[groc426]

Just a couple of quick questions I'm hoping other can help with. I essentially have the Nema 34 DIY kit (ESS, PMDX-126, G203vs, and PMDX-134) and hoping some of you might be able to help me out by giving me some of your settings.

On your PMDX-126 what are dip switches set at?
In Mach3, under ports and pins are your motor outputs dir low active and step low active settings not active (red x)?
Anyone with a working cncrouterparts machine and Nema 34 DIY setup willing to share their Mach3 xml file with me? Yes, I have downloaded the one from cncrouterparts, but I'm having issues with my drivers faulting and just want to compare a few things to someones working setup.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[ahren]

If your motor drivers are faulting, this is not a function of the XML file, and the stock dip switch settings on the PMDX-126 should work just fine. Generally driver faults on the 203V are due to an issue with wiring. Make sure all of your electrical connections are solid on the 134 card and that the green terminals are pressed down all the way onto the pins. Give us a shout directly if you need more help with this.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[groc426]

Hey Ahren,

Thanks for the reply and willingness to help (sincerely!). I'm been working on this issue for over 6 months now and have tried many different configurations and have replaced many of my components. I'm fairly confident it's not one of my connections or my wiring. Here is my issue in a bit more detail:

My testing setup consists of:
PMDX-126
PMDX-134
(4x) G203v drivers
72v 1500w toroidal power supply/48v 21A power supply (from you guys)
Ethernet SmoothStepper.

At the moment that is all I have hooked up and testing. I don't even have my steppers connected (though perhaps I should, but the issue was the same with them connected as it is without them connected).

The problem:
Everything will run fine for a while in any given g-code program, but at some point one or more of the drives will fault. When it faults depends on which program I am testing. What I've noticed though is that it will fault at the same place of any given g-code program. So, if i run the same g-code over and over again it will fault during the same chunk of g-code (hard to catch the exact line, but it happens during an axis movement). I've ran multiple g-code programs, including the ones that come with Mach3 and have had the same issue with almost every single one.

A few things I've tried, but haven't worked as I am still having the same issue:
Removed PMDX-134 and wired G203vs directly to the PMDX-126
Tried new ribbon cable from PMDX-126 to PMDX-134 (cables purchased from PMDX)
Replaced 72v power supply with one of your Meanwell 48v regulated power supplies
Switched drivers around on PMDX-134. The fault doesn't follow the driver.
Sent G203v drivers back to Geckodrives for testing and they came back fine
Used a fluke multimeter to check for spikes in the power supply (and generally made sure everything was wired correctly) and everything has been fine
Powered ESS with PMDX-126 board, as well as purchased a standalone 5v power supply
Placed the G203vs on a large heatsink while placing a fan on them (even though they are cool to the touch)
Tried half a dozen different ethernet cables
Of course checking through things like the PMDX-126 jumper and Mach3 settings and grounding everything I could (normally just power supply and main power).


Things that have helped:
Significantly lowered (at least halved) the acceleration and speed down. This seemed to help a lot, but still not 100% correcting the problem, plus its really slow and I know not correct.
Removed the ESS and used a parallel port. This completely eliminated any faults I was having! Finally some real progress. Three things have been suggested to me as why this might be.
1 - Noise/ground loops. I'm not sure about this one, but definitely not excluding it. With this setup the only thing that I can ground is the power supply and the main power, which I have done via a ground connector attached to my DIN rail. I've even removed everything from my steel enclosure and laid it out on a blanket in my house to test. I don't know what else I could do to avoid any noise or grounding issues.
2 - Power supply to the ESS. I've powered it up via the PMDX-126 board, as well as a standalone regulated 5v power supply and nothing changed.
3 - This was Marcus' answer from Geckodrives (the one I feel most confident in) when I asked him about the ESS possibly causing the drives to fault, "it sounds like the problem is with the motor being asked to accelerate too quickly. It could be that the ESS was causing problems by changing your acceleration profiles or interpolating between two points incorrectly". This sounds like the experience I've been having, but I have NO idea how the ESS could do that. I haven't changed any of the ESS plugin settings because I don't know what to change them to.

So, this is where I'm left at. I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm going to try and hand write some g-code and test things out bit by bit I suppose, but even if I do discover it faulting at some moment, I'm left scratching my head as how to fix it. This is why I reached out in hopes that some setting I have is incorrect and causing my issue, but admittedly I'm grasping at straws now.

[ahren]

Hmm. I've never heard of the Smoothstepper causing faults, but it does appear to be a bit of a smoking gun in the scenario you are describing. Are you running the latest version of the ESS plugin? I'll give you a call here in a bit to discuss.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts