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Thread: Unsure About Running Stepper Motors

  1. #1
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    Unsure About Running Stepper Motors

    I am a Mechanical Engineering senior at Louisiana Tech University, and our group
    chose to build a portable CNC machine for our senior design project. We have chosen to convert a mini drill press and a milling table into a 3-axis milling machine. We have finished construction of our driver board, downloaded TurboCNC 4.01, and we are trying to gain movement in the stepper motors. I am unfamiliar with TurboCNC. I have been trying to output G-code from TurboCNC to run the stepper motor, but nothing seems to work. If someone could give me some advice, it would be a great help.

    Tom

    PS: All voltages and currents on the driver board have been checked and are correct.


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    Registered GaryCorlew's Avatar
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    I use mach3 so I am not familiar with turbocnc but have you setup your ports and pins?, You also have to setup your steps per inch. When you turn on the power supply do your motors lock up?


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    You say all currents and votages on the drive are correct, but do you know that the drive is working correctly? You can apply step and direction signals to confirm this.
    Steve
    DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG!


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    Well first of all, I only have my X-axis motor connected at the moment. When I turn on the power, I can still turn the stepper motor shaft with me hand.

    Is there a freeware version of Mach3 or Mach2 out there?

    Tom


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    How would I go about applying a single step to the motor without TurboCNC?

    Tom


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    Quote Originally Posted by tmd019 View Post
    Well first of all, I only have my X-axis motor connected at the moment. When I turn on the power, I can still turn the stepper motor shaft with me hand.

    Is there a freeware version of Mach3 or Mach2 out there?

    Tom
    You can get the free trial version that will do everything you need.
    Steve
    DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG!


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    Quote Originally Posted by tmd019 View Post
    How would I go about applying a single step to the motor without TurboCNC?

    Tom
    Apply ground to the dir signal and use a function generator with a 5v square pulse as the step signal.

    However, if you can turn the shaft with your hand after you apply power the drive is probably not working.
    Steve
    DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG!


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    Are you trying to run Turbocnc in a dos window or have you actually booted to a dos prompt? Turbocnc will NOT acess the prot properly in a dos window!

    As stated above, you have to configure the port pins and possibly you have to "enable the drive"

    Are you running a break out board (bob) or wiring directly to the driver and what driver are you using?
    Art
    AKA Country Bubba (Older Than Dirt)


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    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba View Post
    Are you trying to run Turbocnc in a dos window or have you actually booted to a dos prompt? Turbocnc will NOT acess the prot properly in a dos window!

    As stated above, you have to configure the port pins and possibly you have to "enable the drive"

    Are you running a break out board (bob) or wiring directly to the driver and what driver are you using?


    Can someone tell me how to configure my port pins?

    I am also wiring directly to the driver.

    I'm sorry if I am asking simple questions but I am very new to this entire process.

    Tom


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    Quote Originally Posted by tmd019 View Post
    Can someone tell me how to configure my port pins?

    I am also wiring directly to the driver.

    I'm sorry if I am asking simple questions but I am very new to this entire process.

    Tom
    Take it one step at a time. Since you built your drive, make sure it works.
    Steve
    DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG!


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    fan runs

    When I turn the power on, the cooling fan will start to run. Because of this, I am fairly certain that my power connections to the driver board are correct. But I am guessing that my problem might be some other place on the board.

    Any suggestions?


    Tom


  • #12
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    What drive and motor are you using?
    Steve
    DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG!


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