[sihtamsivart]

Ive built a cnc machine and had it fully working. Recently though, the x-axis stopped working.

Im running windows xp, mach 3 software, smoothstepper, gecko g540, cncrouterparts.com's nema 23s and hardware.

Anyway, like i said, the cnc was fully operating up until recently. The X-axis does not move. I have the A-axis slaved to the X-axis. When I go into mach 3 to jog the motors and click on 'jog x axis', only the A side will move.

I thought it might be a bad motor, but i switched the serial cables on the g540, and tried to run it from the Y-axis output and the X-axis motor works just fine. So doesn't look like a bad motor or serial cable.

Then I thought the problem might be with the g540. I sent it back to gecko drive and they found no problems with it.

This makes me think the problem might lie in mach 3 or with the smoothstepper. Any help or possible solutions are appreciated.

[louieatienza]

If you plug the x axis output of the G540 to another stepper does it work? If so then you might have a bad connection somewhere on your X axis.

[CarveOne]

When you turn on the G540 does the X axis motor 'thump' and lock up? If no, then it is not getting DC power from the G540. If it is locked you won't be able to turn the shaft coupler by hand.

If it is locked but just doesn't respond to jog command, it is not getting step signals from Mach3 due to a broken wire or bad connector pin in the parallel port cable. Mach3 configuration could have changed to disable the X axis. Check the related configuration settings. The G540 .xml file could be corrupted.

[sihtamsivart]

Thanks. Ya'll were right. Bent connecting pin on the ribbon cable. Replaced it and it's back up and running. Appreciate the quick responses.