my drivers dont require power resistors so i never had to mess with the formula.

it improved, how? what changed? you say they wont turn with mach3, but do they try? are they buzzing or twitching or anything at all when you try to jog the machine? you had said in an earlier post that the motor was buzzing and slowly moving in the right direction. was that also mach3?
would the direction change when you tried to jog the other way?

[tybrenis]

Originally Posted by erase42 12 v is not too much, im not sure what you have in the way of resistors in your setup. but 12 should be ok untill we know better. someone else can advise you on the resistor values for your motor/power supply situation. my drivers dont require power resistors so i never had to mess with the formula. it improved, how? what changed? you say they wont turn with mach3, but do they try? are they buzzing or twitching or anything at all when you try to jog the machine? you had said in an earlier post that the motor was buzzing and slowly moving in the right direction. was that also mach3? would the direction change when you tried to jog the other way?

Both times I used Mach3. With the 5 volts, I could move them clockwise and counterclockwise by jogging in different directions, so that is fine. It would move in a general motion, but it would say move 5 degrees clockwise, then jerk 2 degrees back counter-clockwise, then repeat.

When I adjusted the settings, they moved further and smoother, but still jerked back and certainly did not do full circles.

When I tested them with the 12v, they didn't buzz, jerk, move at all in either direction, nothing. Nada. However, they did hold torque.

[erase42]

how fast is this happening, how many times a second is it jerking?

what other software is on this machine, old printer drivers can and do check the port ever little while to see if there is a change such as a scanner door opening or a low ink signal from a printer. these little pulses may be masking the proper pulses that mach3 is sending out. go look at all the software that is installed and make sure it isnt scanner software. also go to your printer folder and unisntall any and all printers for the time being. look in your proccesses running box "controll alt delete" and see if you recognize anything as being associated with a printer or scanner. also, watch the CPU numbers to the right of the .exe name and see if something there goes from zero to something higher at the same interval that your stepper is jerking. if you see one. end that process and see if that cures it. lots to do but its all easy, ill watch for a responce.

[tybrenis]

Hello,

The machine was set up just for CNC, and it has virtually no other software working on it. How many times a second? I'm not sure, but I'd say 1-3 times, it's a very jerky, buzzy kind of movement. It responds to jogging, but that's all I would call it - a response, not a valid movement.

[erase42]

at this point im wondering if your have the proper pinouts. im sure you have them set as we are assuming its wired, but no one is really sure if green is direction or orange is step or whatever? have you tried reversing your step and direction wires? they could be backwards and perhaps still respond that way. im sure the result would be a very jerky odd responce. try switching them for a second and see the difference.


ed

[tybrenis]

Hi,

I'll go try that soon. I wired the step to pin 2 and the direction to pin three, and set it as that in Mach3. If I simply change the settings, that will do the job, right?

[tybrenis]

Update: I tried switching the pinouts and ended up getting no results at all with them switched. So, I switched them back and took a video of the motors moving to give you a better idea of what they are doing.

Link

[erase42]

do they make that real high pitched sound or is that a result of the video compression. if they make that high of a sound, im thinking the speeds are still too high. even when i run mine as fast as possible they still dont play that high of a note. are they real easy to rotate by hand while they are buzzing like that? will they turn easier one way than another? and get in touch with your freinds father and get a schematic, or at least verify what color wire is supposed to do what. we/you have to start to rule some things out, even simple things help. check with him on the voltage the controller will handle. start thinking about getting a set of zylotex drivers. they are so reliable and well documented that you would never have this problem again. Im out of town tomorrow, so you are on your own for a while.

[tybrenis]

Thanks again for all of your help.

That is indeed the noise they make. I guess I will turn them way down again. Is there a way to change the jog speed in Mach3?

I will talk to my friend's father this weekend if I can about these controllers and I will try and figure out the deal with these issues.

I've considered buying a xylotex or similar but I simply don't have the money for them right now. Also, my motors are fairly weak at only 6 volts.

[erase42]

lots of steppers are rated at way less than that. so thats not really an issue. not sure about the jog speed in mach, im sure you can, its great software. try running the stepper by typing a line into the command line box on mach something like g01 z10 f10 all the 0 are zeros not letter O
this will command it to turn at a very low speed. let me know if turning speeds or the other changes help. ill check email before i leave tomorrow and see whats up.
Ed