3 Axis Driver from Univelop

[teamtexas]

I can't seem to get to that moment in a homebuilders Cnc life that reminds me of that movie...."It's Alive!" I'm float-en in deep water and need some help! I purchased a cheap 3 axis driver off Ebay but I'm not sure I have it corrected right.

So far I have (2) power supplies connected (a 5v and a 24v). I have three step motors connected (2-6wire and 1-8wire, all connected in bipolar). I have 4 sets of normaly closed swithes connected to the e-stop and limit terminals. I have not changed anything on the board since I've received it, so the factor setup is what I'm trying to make the motors move with. I have a compaq laptop that is running turbo cnc connected with a db 25 cable from the lp1 port. I have removed the cable and verified a 5v out put on one of the motor outputs. I tried to move the motor manually by shorting pins s1. 2-3 but nothing happens.

Frustrated
Dan

[pminmo]

Did you contact the seller for support?

[teamtexas]

Well I've tried to contact the seller, so far no response to the emails and the phone number has been disconnected.

Dan

[pminmo]

Do you have some pictures or anything that you can shed some light on the board?

[teamtexas]

Here is a picture of the Univelop controller mounted in the control cabinet. The wires on the top right are the limit switches that I have disconnected to test the board without them.

[teamtexas]

Ok maybe this will load the picture.

[pminmo]

Ok, what about a document that has the information on the pinout control for the db25 to setup the software?

[teamtexas]

DB25 Pin Usage is :
2............Out............Step X
3............Out............Dir X
4............Out............Step y
5............Out............Dir Y
6............Out............Step Z
7............Out ...........Dir Z
8............Out ...........Enable Y (low*)
9............Out ...........Enable Z (low*)
10.......... In.............Emergency Stop (low*)
11...........In..............Limit X (low*)
12...........In...............Limit Y (low*)
13............In ..............Limit Z (low*)
14............Out ...........Enable X
1,15,16,17 .........Not Utilized
18-25 ...............Ground
The bottom terminal blocks (left to right ) are;
X-motor (A, A-, B, B-), y-motor(A, A-, B, B-), z-motor (A, A-, B, B-), +5v GND GND +12V

The T blocks at the top right corner are for the Limits and the E Stop. Each block of 2 terminals shows to connect a limit and GND. I assume the GND is the other wire from the limits and not an actual GND.

Part of the instructions talk about setting up the board with S11,S12 and S13 (Can't find anything marked this anywhere on the board). It also says x-axis P11,P12,P13; Y-axisP21,P22, P23; Z-Axis P31,P32, P33 (There are sets of 3 pins marked this on the board and each set has a shorting jumper showing to be in position of "0" with the Positon of "1" pin not connected)

Also says P11:0:0.5v(1a), 1:0.8v(1.6A)
P12, P13:00 (full step), 10 (1/2 step), 01 (1/4 step), 11 (1/8 step).
Here:0:GND, 1:High 5v
Original positions are all in 0

I read this stuff over and over trying to decide if the board was set up correct, but I'm still not sure. I'm an electrician however relay logic and ladder diagrams is as close to eletronics as I've gotten.

Thanks for your help!
Dan

[millbuilder]

I just recently bought one of these boards too off of ebay, mines working fine. The problem I can see with your setup is that you are using normally closed limit switches and emergency stop switch. If I am thinking right (which I may easily be wrong) nothing would ever move unless the limit switches and emergency stop is pressed, which is the opposite of what you'd want. Try just connecting one of your motors to the X-axis and grounding pin 14 to 18 on the DB25 connector. I found an office staple is the perfect size to fit there. Then, after your motor is connected and power is applied, short out pins 1 & 2 of S1, you can use the screw on top of R4 to vary the speed of rotation. So try disconnecting your emergency stop and limit switches. Good luck! I am just a beginner at all this so be careful with my advice, it might be very wrong!

[teamtexas]

Millbuilder, when your board is up and running can you read a constant voltage at your input terminal for your motor voltage? I'm using a 24v switching power supply that reads good until I connect it to the board. Then its like something is shorting it out. The reading floats up and down almost full scale.

Dan

[millbuilder]

My power supply is the 12 and 5 volt rails and ground from a computer power supply, I'm using 12 volts because I have puny motors. I get a steady voltage from it whether its connected to the board or not. Is your voltage fluctuation occuring only when you activate the motors or is it any time it is connected? If it is only when the motors are activated I'd bet that you have you motors connected wrong, if its all the time it may be a faulty board. Something to try would be switching your + and - inputs, they might be wrong

[teamtexas]

I must have a bad board. I disconnected everything except the (2) DC power supplies and checked my output on the 24v supply. It jumps all over the place (no steady output while connected to the board. Correct me if I'm wrong but the Pos and Neg of the larger power supply is suppose to connect to the 12v/gnd terminal block, and the pos and neg of the smaller supply to the 5v/gnd terminal block. The whole GND thing keeps making think they are suppose to share a common connection, but the electrician in me says they can't.