[cristian gabor]

Hi
I have my cnc plasma cutting machine working for last years ok, but the thc down signal, due to a bad cable.
My configuration is:
Powermax 1650 machine torch
Thc 300
Floating head
Geko 320 servo drivers
Xp operating system
Pci second parallel port
Port signals with NO opto isolators

Until now i had only small jobs occasionally, but now i got a bigger job so i decided to fix my parallel cable between thc300 and pci parallel card.
After this fix i run in a another problem with the pc, that was not butting occasionally, so i decided to upgrade my pc.
So my new motherboard is an intel atom d2700mud, solid state hd
Installed mach3 ver R3.043.066 from ver 2.63
Copied the thc300sm3 xml settings file and set all things as before

The problem is that i can not get the motors jogging, they arm ok but not jog
Ports and pins are ok i think, because i get correct e-stop response when i press the button (port 1), i get signal from thc swich when i press it (port 1), i get correct thc signals from thc300 unit up and down (port 2), a have torch on and off control (port 2)
When i jog axes from keypad a can see dro changing
And the voltages, read on the multimeter are as folows:
With only the pc on
for STEP DIR
X+ 3.3V 3.3V NO JOG 3V JOGING
X- 0.1V 3.3V NO JOG 3V JOGING
Y+ 0.1V 3.3V NO JOG 3V JOGING
Y- 3.3V 3.3V NO JOG 3V JOGING
Z+ 3.3V 3.3V NO JOG 3V JOGING
Z- 0.1V 3.3V NO JOG 3V JOGING

With all the systems on, all the voltages increase with 1.5v aprox on all motor output pins (read on the geko 320 step and dir inputs).

Also tried with no luck changing settings in bios for the parallel port from bi-directional to EPP
Attached is my xml and set files.

Thank you in advance

Cristian Gabor

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi Cristian. Check your keyboard. Maybe you are pressing keys but not getting any output.

CR.

[cristian gabor]

Hi

Hi Cristian. Check your keyboard. Maybe you are pressing keys but not getting any output.

CR.

The keyboard is working fine, i get those voltages on the paralell port pins while joging from the keyboard.

[bill south]

You may want to check the voltage output of the parallel card. I would be a bit uncomfortable with that tiny computer trying to push a parallel card. I'm thinking it's 3V like some laptops verses 5V (desktop) but I may be wrong. Anyway, maybe others chime in and help if I'm wrong! Also, put "intel atom" in your description to flag other users. I'm using an atom but driving an ethernet smoothstepper in my system.
Good luck.
Bill

[ger21]

I've read in the past that some Intel brand Atom motherboards don't implement all the parallel port modes correctly. Not sure which one, but if you search through the Mach Yahoo group, you may be able to find it.

[cristian gabor]

Hi
I received today my breakout board
Just made a quick test and i get 5v out on the breakout board corresponding output, unlike from the parallel port, from where i was geting 3.3v out
Hope to finish it tonight.

[cristian gabor]

Hi.
can i use the pc power suply 5v for my geko 320 drive, so i can free space in my cabinnet ? (not the motor power)

[cristian gabor]

hi

It does not work
I installed the breakout board
I get 5v on dir input of the drive coming from it, but it still refuses to work
I set up the motor outputs on the pci parallel port, and connected the breakout board to, with the same results.
Think the problem may be on the geko drives, but i did not made any changes to this setup
Anyhow the motors engage, when by mistake i engaged the motors with no encoder connected on one motor, that motor went full speed one way

The setup on geko 320 is like this
1. Power ground
2. power 48v
3. Motor (--)
4. motor (+)
5. goes to +12v by momentary switch for 3 seconds to arm the motors and it does arm
5. goes to ground by momentary switch to disarm the motors and it does disarm
6. encoder (--) (out from geko to encoder)
7. encoder (+) 5v (out from geko to encoder)
8. encoder A
9. encoder B
10. dir
11. step
12. (+) 12v

[cristian gabor]

Solved

The problem was geckos power suply.
Until now it worked on12v, but probably the 12 regulator of power did not regulated the tension correctly (at times i could see 13.2v).
The solution was to to feed geckos logic with 5v from pc power supply.