MODERATOR !! Please explain charge pump programming

[Danno]

I've got everything going except the charge pump. Can you please explain the proper setup procedure. Thanks.

[H.O]

It's just like setting up any other output. Go to Config->Ports & Pins, select Output signals, look for Chargepump in the list and set the Port and Pin to a pin of your choise. Make SURE you select a pin that infact IS an output and make SURE there's nothing else in the list that's set for the same pin.

Then in Config->General config you can select if you want the chargepump signal to be active whenever Mach3 is running or only when Mach3 is not in E-Stop.

That's about it.

[Danno]

I did everything again , but still can't get it to work. I just fire up the pc first, so it's not a real problem, but I would love to get this option working. It must be something stupid that I'm missing. Thanks for your help though !! Dan

[jalessi]

Danno,

Jumper JMP1 needs to be set to CP charge pump active.

See attached pdf.

See the attached jpg for Mach3 charge pump settings.

The active low selection will invert the charge pump action.

What seems to be your problem?

Jeff...

[Danno]

That's exactly what I've been doing.
In outputs, charge pump 1 is enabled with port 1 and pin 17 .
I have tried active high and active low settings.
On the BOB, the jumper is moved from NCP, to CP.
As soon as I do that, the table wont move, but the numbres on the DRO do.
I have tried these settings on both "charge pump 1" as well as "charge pump2.
I've also tried enableing both together. Something is screwed up and I haven't got a clue what it is.

[H.O]

I've had it on pin 17 on my system with a CNC4PC C11 board and it was working fine.

Set the X-axis DIR signal to Pin17 and see if the LED associated with Pin17 toggles when you change direction of the X-axis. If it doesn't then try to measure the voltage at pin 17 of the LPT-cable you're using and see if it toggled there. Perhaps it's a bad cable or bad LPT-port.

Oh, I don't know if it matter with the chargepump signal but have you tried restarting Mach3 after enabling it?

[Mariss Freimanis]

Danno,

Just a shot in the dark but go into BIOS and change the parallel port from STANDARD to EPP. In STANDARD mode outputs 1, 14, 16, 17 are open collector and cannot source current. In EPP mode the outputs become "active pull-up" just like pins 2 - 7 and now can source current.

Mariss

[jalessi]

Danno,

Are you using the .xml file provided by Campbell?

Did you try changing your Bios setting to EPP as Mariss suggested?

[Danno]

I didn't use the xml file. I thought that file was mostly for the spindle control, and that works fine. I will try the BIOS in a day or so. I'm not the best with computers, so I want someone with better knowledge to give me hand. With my luck, my computer will be displaying Arabic if I start messing with the Bios.

This may seem like a dumb question, but could I check output voltage at pin 17 to see if Mach is indeed sending out a signal?
Thanks

[Dave@amts]

Yes indeed,using a multimeter you can check output voltages. If you have access to a logic probe then you can also check pins that have a pulsed signal,as long as the frequency isn't to high...

[jalessi]

The .xml file provided by Campbell is configured for the majority of your combo boards functions not just the spindle.

I guess you know better than they do.

Jeff...

[H.O]

This may seem like a dumb question, but could I check output voltage at pin 17 to see if Mach is indeed sending out a signal?

That was the purpose of setting pin17 as the direction pin for the X-axis, that way you can "toggle the voltage on and off" by jogging the axis. Measuring the voltage at pin17 when you have the chargepump active may or may not work depending on what type of instrument you have.

If you don't want to change the BIOS setting (it's not hard at all) you can try adding a 1k pullup resistor between pin 17 and +5V coming from the PC.