[bamasoe]

Hey guys, having a problem with my new build. I really can't express the frustration I've endured up to this point, and it seems like one fix always brings another. Anyway, I will give as much info as I can so hopefully the experts on here can help me troubleshoot this never-ending problematic run of mine.

Problem: I have NO movement on my Y-axis, choppy movement on X-axis. (Z-axis works flawlessly)

Electronics: I'm using Nema 23 290 oz steppers, Toshiba TB6560AHQ driver board, and 24V/8.3A power supply.

I am running MACH3 on Win XP 32bit and hardware is a Dell Optiplex 745 sff (desktop)

I have triple checked that my settings are exactly as appear in this link: http://www.victortrucco.com/CNC/Corr...xis_Manual.pdf

Before anyone asks, I have quadruple checked that my port address is correct.

I have an old Dell Latitude D500 that I used just to make sure all settings in Mach3 were indeed correct. I was successful in obtaining movement on all axii although the laptop is entirely to unreliable for any real control. IMO, this told me that my driver and parallel cable was fine too.

I also have a manual control that helped me verify my motors were all wired correctly and defect free.

Now, since my Z-axis works great, I decided testing the other 2 motors on the Z-axis as a secondary validation of defect-free motors/wiring. They ran fine.

So, the only thing I can think of is that something on my desktop's parallel port is screwed up. My bios does have lpt port options which I have tried all of them but nothing at all changes functionally when I changed them.

2 weird observations to note:

1) For the x-axis, I am getting movement but it is MUCH slower, louder and more choppy than the z-axis. I've tried all three motors on it and they all act the same.
2) Also, even though y has no movement, I am getting a solid LED light when I jog Y-, and it stays on until I hit Y+

I do not know how to properly test the desktop parallel port on the desktop (I just bought it off of newegg.com as a refurb just for this machine so it just increases the frustration). I'm hoping maybe someone can point out an option/idea I haven't thought of yet to solve this without me sending the machine back for a replacement.

Oh, one last note, I have also tried Windows 7 32bit, same results on the desktop.

Any input would be very much appreciated!!!!

[bamasoe]

I am going to attempt using a linuxcnc live cd, may take a day to properly learn it, but my thoughts are that if my desktop has a faulty parallel port, I should get the same or similar results using it. Can't hurt I guess, since it's a live cd. Will post results.

[bamasoe]

Figured it out!! Well kind of....opened msconfig and went down the list of startup exe's, disabling any unnecessary ones, and it has solved my problem.