[cowboy]

The Geckos "common" is tied to the Ground on the PMDX?

ohh yes it is. but on the gecko driver itself, i can read a hi value +5v. . . . . .not normal. and i dont get nothing for either step or direction. that leads me to think theres a fault somewhere. also, the setup i have for mach3 is suposed to be made especially for the pmdx132. in fact, i downloaded that config from them and installed it, then i checked everything and it seemed to be fine.

i wish i could be good at that stuff but i am not and i do think the board itself is faulty. before changing it, i will see what pmdx themselves think about the symptoms. hopefully i missed something.

[79TigerPilot]

Cowboy,
Ok let me see if I can help you. To keep things simple at first let's just work with the X axis and just the direction signal for now.

First a couple of things:
Unload your port monitoring software -- Mach talks directly to the PP hardware and you don't want any other software mucking up the works. I don't know if it would or not but lets not take the chance.

Make sure your 203V's common pin is connected to the BOB's ground.

Do you have a good volt meter?

There are a lot of different approaches to troubleshooting but let's start at the PC.

Unplug you cable from the PC and connect your volt meter between Pin 2 (your direction pin) and pin 18 (ground) on the PC PP connector.

Slew the X axis in the + direction and measure the voltage
Slew the X axis in the - direction and measure the voltage

Tell me what you see? Should be greater than 2.8V or less than .5V depending on which way you slew.

If that is ok then plug in the cable but remove it from the BOB and measure the same two pins on the ohter end of the cable? Do you get the same values?

Use a magnifing glass to read the little numbers on the connector or look it up on the internet -- hard to see but be sure you are in the correct holes.
Long row is 1-13 and the short row is 14 -25

Craig

ohh yes it is. but on the gecko driver itself, i can read a hi value +5v. . . . . .not normal. and i dont get nothing for either step or direction. that leads me to think theres a fault somewhere. also, the setup i have for mach3 is suposed to be made especially for the pmdx132. in fact, i downloaded that config from them and installed it, then i checked everything and it seemed to be fine.

i wish i could be good at that stuff but i am not and i do think the board itself is faulty. before changing it, i will see what pmdx themselves think about the symptoms. hopefully i missed something.

[79TigerPilot]

Cowboy,
A couple more items for you.

In order to make you PMDX work you will need to make sure it is not in ESTOP and that it has a valid charge pump signal -- OR patch these out for the time being till you get some motor action.

To patch out ESTOP sensing: On J10 jumper the ESTOP pin to the ground pin

To patch out the charge pump: On JP1 connect pin 1-2


Also for the 203V you need to connect pin2 to pin3 on JP5 JP6 JP7 and JP8

Craig

[cowboy]

hi
just tested it

one pin nbr 2 i have a big variation of mv
on pin nbr 3 i have a low in one direction and 3.5 on the other side. (direction is setup on pin nbr 3)

monitor was off while i was doing it.

i had to disable e-stop and emulate it with mach3.


the jmper for the gecko are set to ground, however i still read a high value on that one.
since i cant find ground, i compare them to themselves.
step/dir/comm are all at the same value
disable is 4.5 volt lower than step/dir/comm


edit, operation completed.
e-stop already had a jumper
comm is set to ground
charge pump is at cp-ok

[79TigerPilot]

A few post back you posted your configuration Pin 2 was shown as the direction -- did you change this? The PMDX documentation shows the direction line should be pin 2 not 3.

You need to adjust Mach's configuration to have 2 be the direciton and 3 be the step. Don't forget to save the settings and restart Mach.

Make sure you don't duplicate any pin numbers.

The readings you have look fine. You can't look at the step pin with a meter the pulses are too short for that so don't worry about the setp for now.

Yes, you will have to take Mach3 out of Estop -- I'll assume you know how to do that.

Sounds like you have the drive jumpers set correctly. The comm pin on the 203V is now the ground pin.

Attach the neg lead of your meter to one of the 203V comm pins or connect it ot J8 pin 6 which is also ground. Both these grounds are isolated from the PC ground.

Again make sure jumper JP1 shorts pins 1 & 2 (Enable & Estop) this overrides the charge pump.

And make sure you have a jumper wire between pin3 (ESTOP) and pin (GND)
on J10 -- this makes sure the PMDX is not seeing an ESTOP
Note this a different than Mach3's ESTOP.

Since you are seeing a voltage swing on pin 3 when the axis slews we will assume your parallel port is working it just needs to be configured correctly to be on pin 2.

Do you see the same thing at the PMDX end of the cable on the same pins? That will tell you the cable is ok.

If the cable is ok the next thing to check is to see if the direction signal is getting to the Gecko 203V's direction pin With the meter's negative lead connected to the Comm on the 203V (or J8 pin 6 on the PMDX) measure the voltage on the direction pin on the 203V. The voltage should be < .5V or greater than 4.5V when you slew the x axis left and right


The directon pin is #8 on the Gecko and is also at J21 pin 2 on the PMDX

Craig

hi
just tested it

one pin nbr 2 i have a big variation of mv
on pin nbr 3 i have a low in one direction and 3.5 on the other side. (direction is setup on pin nbr 3)


monitor was off while i was doing it.

i had to disable e-stop and emulate it with mach3.


the jmper for the gecko are set to ground, however i still read a high value on that one.
since i cant find ground, i compare them to themselves.
step/dir/comm are all at the same value
disable is 4.5 volt lower than step/dir/comm


edit, operation completed.
e-stop already had a jumper
comm is set to ground
charge pump is at cp-ok

[cowboy]

hi everyone.
problem fixed.

that pmdx 132 was just blown. my fault, 100% my fault. dont want to start a debate here on what i should do or not.

i finally stripped a parallel cable, identified each wire, made all the conexions and it worked out very good. already have my first parts done and i love that thing

thanks to everyone for your help. i learned a lot on mach3, troubleshooting a cnc, how a parallel port works and yes parmont is THE tool to fix your life if theres any problems.

very good suport from gecko
good suport from pmdx as well, not their fault if i burned that board


a+
BEN

[LuthierX]

Dear sirs,

I bought a pmdx-132 (26905) and pmdx-135 (36417), and today
I decided to use it along with 4-geckodrive 203v, but when I turn on the Mach3 nothing happens, the motors are energized and stopped, and do not receive the MACH3 movement commands, I use the XML file pmdx.com, Any help is welcome, thank you!