[leaveme]

I tried with double buffering but no improvement at all. Still axis's are not consistent. X runs well but not Y & Z.
The last thing I tried is removed the extra buffers (those I added) and on-board opto-isolators for step signal. Then connected TB6560 STEP pin directly to the on-board buffer output. WOW, all axis's are running smooth and I can run them more than 40inch/min!

I did some test run and it was running for five minuts and suddenly X stopped moving. I can't even jog it now. Immediately I checked the temp but the driver chips are just little warm. I don't have an Osciloscope and can't check further. Anybody guess, what could be wrong? Do you think the TB6560 for X fried?

[lasik2025]

leaveme,

if you power everything off and then swap motors between driver chips by moving the green connectors around and then try to jog, does the problem follow the x axis motor or the x axis driver circuit ?
since you checked and chip did not seem too hot, I would suspect some other issue like a motor wire coming loose (from vibration running at 40 inch/min maybe).
an oscilliscope would be best, but if you have a voltmeter you can still check the levels on the driver chip control pins to look for a problem. when the motor is not being told to move you should see a stable reading of app 0v or 5v on the ENABLE, DIR, CLOCK pins; when jogging you should be able to get a stable 0v or 5v on DIR then change the direction of jog and the DIR should change to the opposite state and be stable. On my board, I was able to see ENABLE change with a voltmeter by changing EMC2/Mach3 from machine on to machine off. On CLOCK, the voltmeter would show unstable reading or measure some middle ground value 1.5v to 3.5v while jogging but 0v or 5v when not jogging. it may also be illuminating to look at the driver chip signals of a working axis and then compare those signals to the non-working axis.

lasik2025

[leaveme]

leaveme,

if you power everything off and then swap motors between driver chips by moving the green connectors around and then try to jog, does the problem follow the x axis motor or the x axis driver circuit ?
since you checked and chip did not seem too hot, I would suspect some other issue like a motor wire coming loose (from vibration running at 40 inch/min maybe).
an oscilliscope would be best, but if you have a voltmeter you can still check the levels on the driver chip control pins to look for a problem. when the motor is not being told to move you should see a stable reading of app 0v or 5v on the ENABLE, DIR, CLOCK pins; when jogging you should be able to get a stable 0v or 5v on DIR then change the direction of jog and the DIR should change to the opposite state and be stable. On my board, I was able to see ENABLE change with a voltmeter by changing EMC2/Mach3 from machine on to machine off. On CLOCK, the voltmeter would show unstable reading or measure some middle ground value 1.5v to 3.5v while jogging but 0v or 5v when not jogging. it may also be illuminating to look at the driver chip signals of a working axis and then compare those signals to the non-working axis.

lasik2025

Thanks Lasik for your analitycal response. I already checked some of the elements even before you ask.

1. Exchanged the steppers (X => Y). Now Y stepper is not moving. but one thing I've noticed that motor got energized whenever I de-activate e-stop in Mach3. It proves that stepper connection is ok.

2. I checked ENABLE signal at the (IC) pin. It's ok. Motor got energized and de-energized upon activation/de-activation of e-stop.

3. I also checked the DIR and noticed that voltage gets changed on direction change.

4. I just haven't checked the CLOCK in IC. I thought I can't measure it. I will check it today.

5. I'm sure LPT port is ok and signals are comming to the board. Because I can see that the X-axis LED is illuminating whenever I try to jog.

I'll do some more test taday and let you know the update. But seems something is wrong in the IC and is not taking clock signal.

[leaveme]

Hi Lasik:

Problem has been sorted and all axis's are moving from last half an hour. I still bipassed the opto-couplers. They don't work well in my board.
The problem was my LPT port. Pin 1 got damaged some how and X axis was missing the STEP signal. Now I confogured pin 16 and jumpered.

What do you think, how could it happen? Controller shouldn't reverse flow the current through LPT. Do you think there are more chances to repeat the same?

I'm thinking to switch on the controller frist and then the PC from now on.

[lasik2025]

leaveme,

Glad you got your machine running.

I dont know how the LPT would have been damaged; as you say, the on-controller 74HC14 should block transients from the driver IC (unless the driver IC were to fail catastrophically [like smoke/burn] in which case the 74HC14 might also fail [like smoke/burn] then the LPT would be next). On these controllers due to poor design, the optocouplers dont protect against ground loops; but the optocouplers should protect against catastrophic driver IC fail propagating to the LPT.

Could the issue you saw with LPT pin1 be something simple, like a bad/open printer cable ?

So to your question, I would not think the fail would happen again but since I cant think of how the first fail occurred, I cant say with any certainty that the LPT fail would not happen.

Lasik2025

[leaveme]

Surely it is not loose. It was damaged somehow. But interestingly there is a voltage change on stepping (if selected) although stepper is not moving.

Anyway, thanx for your help.

[lasik2025]

leaveme,

Your comment about there being some activity on the line got me thinking about LPT history I read somewhere ( like here http://www.beyondlogic.org/spp/parallel.htm ).

one final thing to check; lpt pin 1 will be open collector driver with pullup resistor in the pc if the bios is programmed to original standard mode. the LPT pin 1 may be actively driven high if mode is changed (I think) to EPP or ECP. what LPT mode is your PC bios set to ? Can pin 1 be driven properly if you change to a different mode than you are using now ?

lasik2025

[telah]

I am using a 24v 10a power supply you can see my mach3 config in the screenshot.

Lasik, what dip settings are you using ? I am currently set to 75% current, Fast decay and 1/2 microstep.

Regards

[leaveme]

hey telah,
Something is wrong in these boards. Opto couplers do not works as expected. Try bypassing that.

[lasik2025]

I am using a 24v 10a power supply you can see my mach3 config in the screenshot.

Lasik, what dip settings are you using ? I am currently set to 75% current, Fast decay and 1/2 microstep.

Regards

telah,

I am running x, y axis at 100%, fast decay, full step on these motors
1.8Deg. MINEBEA STEP MOTOR-MPJA, Inc.
and running z axis at 75%, fast decay, full step
and 4th axis left unused (I have 4 driver board).

'leaveme' is correct that the 'step' pin needs to be clocked; the TB6560 will move the motor 1 step with each rising edge of a square wave on the 'step' pin. For 1/2 stepping and a motor with 200 steps per revolution equates to 400 low/0.0v to high/5.0v transitions for the motor to revolve 1 time.
You could use a manual switch for testing purposes but keep in mind each step is very small. Also with a manual switch, if the switch chatters/bounces you may get multiple steps.

lasik2025