584,871 active members*
5,427 visitors online*
Register for free
Login
Results 1 to 13 of 13
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    21

    Building controller for my router table

    Could anyone give me some help sorting out my controller for my router table, I am building the controller in an old pc enclosure.
    My stepper driver kit comprises of three Nema 34 stepper motors, The 3rd generation TB6560 breakout board and 3 MA860H micro stepper drivers and a power transformer. I am building the controller box based on "CNC G0704 Part 2 - Assembling the Control Box" youtube video CNC G0704 Part 2 - Assembling the Control Box - YouTube. I have got everything wired up and when I turn it on the the stepper motor locks ready to work, the breakout board is powered via the usb lead but when I use the control pad the digital display shows the movement but the motor doesn't turn.
    I have checked and re-checked the wiring and it all seams to be OK and the continuity is right. I have used bridging wires between Direction+ and Pulse+ and I haven't tried running via mach3 but looking at the videos the control pad should give me movement on the motor.
    Any thoughts and advice is welcome, also any advice on jumper settings for screw drives, at the moment it is set at microstep 4.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    2141
    Quote Originally Posted by waterrat View Post
    Could anyone give me some help sorting out my controller for my router table, I am building the controller in an old pc enclosure.
    My stepper driver kit comprises of three Nema 34 stepper motors, The 3rd generation TB6560 breakout board and 3 MA860H micro stepper drivers and a power transformer. I am building the controller box based on "CNC G0704 Part 2 - Assembling the Control Box" youtube video.

    I have got everything wired up and when I turn it on the the stepper motor locks ready to work, the breakout board is powered via the usb lead but when I use the control pad the digital display shows the movement but the motor doesn't turn.

    I have checked and re-checked the wiring and it all seams to be OK and the continuity is right. I have used bridging wires between Direction+ and Pulse+ and I haven't tried running via mach3 but looking at the videos the control pad should give me movement on the motor.

    Any thoughts and advice is welcome, also any advice on jumper settings for screw drives, at the moment it is set at microstep 4.

    Thanks.
    Can you provide more information, such as a link to the breakout board that you are using, and a diagram of how you have wired the breakout board to the drivers?

    Your statement that, " I have used bridging wires between Direction+ and Pulse+" is somewhat ambiguous without knowing the details of how you have done all of the rest of the wiring.

    The TB6560 is a stepper motor driver chip, and so I don't understand why you are referring to your "TB6560 breakout board".

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    21
    Please find photos of the parts I am using below.Attachment 206662Attachment 206664Attachment 206666Attachment 206668Click image for larger version. 

Name:	cnc breakout board.png 
Views:	0 
Size:	397.0 KB 
ID:	206670

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    5516
    Quote Originally Posted by doorknob View Post
    Can you provide more information, such as a link to the breakout board that you are using, and a diagram of how you have wired the breakout board to the drivers?

    Your statement that, " I have used bridging wires between Direction+ and Pulse+" is somewhat ambiguous without knowing the details of how you have done all of the rest of the wiring.

    The TB6560 is a stepper motor driver chip, and so I don't understand why you are referring to your "TB6560 breakout board".
    I'm assuming that he is providing +5V to both pul+ and dir+ on the leadshine drives...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    21
    https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...55819444,d.d2k

    There is power to the breakout board via USB and power to the stepper motor via the stepper controller from the transformer.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    2141
    After comparing the photos to the diagrams again, I need to rethink this - for now, ignore my first impressions (below the line).

    It looks to me like you have actually jumpered PUL- and DIR- together (at the driver terminals), and have connected that signal line to the Enable output of the breakout board.

    And it looks like you are connecting the step output to the PUL+ driver terminal, and the dir output to the DIR+ driver terminal.

    In that configuration, PUL- and DIR- must be connected to ground. Can you check the voltage on PUL- and DIR-? It should be 0. How is the Enable polarity controlled by the control pad?

    ------------------------------------ ignore below the line for the moment --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    It looks like you have jumpered PUL+ and DIR+ to the Enable output of the breakout board.

    Can you check the voltage there (with a multimeter)? It needs to put about +5 volts on PUL+ and DIR+ to work, and that +5 volt terminal must be able to supply sufficient current to drive the step and direction optoisolators in your driver inputs. Do you have a datasheet for the breakout board? If so, does it specify how much current can be sourced from the board's Enable outputs? If the Enable terminal can not source sufficient current, then either you would need to connect PUL+ and DIR+ directly to +5V, or else you would want to rewire the interface to sink current instead of sourcing current.

    Also, when driving the breakout board with the control pad unit rather than with Mach3, what controls the state of the breakout board's Enable outputs? It could be that Enable is asserted as a 'low' value instead of as +5 volts.

    There is also a question about the polarity of the step pulse from the control pad. Is there an option on the control pad to set whether the step pulse is 'active low' or 'active high'?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    5516
    The way to normally wire a Leadshine drive is to run the enable, step, and direction from the controller (breakout board) to ena-, pul- and dir- on the drive. You then need to run +5V to ena+, pul+ and dir+. It's possible your USB port is not supplying enough power for the drives and you may have to get that externally. I just used a spare phone charger for powering my controller card; there should be a jumper that allows you to do this. +++edit... looks like you would just plug the phone charger into the USB in the board for power.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    21
    OK so I have changed the wires coming out of the stepper controller bridging the Dir+ and Pul+, Iv'e moved the wires in the breakout board from enable input to GND and added a phone charger to USB power up Interface but I am still getting no response from the stepper motor. How should I wire up (You then need to run +5V to ena+, pul+ and dir+) and if I am using Ena on the stepper controller do I need to use Enable input on the breakout board.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    5516
    Quote Originally Posted by waterrat View Post
    OK so I have changed the wires coming out of the stepper controller bridging the Dir+ and Pul+, Iv'e moved the wires in the breakout board from enable input to GND and added a phone charger to USB power up Interface but I am still getting no response from the stepper motor. How should I wire up (You then need to run +5V to ena+, pul+ and dir+) and if I am using Ena on the stepper controller do I need to use Enable input on the breakout board.
    You have to run a wire from the watchdog pin on your breakout board to the ena- on all 3 drives.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    21
    Alright then; here's my process so far
    I have tried everything you guys have suggested
    I have power coming into the transformer and DC of 47.1V coming from the transformer to the stepper motor controller.
    The breakout board has 8.6V coming in from an old phone charger, when I put the fluke across the positive to the axis direction input or axis pulse input terminal I'm getting a reading of 8.4V. When I put the fluke across the GND & direction input 0.084V GND & Pulse input 0.072V on the breakout board.
    The voltage on the stepper controller is Dir+ & Dir- and between Pul+ & Pul- is 0.124V but when I go from GND to Dir- it is .160 and between GND and Pul- it is .2V.
    on the stepper motor side the voltage between A+ & A- is 0V and between B+ & B- it's 6.3V
    I hope this is the information you have asked for.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    2141
    Since you have rewired things, it would be most helpful if you could take photos of the connections at the axis terminals of the breakout board and at the step/direction input terminals of one of your drivers, like you did earlier.

    I'm not sure that I understand all of the voltage readings that you described above, but we can revisit those measurements after you have posted the hookup photos.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    5516
    Quote Originally Posted by waterrat View Post
    Alright then; here's my process so far
    I have tried everything you guys have suggested
    I have power coming into the transformer and DC of 47.1V coming from the transformer to the stepper motor controller.
    The breakout board has 8.6V coming in from an old phone charger, when I put the fluke across the positive to the axis direction input or axis pulse input terminal I'm getting a reading of 8.4V. When I put the fluke across the GND & direction input 0.084V GND & Pulse input 0.072V on the breakout board.
    The voltage on the stepper controller is Dir+ & Dir- and between Pul+ & Pul- is 0.124V but when I go from GND to Dir- it is .160 and between GND and Pul- it is .2V.
    on the stepper motor side the voltage between A+ & A- is 0V and between B+ & B- it's 6.3V
    I hope this is the information you have asked for.
    I guess I'm not so old fashioned anymore... Plug a USB phone charger to the USB port which should supply the board with 5VDC. You have to wire the stepper DRIVES directly from the 48V PSU, and you have to do this in parallel, meaning twist three wires together and connect to the same lug on the PSU, V+ to V+ and V- to V-. Now that you have pul, dir, end ena from your controller to pul-, dir- and ena- on the Leadshine drives, you need to power the drives with +5V as well. You should be able to use the +5V lug on the board being you're already using the USB port to power up the board. Again, it should be a star connection, three wires at the lug, one to each drive, and you have to feed the +5V to the pul+, dir+ and ena+ on the drive.

    Also forget using the touch pad controls. Have you tried to spin the motors using Mach3 or whatever controller software you have?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    21
    SUCCESS!!!
    Thanks for all your advice but I managed to get the info of the CD that came with the controller Kit (my laptop doesn't have a CD drive) and there were a load of PDF's for the assembly of the controller. It turns out with this breakout board you need to wire the stepper controller with ground to negative and use the ENA ports to get it to run.
    I really appreciate your effort on my behalf but would just ask you for your opinion on my jumper settings for my machine; I'm running Nema 34 stepper motors two on direct screw drive and one is running screw drives twin screw drives via timing pulleys of the same size. My present settings are 4 microsteps with a peak current of 7.2Amps (off,off,off,on,on,off,on,on)Attachment 206856Attachment 206858Attachment 206866
    If you can advise where I should post them I will upload the manuals for future reference for anyone else.

Similar Threads

  1. Best CNC router table for building guitars?
    By Git_tard in forum Musical Instrument Design and Construction
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 09-03-2014, 07:57 PM
  2. Building table router....
    By hoarp001 in forum DIY CNC Router Table Machines
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 09-30-2009, 09:03 AM
  3. Building a massive Router Table
    By darudude in forum DIY CNC Router Table Machines
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 09-19-2009, 12:55 AM
  4. Building a combo plasma/router table
    By Jzint in forum Waterjet General Topics
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 01-17-2006, 06:41 PM
  5. Building Router Table
    By PROBUILDER in forum DIY CNC Router Table Machines
    Replies: 17
    Last Post: 04-11-2004, 07:58 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •