TurboCNC and KCam3 a lost cause?

[Davedbq]

I have been fussing with TurboCNC and also KCam3 now for the past week and have managed only to bring up my frustration and blood pressure levels more than a few points. In my earlier posts I had trouble getting my computer to talk to my CNC machine. I did have the pin settings set up incorrectly and I think I have solved part of that problem.....maybe. I have the machine talking to KCam3 but only in two axis (Z and X) and I cannot jog any axis. In TurboCNC I am not able to Jog or talk to the machine in any axis. (In the test software that came with my stepper motors everything works but all it does is just run the motors in forward and reverse in varying speeds I set. Not usefull for anything but testing.) Is there ANY software out that is simpler to set up than these two? I am at the point where all my efforts to get this machine running after all the months of building seem like a lost cause. To put the machine up for sale at this very moment does not seem out of the question. Not sure if my frustration level can take much more grief. HELP!!!!!

[gmfoster]

Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Turbocnc is about as simple as it gets.

Have you been to thier forum on Yahoo.

I am not sure what kind of problems you are having but if you break it down into simple steps and do one axies at a time you shouldn't have much problem.

If you go to thier forum you will find many people that are very familuar with the product.

In Turbocnc you are booting into DOs aren't you?

That is a mistake many people make they try to run it in a dos window. Also you are using an OS that had Dos, you can't run it from XP as far as I know nor NT and I don't think Win 2000.

Garry

I have only used the 3.xx versions not the 4.xx versions.

[Davedbq]

I have gone through the setup with the pins and am running TurboCNC in dos on a Windows 98 operating system. I will have to check out Yahoo and see if I can find any help there. Thanks

[MrBean]

Have you tried the Mach2 demo. I'm not sure how it compares to Kcam and T'CNC in terms of ease to set up, as Mach2 is the only controller I've tried. But I managed to get all motors running in about 10 minutes, with no proir knowledge of anything CNC related. There are a ton of settings, but most can be ignored if you just want to get the motors jogging.

Regards Terry.....

[ger21]

I believe you have the stepperworld board, right? You most likely have to ENABLE the drives. If your using TurboCNC 4, under the Configure menu, go to Configure IO lines. Then you have to toggle to EACH drive enable line, change it to enable, set the port and active high or low. Active High/Low is OPPOSITE for the Y enable then for the X and Z. That's probably why your Y doesn't work in KCAM.

[Davedbq]

Ok guys here is where I am at.... I have managed to get only one axis in TurboCNC working even though all three axis are or seem to be set up exactly the same. In KCam3 I have two axis working and cannot find a menu to enable the missing axis to get it to work. Below is the pin settings for TurboCNC that I have found and set up but have not been able to figure out how to set pin numbers 14 thru 25 in TurboCNC. I have also tried Mach2 but not on the computer that I am currently working on as it is running Windows 98. When I ran Mach2 it crashed my computer so I gave up on trying to run it. Dave

> here are the pins.
> 2- [D0] bs OUTPUT x axis direction
> 3- [D1] bs OUTPUT x axis step
> 4- [D2] bs OUTPUT y axis direction
> 5- [D3] bs OUTPUT y axis step
> 6- [D4] bs OUTPUT z axis direction
> 7- [D5] bs OUTPUT z axis step
> 10- [S6] bs+1 INPUT z switch detect
> 12- [S5] bs+1 INPUT y switch detect
> 13- [S4] bs+1 INPUT x switch detect
> 14- [C1] bs+2 OUTPUT x axis *enable (active LO)
> 16- [C2] bs+2 OUTPUT y axis *enable (active LO)
> 17- [C3} bs+2 OUTPUT z axis *enable (active LO)
> 18- GND
> 25- GND

[gmfoster]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turbocnc/

Here is the turbocnc group site..

You didn't answer as to drive type. There are M17 and M18 Gcodes to enable and disable stepperworld drives..

Garry

[gmfoster]

Welll that was a cut and paste that didn't work..

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turbocnc/

This one looks right..

I'll see what it looks like after I submit it..

[gmfoster]

What a bunch of nonsense..
It changes the url everytime

Just go to Yahoo Groups and search for turbocnc..

Garry

groups.yahoo.com/group/turbocnc/

Might work with out the http: you will have to cut and paste

[fyffe555]

Dave,

Turbocnc is the simplest and most reliable controller out there. First things first, if you try to run it in a dos box under windows xxx it will work *but* it will almost certainly not drive the machine properly, so always boot to dos before running TCNC. What version TCNC are you using? What version of dos - don't load any himem stuff or dos extensions.

The stepperworld software drives all three axis? under windows? Can you see what pins it's using? If so just configure those into TCNC - all of them. If not ask stepperworld what pins you need to set and what state (hi/lo).

If you have some axis moving under Kcam then the port address in Kcam must be right, have you set the same port address in TCNC? Note that you have to set the port in each axis setup.

Are you using the same cable for KCam, the stepperworld software and TCNC? Note that not all db25 'printer' cables have all the pins wired. Check with a meter to make sure the pins you're trying to use are connected on the cable you're using.

If the address and the cable are the same then the problem is with the configuration of the axis and the io enable pins settings in TCNC thats the problem. Note that the pins 18-25 are normall connected together as earth in the port and that the cables often only wire one of the pins. Obviously 18-25 can't be set for any function under turbocnc.

As Ger says, the enable pins need to be set with your board along with the step/direction for each axis. As I saw you state elsewhere that's 14, 16, 17. You've also said above you couldn't find how to set them in TCNC? If they're not set the axis won't run. You set enable, 14,16,17 in TCNC v4 in the 'configure IO lines' under configure and in TCNC v3 in machine setup/ option 3 misc i/o setup.

Now the step / direction and enable can be set to either hi or low when setting up the axis depending what your card needs. You won't do any harm by trying either way so if one doesn't work try another .

Again, as Ger says, the stepper world site shows a kcam setup, I assume you've put the step/direction setup into Tcnc but note that the X and Z enable are shown as 'false' and the Y enable to be 'true'. The Y enable needs to be the opposite (hi/lo) of X and Z.

Note that depending on the PC, the pins on the port may be set to hi or low on startup, or when TCNC or KCAM is loaded. They may not be the same settings by for each. If you're not setting them in the software configuration then the state may not be as the board needs it. You could be enabling one or two axis by luck in Kcam and not setting any enable in TCNC.

Also note that depending on the PC you might be gettting a different voltage at the Port under windows as under staright dos. Its unlikely but worth measuring with a meter if all else fails. Is this a desktop or a laptop? some Laptops don't work well.

Finally if all else looks ok it's possible that you have missed setting the step increment, max speed accel or pulse width. They are 0 by default when you first run TCNC v3. Can't remember what they are in V4 but its worth a check if all else fails.

Let us know how it goes.

Andrew

[Davedbq]

GUYS!!!! I GOT IT! I figured out the setup on TurboCNC! I now have all three axis! Only took me a week but I got it! Thanks for all the suggestions and help! Dave

[gmfoster]

Originally Posted by Davedbq GUYS!!!! I GOT IT! I figured out the setup on TurboCNC! I now have all three axis! Only took me a week but I got it! Thanks for all the suggestions and help! Dave

Great!
Its a lot more fun once things start working, isn't it?
Have some fun now...
Also I saw you made it to the turbocnc group on Yahoo..

Garry