New Machine Build- Cheap Chinese Controller

[Arkwhizzard]

I need help hooking this thing up. I tried to save a few dollars and bought this 4 axis controller board off of EBay. The instructions only cover setting it up with Mach 3 I went over the board and cleaned a few solder trails then hooked up the low side to 5 V it worked so I tried the high side 24V and it seemed to work. With it conected to the computer Mach 3 lit all the lights so it seems to work. There are no instructions for the connections for the motors limits and E stop can anyone help me hook this up?

[mc-motorsports]

Going to need more info.

Honestly, if it was me, I would just delete this thread and start a new one titled:
"need help wiring servo's" or
"need help wiring steppers"

Cheapie and Chinese are 2 words most won't respond too.... I was just bored, but honestly, is it servo or stepper? Can you post a pic of the inputs and outputs in question? What servo's, steppers and or encoders are you using?

[Arkwhizzard]

Thanks for the reply. I was told my 5 wire unipolar stepper motors wouldn't work with this board. I found some bipolar motors today that are a perfect match volt and amp for the board and my power supply, with double the torque too. I was told of a site http://pminmo.com/PMinMOwiki/index.php5?title=Main_Page that answered my questions about wiring the motors and Limits so Im guess I am on hold until the Post Lady delivers my new motors.
As to why I labeled this thread the way I did: The board is as it is. if it had come with a wiring diagram I would have had no need to make a post at all.
If I had it to do over again. $50.00 for the 4 axis controller $27.00 for the three motors and $35.00 for pipe, aluminum channel, screws and bolts plus some scrap UMHW and angle from my shop and I have a CNC Mill for less than the price of a GECKO Drive. Yep you get what you pay for and yes I would do it again.

[gosub2000]

Check out
http://www.cnc-in.cn/pdf/4%20Axis%20...er%20board.pdf its a 1.9mb file so give it chance to load.

Hope this helps

[Arkwhizzard]

Last week I would have told you to invest in better equipment but today while I set and watch my little machine do its thing maybe I feel a little different. This may seem long for an answer to your question but I would like to relay to you my experience with the board to date. It looked good when I unpacked it but a friend told me to inspect it well. I did and found a few solder traces that I scraped off. When I plugged the 5V in I had no 5v power light and never got the LED to work even though there was power. I had the same problem when I added the 24V power but was able to solder in a working LED over the existing one and that fixed that. The 12v fan quit working at this point. (no big deal) I made a newbie mistake wiring the motors and crossed the wire on one there is no miswire protection and blew a Driver, I removed the driver chip (Not Hard) and wired the 4th axis as my Z when I Plugged it in the X driver chip blew. When the first chip blew I ordered two new ones from Digi-Key at $5.50 each. I was going to trash the board at this point and invest over $200.00 on new drivers but my son talked me into installing the two new chips. I think the orginal chips may be Clones but the new ones are real Toshiba's quality drivers. I plugged the 5v in and things worked, added the 24v more things lit up, plugged it into my computer and fired up Mach 3 it workd well. I am now in the process of setting up EMC2 on Linux. Would I buy another ??? Yes it was cheap and can be made work. Driving my 65oz in Nema 17's I can lay my hand on the heat sink after 15 min of steady running the motors. My machine is homemade and small 8 X 5 inch max on X and Y with 3 1/2 inch travel on Z, the tolerances are very tight with UMHW for bearing surfaces and I have no endplay on the 1/4 -20 Screws. It is tight but parts slide easily. I have the X and Y at 1/2 step and the z at full step for now. I have a 1/3 HP rotary grinder flex grinder for a spindle, this gives me up to a 3/16 inch tool diameter. I plan to make printed circuit boards for my next CNC projects with this and do some small parts work. This is my first CNC and the intention is to use it to learn on. I have less than $225.00 invested in the whole thing. If you decide to buy one of these boards I will be glad to help you set it up. As for power, it seems to Like my 175 oz. in. Nema 23's just as well if not better than the Nema 17's. I am posting this response as an up date on the forum. Also I would like to Say Thanks to Tony with out his help I would not have got it running as quick!
Tim

[dturner]

I have the same board and all the lights light up. I have 3 @ new Vecta 3.6V 1.8 A 6 wire motors hooked up and no motor movement using Mach 2 demo. It appears I am getting signal from my parallel port thru the cable to the board using a volt meter. How do you tell if a driver chip is blown? I am a great woodworker but a putz at electronics. Please respond to dturner9930@msn.com Thanks, Doug

[NC Cams]

WHen doing stuff like this, an oscilloscope should be NANDATOR.

Why? if you're getting drive signals to the current pass elements to the steppers, the drive transisors/elekents are bad.

Amaxingly, an oscilloscope will save you tond of time at troubleshooting. As in "is a signa' her" why not? Is a drive signal there? why or why not?.

IMO, life is too short to try to figure out and or fix chinese stuff wtih NO schematics.

[jalessi]

Dturner,

Do the stepper motors lock up when the power is applied to the driver board?

Jeff...

[dturner]

No they are brand new and very stiff. When they are hooked up to the board and the board is powered up the spindle turns by hand with the same stiffness as if they were not hooked up. Does this mean I am not getting power to the motors?

Doug

[jalessi]

Do you have any documentation for your driver board?

If the stepper motors don't lock up when power is applied either it is wired incorrectly or the driver ic's are not being enabled.

Please post a link to the documentation.

Jeff...

[dturner]

This is all there is on the internet: http://www.cnc-in.cn/pdf/4%20Axis%20...er%20board.pdf

There are no schematics available and no documentation or instructions came with the board. Mine has a heat sink and 12v fan covering the
TA8345H chips. I haven't had any smoke or bang and all LED'd light up.No dark spots or evidence of a burnt circuit board on either side of the board. I am using the wiring color scheme for A+,A-,B+,B- given by the stepper mfg, and I am using the Mach 2 controls in the linked document.

Doug

[jalessi]

Doug,

Is there a pin on the board marked "EN"

I believe the Toshiba chip has a enable pin "pin 3" on each chip needs to be enabled "grounded"

Pin 3 on each chip should be routed to a header marked enable.

See the attached spec sheet.

Jeff...