[TommyGunn]

I am attempting my first CNC router build and am having difficultly firing up the steppers.

I purchased a 4 axis Chinese knockoff of the Kelling KL-5042. My kit consists of 2 36v 10amp power supplies, 4 270oz-in motors, 4 DQ542MA stepper drivers and a DB25-BOB. I supplied a 36v to 5v DC-DC converter and a second C10-BOB for some additional I/O I want. The kit did not include any documentation so I have been using the Kelling docs.

My current problem is that the stepper drivers have two leds, one red and one green. All I can achive is either a flashing red, or a flashing red and green.

Does anyone have docs or experience with these drives? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom

[doorknob]

I don't have one of those drivers, and the documentation does not seem to identify the LED functionality.

Some questions that may help in diagnosing the problem:

How do you have it wired up? Does the motor have "holding torque" when you power up the driver? What is the rated current of the motors? What are the DIP switch settings that you are using (and are you certain that you have not set them "upside down")? Can you provide a link to details about the BOB that you are using? Are you using Mach3 or something else to provide the control signals to the driver, and if it is Mach3, how have you configured the ports and pins section?

BTW, I doubt very much that the DQ542MA is a "Chinese knockoff of the Keling KL-5042", because AFAIK, the KL-5042 is just a relabeled DQ542MA.

[TommyGunn]

As far as wiring, I have two drivers supplied by one power supply and the other two drivers and the DC-DC converter on the second power supply. The commons are connected together but the outputs are seperate as stated. I measure all the proper voltages at the power supplies, terminal points and at the connectors attached to the drivers.

The drivers have a seperate connector for signals and I have 5v connected to the PUL+, and DIR+ input. The PUL- and DIR- are connected to the BOB output terminals. These drivers also have a pair of ENBL connections that I plan to use later and for now are unconnected as recommended in the Kelling docs.

The motors are rated at 3.0 A/phase. There is no holding torque on the motors.

The dip switch is pretty clearly marked as far as on/off. My settings are:

SW8 - OFF
SW7 - ON
SW6 - ON
SW5 - OFF
SW4 - OFF
SW3 - OFF
SW2 - OFF
SW1 - OFF

Which should give me 3.0 A RMS, half current holding, and 1000 pulses/rev. I have tried SW4 (holding current) in both positions.

The breakout board link is KL-DB25 Opto-Isolated Breakout Board Automation Technology Inc
I have the following BOB connections:
X PUL - 2
X DIR - 3
Y PUL - 4
Y DIR - 5
Z PUL - 6
Z DIR - 7
C PUL - 8
C DIR - 9

I am using Mach3 and I believe I have configured the ports and pins to match the physical connections. I have the C axis slaved to X to match my physical setup.

[doorknob]

The lack of holding torque is probably evidence of a problem (even though the driver is supposed to reduce current during idle periods in order to reduce motor heating, there should still be noticeable holding torque, and maybe also some motor heat). I wonder whether reversing SW4 might make a difference.

Are you using 6-wire motors connected as 4-wire motors (if so, can you be more specific about how you have them wired?), or are they 4- or 8-wire motors? Are you certain that the motor wiring is correct? Improper motor wiring could explain the lack of holding torque and the LED behavior.

I found a manual for a DM542A driver (which might possibly be the same one as the DQ542MA ) that talks about the LED indicators, however the poor English in the manual may be somewhat ambiguous. See https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...yO6LyqgKDRd08g

According to that, a red indication of the ERR LED could mean a shorted winding, overvoltage, or undervoltage.

Are the DIP switches actually marked 'on' and 'off' or are they marked '0' and '1'? If the latter, you might consider trying the reverse settings.

I do not believe that your BOB is well matched with your drivers, because both the BOB and the drivers have built-in optoisolators, so that in effect you would be sending each signal through two optoisolators in series, which is not recommended because it can result in "softening" of the signal pulses. However I do not think that would cause the lack of holding torque that you are seeing. The C10 might be a better choice of BOB for those drivers because the C10 does not have on-board optoisolators.

[TommyGunn]

I found something interesting. I adjusted the power supply voltage to the max it can provide of 39v and the red led went out and only the green led is now flashing. It appears to indicate an undervoltage condition. I suspect that I need to get to a state of a solid green led before the driver will 'turn on'.

The spec on the driver says the voltage range is 18-50v so I don't quite see why 36v would be an issue. I have contacted the supplier hoping to get some explanation.

[TommyGunn]

Just to close out the thread...

The supplier, Wantai motors (eBay), has been useless. They totally ignore any questions dealing with technical issues. I assumed I would not get much support but I figured stepper motors have been around a long time and it should be pretty much plug and play. I plugged, but they don't play.

So my solution is that I ordered a Gecko G540 and I will set the Wanti drivers aside, maybe when I have more time and interest in trouble shooting them I can re-apply them to a different project.

[spoocke]

did you try to hook up all of them on 1 psu ??.
cause the very max is 3 drivers and motors on that psu.
try to connect it as a single unit and see if that brings it online.
i have a kit from them.
hooked up the breakout board and it burnned out.
came also with a lose capacitor in the driver.
now one of my drivers is pulsing trough red and green.
never buying from them again.
and indeed a sheet of paper with the wiring diagrams would be awesome when you buy a kit.
still.
got it up and running got the nema 23 425-Oz

[TommyGunn]

I had split the drivers, 2 on each power supply. But I now have my system running with the Gecko G540. It was just as simply as I thought it should be and I used the same motors and power supply so something is up with those drivers. I really think they would work with a 48V supply but I didn't want to run that high for what I have built.