[Garyhg]

I bought an older 5'x10' cnc that was not running. It had no documentation. It came with a win7 PC 32 bit and mach3 software. The x and z axis would jog in both directions but the y axis gantry with two motors wouldn't move as only one motor was moving. I thought a retrofit of the software and control board should resolve the issue so I bought a recent copy of Mach3 and a Pokeys57 board. I have a question about wiring in the Pokeys57 board to the two drivers on my gantry. I'm not sure if I should use the fourth axis on the Pokeys57 board with my cnc setup. It's Y axis gantry uses two motors that face each other and turn in opposite directions and move the Gantry via rack/pinion gears. The drivers (Y axis) and YY axis) are jumped together as far as inputs from the current control board. In other words it looks like the setup for this machine only used three axis. The outputs to the stepper motors are not jumped together and the wires are backwards so the motors turn opposite from each other. There is only one limit switch on this axis. Should I disconnect the jumper wires between the drivers, install a fourth axis connection on the Pokeys57 board and slave axis YY and A axis in Mach3?

[awerby]

While the step/direction logic signal is the same for both motors that power your gantry, each one needs its own driver. It sounds like one of them isn't working. See if you can switch the output wires from the driver that works with the one that doesn't. If the non-working motor comes to life, replace the dead driver. It may also be a bad connection, so fiddling with the wires might just fix the issue.

[Garyhg]

Thanks for the reply Andrew. Unfortunately I ripped out the old board and all of the old wiring and replaced it with the Pokeys57 card and new wiring. Now nothing is moving. I have been working on this for weeks and am going backwards so Im giving up. I'm sending off everything to an integrator that knows what they are doing.