[cowboy]

hi folks
just finished putting everything together couple days ago.
got a pmdx 132, 3 G203V, mach3 demo.


basicly, everything seems to be fine but nothing works. motors are not turning at all on all 3 axis.

i have green lights on the gecko drivers
e-stop is ok(i can actually reset it in mach3 and nothing is acting funny there)

i doublechecked and yes i did enabled the parallel, its the good port and it works(i have a little software who tells me whenever theres a pin that is recieving either high or low)

i just took out the centronic to db25 cable and checked every pin to make sure theres continuity with comething at the other end. didnt found anything wrong there axcept pin1 on db25 who dont seems to be used anyway

dc power is ok
green lights on the gecko drivers; means everything is ok
triple checked all conexions from stepper to stepper controlers
its hard to mess up with the pmdx, its plug and play. nothing can go wrong there.



my little software do tell me that:
mach3 setup is:

step: 3 5 7
dir: 2 4 6
my software do tells me that theres a high on 2,4,6,. 3 5 and 7 stay low


i just dont get it.
any ideas

[ViperTX]

Do the steppers lock up?

[cowboy]

yes, they are locked.

[ger21]

Do the DRO's change when trying to jog? If so, jog back and forth and measure the voltage on the direction pin. It should be 0V in one direction, and 5V in the other direction.

[doorknob]

Can you use a multimeter to measure the direction pin output voltage for each axis between the pmdx 132 and the geckos, and see whether it changes when you jog each axis in different directions

(edit: I wrote this before I saw the response from ger21, n/m)...

[cowboy]

yes the dro move. I will check voltage at the steppers tomorrow. I can confirm that on the parallel port they do change, I have a software that tells me the state of every pin. 2, 4 and 6 do turn high in one direction only. I will chek that voltage on the gecko.
more to follow.

thanks
a+ ben

[ViperTX]

I just finished wiring my 203V and the problem I had was with Terminal 7 (Disable) when wired to the Bob (C11G) +5 volts it did not work. I removed that wire and now everything seems to work.
Also regarding the green lights, one the power LED was green, but the Error LED was red in my case.

[cowboy]

hi everyone

i did a little bit of testing.

i have 4 optoisolated terminals on the gecko.
disable step direction and comm

if i dont touch anything, axis are not suposed to mode, dro dont more as well
disable is low
step is high
direction is high
comm is high (i tough it was a ground. . . . .)

both direction:
disable is low
step is high
direction is high
comm is high (i keep thinking its a grnd. . . .)

i tested on two axis, just to be sure.
what i dont get here is:
they are all suposed to be low, and then i am suposed to have the pins 2, 4 and 6 wich are direction, at high.
parmon, that software i am using, switch pins 2, 4 and 6 to high in one direction only. . . . its on those pins that mach3 is configures. on the geckos, i dont see it.

next step there, i will locate all the pins that are interesting for me on the parallel port, and test them on the centronic.

[ger21]

I don't follow what you're doing, as it's apparently over my head.

Just jog back and forth, and measure the voltage on the direction pins for each direction.

[doorknob]

comm is high (i tough it was a ground. . . . .)

. . .

comm is high (i keep thinking its a grnd. . . .)

According to the PMDX-132 manual at http://www.pmdx.com/Doc/PMDX-132_Manual_12.pdf (with the jumper diagram on page 20 and the explanation of JP5, JP6, JP7, and JP8 on page 21) you can set the jumpers for each individual drive to make "common" be either ground or +5 volts.

The G203V doc says that the optoisolator common is ground ("The COMMON return for the signals is controller ground referenced instead of +5VDC."). So you may want to switch those jumpers to their alternate positions and retry your tests.

[cowboy]

its wayyyyy over my head too :drowning:

i did jog back and forth.
nothing changes on the direction pin.
while i was there, i checked all 4 pins, and thats what i got.

sorry, i wrote high and low, read almost 5 volt and almost 0 volt.

i am far to be good at that stuff !

doorknob:
i did checked those jumpers, and they are at coom: grnd. thats why i tough they would be ground G203V is suposed to be grnd on the common.
i will take a look at that.

just tested the jumper at +5v: nothing changes. . . . . .

what could cause the pmdx to make all that stuff not working. . . . . .
i putted a jumper on the e-stop instead of a switch to be sure, as far as i know, its the only stop that i have.

[ger21]

i did jog back and forth.
nothing changes on the direction pin.

Then your parallel port may not be working, depending on where you measured the pins at.

[cowboy]

oufff
i never tough i would get into computer cable diagnostic but. . . .here i am.

we have 25 pins in the cable

thanks to my port monitor, i can switch them high or low woot woot

pin 1, 2, 3 and 4 are low when suposed to be high(i see a problem right there)

pin 5 to 14 are high when suposed to be high. . . . .its ok there.

pin 15, 16 and 17 are low when suposed to be high(not good)

and i get power on pins 19 and 24 of the centronic. . . . . .they are suposed to be grounds. . . . . .i dont understand that one.

not gonna waste more time doing testing there on the cable, it obviously dont work at that point.

now, the parallel port testing itself.

everything is high when suposed to be, from pin 1 to 13
14 -low
15-17 high when suposed to be
18-25 are ground.
seems to me that the computer itself is ok.


now, why the hell is that cable not sending the information.
i red yesterday on the subject and it seems that some of those parallel cable are in reality serial cables with the physical apearance of a parallel. . . .could make sens if some accesories dont need all that information.

where can i buy a good parallel to centronic cable usable for a cnc ^
what should i look for ^
how can i know if its good or not ^


btw, who those who are experiencing that kind of problems, heres that little freeware i am using for monitoring the parallel port of my computer.
for each pin it tells you if its high or low, you can also manually switch the pins to high or low by clicking on them.
its named parmont parallel port monitor.
dont know if i can put a link to another website, i will anyway since its a freeware and it can just help someone. w w w . geekhideout . c o m enjoy

[ger21]

I'm not sure if your port monitor software is an accurate method for testing Mach3 problems, as it has nothing to do with what Mach3 is doing.

[ViperTX]

Show us the Mach3 motor output settings and the charge pump settings. On my C11G I had to setup Mach 3 (charge pump) to enabled on port #1 pin 17 and active low.

I would stick with PMDX as the supplier of the printer cable that goes from DB25 to a Centronic Interface.

Paul

[cowboy]

got a new parallel cable ieee-1284 compliant. that one should be ok.

after little testing again, its not better.
disable is low
dir, step and comm is high

comm is set to grnd. . . .weird.


heres the config:

[ViperTX]

Your Step Pins should be 2,4 and 6 and Direction pins 3,5 and 7 set them to Active Low.

[cowboy]

done, and i rechecked everything. disabled everything that could create a fault(e-stop, charge pump, etc) technicly, no matter what happen now, it should work(motors are on my kitchen table and not hooked up to the milling dont worry)

nothing works.

just sent an e-mail to pmdx, will see what they think about that. maybe they have an idea where the problem can be.

[ViperTX]

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

[ViperTX]

Have you done the motor tuning?