[747skys]

After 2 full days trying to find out why one servo motor was faulting my system,
I changed my computer to an old laptop that had a parallel printer port.

Everything seemed to be better. Changed the one servo, changed the cable,
but then, all of a sudden, the pageup and pagedown, that raised or lowered the
z axis, would only go up, no matter which key I pressed.
Then no keys would work at all. The servos still have power, but my computer
won't operate anything.

My system is:
Dell Inspiron Laptop with Windows XP
Camtronics parallel port 3 axis controller
Mach 3 2.0

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know what may be wrong.
Did I fry the parallel port?

Help Please!
Ken

[jlnading]

First of all I would say not to use a laptop to do the job of a desktop, they are not the same. Older laptops don't have the speed required, some cables are not the same, others would argue this point but this has been my experience. You can buy IDE parallel port cards to plug into your desktop. A way to check your laptop pp is to connect it to an old printer to see if the pp will work or not, but I would not use a laptop to run a cnc machine other than a 3d printer or something small like that. Not trying to frustrate you any further, it's just your better off using a desktop, one that was built with win XP or later. You might have to change some settings in Mach3 as well, hope this helps.

[747skys]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the reply. I'll go back to my desktop and maybe get an add-on parallel board. Any spec I need to look for, or is any brand, model ok?
What other settings in Mach3 should I be looking at?

Thanks,
Ken

[ger21]

You could have a corrupt .xml file.
If you don't have a backup, I'd recommend creating a new profile from scratch. If it then works correctly, make a backup of the .xml for future use.

[jlnading]

Hi Ken, all you should need is an IDE compatible pp board that you can plug into your existing mother board inside your desktop computer, then install the drivers for it. On the Mach 3 software, just look up M3 on this forum, there are plenty of illustrations for ports and pins to help you configure settings to control the steppers correctly. It's been quite a while sense I messed with them so I am a bit rusty. Also there are many here who can lead you through M3 to help set it up, sorry I'm not much help there, Jeff.

[747skys]

Hi Gerry,
Pardon my newbie-ness, but I don't know too much about the xml file. Where to find, how to create a new one etc. Can you please walk me through this?
Thanks
Ken

A few hours later....Now understand about the xml profile. If I just go thru all the settings and check them, then
do a save all, shouldn't that update the file?

[747skys]

Ok. So back to my desktop and for now seems to be working except for some faulting on the Z axis.
(I did also order a new parallel card as perhaps the onboard one is faulty)

When going up, it's nice and smooth, but going down, it jumps sometimes, and then goes into fault.
I've tried to make adjustments to the Gain and Damp on the Gecko G320, but I'm just guessing here
at what to turn the pots. I have no clue as to the proper direction, or how the get both adjusted
properly. I also turned the velo and accel on the motor tuning to 500 and 50 respectively.
It was set at 1000 and 200 previously.

[jlnading]

I would do some logical testing, move the faulting stepper drive to another axis to see if the problem follows to the that axis, if it follows I would say you have a bad stepper drive, if it does not follow, there is something else wrong and you have eliminated the stepper drive as a possibility. After this test, swap the stepper motor with another, if they are the same values, to see if the problems stay with the Z axis or move to another axis. These test should shed some light or isolate the problem. If nothing changes, still could be steps, settings in M3 or pp. Do the other axes work properly, then it would not be the pp. Is your Z axis direct drive to the stepper and X/Y are belt drive, if so the steps will need to be much higher than X and Y. It also could be the cable between the z axis stepper motor and the stepper motor drive.

[747skys]

I did change the wires to another motor and always comes back to the Z axis.
BTW, the motors are 600 in oz servos. All axis are belt drive to ball screws.

UPDATE - so, I changes the wires from Z axis to Y axis, and it works smooth as can be.
And moving the Y axis now is jumpy.
Would this be due to the Gain and Damp settings, or some problem with the G320?

[jlnading]

Don't quite understand what you did there. Did you disconnect the cables at the Gecko's that are connected to the Y and Z stepper motors and swap from Z to Y then the fault problem followed to the Y axis? If so and all the stepper motors are the same values, I would move the G320 from the Z axis to another axis and see if the problem follows, this is the only quick easy way to prove or disprove if the drive is the problem or not, it eliminates the guessing, by process of elimination.

[jlnading]

I had a Gecko drive mess up on me one time, as the stepper cable some how became unplugged off the drive and I did not realize it until it was to late, I bought another, sent the bad one in to Gecko, they repaired it for the cost of shipping and sent it back to me, so I still have a spare, that was 6 years ago.

[747skys]

All servo motors are the same, and yes, when I connected the Y motor to the Z gecko, it jittered in one direction just like the Z motor did. So perhaps the Z gecko is the problem.

[jlnading]

Do you have an accurate way of adjusting gain and damp settings. Have you adjusted all the drives gain and damps? After you run the test I mentioned, if all the servos are the same values and only the one drive is still giving you a problem after moving it, I would say it's most likely faulty.

[747skys]

I believe that I have all pots adjusted equally. I did notice something weird, looking inside all three Geckos, the two that are working fine have exactly the same small yellow capacitor in one spot, while the one giving me problems has a larger brown capacitor. Not that it means too much, but perhaps this "different" cap may be causing some problems?

[jlnading]

That could be possible, but also could have been a different batch being manufactured. I believe they are all tested before they leave the factory as well.

[747skys]

I'm sure that is correct about another batch, but I've worked with capacitors that can have a 10 or 20% tolerance, and just maybe that might be enough to make this drive a bit different. Anyway, I've sent an e-mail to Gecko Drives with the info and see what they say. I also took a photo of the three drives side by side in case they have some questions.

[jlnading]

I think hopefully your on your way to fixing the problem Ken. Please let us know how it all turns out, Jeff.

[747skys]

Hi Jeff,

Well a new update is in order. I received a new parallel port card and installed it and voila! All axis work
silky smooth! Here I was ready to blame the Gecko, but I think the parallel port on the motherboard must
have had issues.

Now, have to start bringing up the velocity and acceleration to make sure that it still performs well.

Thanks!

[jlnading]

That's some great news Ken, congratulation on your success. :cheers: