Mach 3 bob help

Hi guys new to the forum

Need some help with my cnc plasma

Everything working fine till my pc crashed, I reloaded mach3 and put settings in so x and y axis working fine, a axis and thc not working,

But I am seeing an issue on the bob, when I connect usb to bob it powers the board fine, when i connect lpt cable the relay on board starts clicking, double click few seconds double click over and over,

Before the breakdown used to just power up one click that's it, so I want to find out if the relay on the board is done?

If it is I would have just changed out the bob, however I cannot find the same bob with built on relay in stock in SA, so this is where my issue comes,

I managed to get a 6axis wantai bob which is almost the same besides no relay, so now to duplicate the same system is my issue.

The original bob had 2 wires soldered at the bottom of the bob underneath the relay and that was wired to another 5v PCb 8pin relay, which used to trigger thc and torch fire, so that's the part I dont understand how to deplicate on new bob.

All this depends if I'm missing anything on original bob causing that relay to double click

Any help would be appreciated

Attached pics of the original bob with pic of underneath where wires were soldered and that 8pin relay

Excuse the wiring and joints this is few days frustrations once I got everything working will wire properly

Thanks

Naeem

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nemo786

The original bob had 2 wires soldered at the bottom of the bob underneath the relay and that was wired to another 5v PCb 8pin relay, which used to trigger thc and torch fire, so that's the part I dont understand how to deplicate on new bob.

All this depends if I'm missing anything on original bob causing that relay to double click

Any help would be appreciated

Attached pics of the original bob with pic of underneath where wires were soldered and that 8pin relay

Excuse the wiring and joints this is few days frustrations once I got everything working will wire properly

Thanks

Naeem

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Did you wire in the 8pin relay yourself?
That is not something you buy as standard. That has been added to the board.

This is the one. You need to solder the 2 extra wires yourself.
https://www.unihobbies.co.za/index.p...product_id=216
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-axis-CN...IAAOSwSdZWd2-e
https://www.buildwithelectronics.co....Mach3-With-USB
From a brief search.

Added.
Now I think about it was that relay added just because the one on the board didn't seem to work?
These boards also need a 12-24v power supply plugged in on the right to be able to use the relay on-off, the inputs and the 0-10v output.
Only the axis controls run on the 5v supplied.

The 8 pin relay was always working as is with the 2 soldered wires below the bob from the onboard relay, connected to the 8 pin,

There was never a 12v supply on the board, only input was the usb,

That's why I cant understand how this used to work but it did as it was,

I think the relay is working as on mach3 when machine running the relay does trigger on and off when it's supposed to, the 8 pin also clicks, but thc not moving z axis up and down and torch not firing, that's why I'm leaning towards the relay or maybe also mach3 somewhere,
But before I jump to mach3 the relay clicking non stop is abnormal so I think that's 1st issue to eliminate, this clicking noise or activation is immediately when connected to lpt cable, with mach3 off, so if I just power on pc the relay starts,

I can swop out bob but no idea how to wire the same setup over to new bob without built on relay.

Another thing is the z axis runs independently off a 12v dc motor connected to thc connected to the 8pin relay, the only signal to the z axis is via the 8pin relay and ground and +5v on board,

No pin signals connected directly to 8pin relay or anything that's what's confusing me, somehow that onboard relay gives the signal to the 8pin which activates torch and thc

I'm sure it is possible and probably simple fix it's just the know how,
i dont know how to do it and haven't come across similar setups as yet

Hi

Are you running Windows 7 by the way, as I know there was an update that knocked my plasma off line and it was to do with the THC etc. Turned out rolling the PC back and turning windows updates off completely, which requires not just the obvious one but one deeper into windows as well, solved the issue. Then was a case of reloading all the drivers, as my THC runs on a separate board to the BOB and the Plasma itself uses a RS485 connection, which didn't work properly at first after reinstall as it required yet another driver. Just sharing my experiences in the hope they help you.

Thanks

Andrew

Hi Andrew, was using windows 7 before pc crash, but did not do any updates to windows no internet on that pc anyway,

But now running xp,

So far progress first issue want to sort out is that relay activation when lpt cable connected, I found an old Bob exactly same as what I have,not sure if working only connected usb power and lpt and relay doing same thing clicking non stop, changed lpt cable, still doing same,

So cant be bob
Cant be cable

So now leaning towards something on pc side sending like a pulse signal once connected, since doing same on 2 different bob.

Maybe its printer port driver or faulty printer port on pc, so that's what will be trying next. Or finding another pc with printer port and see if does the same.

Weired thing is till now machine runs perfect with gcode x and y axis, and relay activation,so signals from pc to bob to machine on x and y and torch on/off is fine,