[Max Power]

Hello all,

I am in the process of converting my Taig Lathe to CNC. For a driver I have a Geckodrive G540 and Automation Direct Surestepper motors (166in/lbs) from Soigeneris. I'm trying to use Mach3 turn...

My problem is this: I can set up the steppers to the right steps per unit (40,000 due to the 20tpi lead screw on the x axis for example) and it does work, but so slowly it is not funny. I try a 0.05 move (one rotation) and it takes 20 seconds to do the one rotation... And that is using G00!

When I jog manually, the motors move no faster, even with jog at 100%/or shift key depressed. I see people on YouTube testing similar motors with the G540 and they spin in the hundreds of RPMs, yet mine crawl. What the heck have I done wrong?

Power supply is good, 7.3 amps @ 48v exactly as advertised. The motors are common enough and the DB9 connectors have the correct 2.8K resistor installed for their 2.8a draw...

I'm really stumped here and hoping someone else has solved the same issue. I was hoping to thread with this setup... At this point I would need a spindle doing 2 RPM to pull it off. Not going to happen obviously.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[ger21]

What is the velocity set to in Motor Tuning?

[Max Power]

Hi ger,

Velocity is set at 83.61 in/min, accel 20.81 in/sec/esc. Kernel is 25k

By tuning the velocity I can vary between mega slow and ultra slow, so I know it has some effect. The settings as given, they are pretty much 90% of velocity and accel based on 40000 steps per inch (200 x 10 x 20tpi). I could be wrong on the steps, but with that value I get one rotation of the motor for 0.05 on the DRO, which looks right to me...

I'm beginning to wonder if it is my PP. I just discovered drivertest and I failed with a 'pulses too fast' error. The machine is a Lenovo T42 laptop, the best I could scrounge with a PP.

I'm at a real loss here. By the values given in the motor tuning I should be able to get 80 IPM... That would make sense given kernel speed and thread pitch. Why can I only get 0.30 IPM when jogging then? PP problem given the drivertest fail is my only conclusion. Time for a Smoothstepper perhaps?

[Max Power]

Hi all,

Just a quick update. I was able to resolve the problem. It appears it was a PP problem on the laptop I was using. My first clue should have been the lack of a proper charge pump signal- Why would anything else work if it is not even putting out a 10k signal on one pin? Pretty stupid in retrospect.

I swapped out the Lenovo T42 for an old Acer Travelmate 740 I forgot I had. It still failed the driver test, but when I ran Mach Turn it worked just fine, charge pump et al.

Now instead of 0.3 IPM rapids I am at 58 IPM! I'm so freaking pleased that even though it is before noon here I might just break out some single malt to celebrate!

Lesson learned. Why use a 1.8 GHz machine when an 800 MHz will do the job lol...

Thank you to all the Mach3 users out there. While I didn't find a specific answer to my problem among all the posts, I have learned much from you all in searching the last few days. Cheers!

Thanks to you Ger as well for trying to help. I appreciate the effort sir.