Mach2 woes, again

[Rustybolt]

Sorry if this is redundant. I'm trying to jog two steppers in x and y on my minimill and niether will budge. The motors lock up, but won't jog. I'm also getting a persistant flashing 'overide limits' in 'settings and can't turn it off. I have power to the gecko drives, etc.

[dfurlano]

Upgrade to Mach3.

[gmfoster]

Originally Posted by Rustybolt Sorry if this is redundant. I'm trying to jog two steppers in x and y on my minimill and niether will budge. The motors lock up, but won't jog. I'm also getting a persistant flashing 'overide limits' in 'settings and can't turn it off. I have power to the gecko drives, etc.

Go watch the videos on setting up and take notes. Also not to take away from here but on the ArtSoft list you have the ear of the man that wrote the code..

Garry

[springlakecnc]

Hi,

I am far, far, far, from being a mach2 expert, but i have dealt with these kind of controls. Your motors are powered up and holding, that means that end of your wiring is correct. Mach2 is probably the best software you can have, but it has a million set up items.

Try #5 first

1) Years ago, you could get for free, a low grade, dos program, called turbo cnc???? i think???? well, it was free and if you liked it, i guess you were suppose to send them 20 bucks.
That program did little compared to Mach2, but, it has a fraction of the set up screens, and may be way easier to get your motors turning. Once they are turning, you will feel way better, and know your control hook up is correct, then tackle the Mach2 setup screens.
I haven’t kept up on this so maybe someone can tell you where to download a free, very simple step and direction program.

2) try a different computer

3) try a different cable

4) There may be some info on the net as to, how to hook up a 5 volt led to your parallel port to see if you are getting any output, but save this for the last resort, as it could be a pain also.


5) Look on your break out board.....did u get it from cnc4pc? Does it have an enable input that you forgot to put voltage to? Check it out!

6) i'm sure you tried changing the output ports in Mach2 set up screen?

If the motors just start to osculate or take off, then just stop, slow your ramping way down. Steppers need huge acceleration and deceleration time. when they seem to run good, do a position test for a few hours, to prove they are on the money, before you try to cut anything. If they don't position correctly, slow them down some more.

Good luck bro, sometimes its hard to get cnc's going that are right in front of you, and i have no idea where you are or what you have.

[Rustybolt]

A little more info mght be in order here. I'm running it on a 1.8 gig Dell optiplex with 512k ram. I know Mach 2 is supposed to run at 25000mgz but the clock in Mach2 says I'm running at abot 23000. The motors are 425oz/in keling size 23 motors. I'm using a campbel designs breakout board and gecko 201 drives. I know the drives and breakout board work because I had no problem jogging some 34 size motors about a year ago.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by Rustybolt I know Mach 2 is supposed to run at 25000mgz but the clock in Mach2 says I'm running at abot 23000.

Probably not a problem, but run drivertest.exe in the Mach3 folder to see how the driver is running.

Do you have limit switches attached?

[Rustybolt]

No limit switches yet. I just wanted to test the motors. I'm going to retrace all my wiring and then dump a bunch of stuff off the hard drive. you know, clean up the operating system a little.

[Rustybolt]

Aaarghhhh!