[KelvinG]

Do you see anything change on that screen when you toggle the switch?

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[pari]

Do you see anything change on that screen when you toggle the switch?

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No


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[KelvinG]

I'm back to opening the box and making sure the DB9 you are wiring to goes to terminals 1 through 4 on the G540 white 12 pin connector. It's getting late here. I'm going to call it a night. I'll check this in the morning.

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[pari]

Thanks for your help. Good night.


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[KelvinG]

Good Morning,
The way I'd troubleshoot this is in three steps. 1. Verify everything is physically functional. 2. Verify everything is communicating correctly. 3. Verify software configurations / options.

Let's start with number 1.

1. You have done 80% of that all ready when you measured voltage on the switch and watched it change when you operated the switch. What we haven't checked is if it's getting to the right place. Let assume it is for now. Pull up your smoothstepper data monitoring tab. I just looked at mine. Mine shows port 1 pins 11 through 15 unchecked. As I operate a switch, a check mark appears and disappears on that switches pin number. I noticed your data monitoring shows port 1 pin 15 unchecked. Operated the switch, hold in for a few seconds, does the check mark show up? Disconnect your DB9 connector from the Hoffman box, does the check mark show up? If not, let's move on. Next check the G540 is working. Its green led should be on and fault led off. The Hoffman enable switch SW-12 is wired into the G540 E-stop input. Operate SW-12 and you should see the G540 fault led turn on and off. Last I'd open the box and make sure you are on the correct DB9 connector and verify it's wiring. It should be wired like CN08 on page one of the Hoffman drawing. DB9 pins 1 through 4 going to G540 white connector pins 1 through 4. DB9 pins 6 through 9 wired together and going to power supply -Vdc.

2. Documentation: ESS (Ethernet SmoothStepper) Section "ESS LED Status Codes" has good info on checking the communication between Smoothstepper / Computer / Mach3. So, check that stuff. Start / stop Mach3 software and verify green led response. One comment: The Hoffman box "e-stop" switch SW-01 kills power to everthing in the box. The Hoffman box "enable switch" SW-12 is wired into the G540 "e-stop" input. I'd operate Hoffman box SW-12 to verify smoothstepper e-stop led.

3. Several people have given good responses on configuration. Basically Mach3 can't do anything if it's not seeing the input change. You should be able to see that on your plug-in data monitoring tab.

Hope this makes sense.

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[pari]

Good Morning,
The way I'd troubleshoot this is in three steps. 1. Verify everything is physically functional. 2. Verify everything is communicating correctly. 3. Verify software configurations / options.

Let's start with number 1.

1. You have done 80% of that all ready when you measured voltage on the switch and watched it change when you operated the switch. What we haven't checked is if it's getting to the right place. Let assume it is for now. Pull up your smoothstepper data monitoring tab. I just looked at mine. Mine shows port 1 pins 11 through 15 unchecked. As I operate a switch, a check mark appears and disappears on that switches pin number. I noticed your data monitoring shows port 1 pin 15 unchecked. Operated the switch, hold in for a few seconds, does the check mark show up? Disconnect your DB9 connector from the Hoffman box, does the check mark show up? If not, let's move on. Next check the G540 is working. Its green led should be on and fault led off. The Hoffman enable switch SW-12 is wired into the G540 E-stop input. Operate SW-12 and you should see the G540 fault led turn on and off. Last I'd open the box and make sure you are on the correct DB9 connector and verify it's wiring. It should be wired like CN08 on page one of the Hoffman drawing. DB9 pins 1 through 4 going to G540 white connector pins 1 through 4. DB9 pins 6 through 9 wired together and going to power supply -Vdc.

2. Documentation: ESS (Ethernet SmoothStepper) Section "ESS LED Status Codes" has good info on checking the communication between Smoothstepper / Computer / Mach3. So, check that stuff. Start / stop Mach3 software and verify green led response. One comment: The Hoffman box "e-stop" switch SW-01 kills power to everthing in the box. The Hoffman box "enable switch" SW-12 is wired into the G540 "e-stop" input. I'd operate Hoffman box SW-12 to verify smoothstepper e-stop led.

3. Several people have given good responses on configuration. Basically Mach3 can't do anything if it's not seeing the input change. You should be able to see that on your plug-in data monitoring tab.

Hope this makes sense.

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Morning.
Before I get to much into this I just want to update and clarify.
First the voltage meter never shows the same reading twice when I hold it isn't he the NC home switch and press the switch it ranges 50s to 15 mv.
Second my Data Monitoring screen must be different to yours. I have 3 port rows. Port 1 only has tick boxes 10 to 13.
Then the next two rows are 2 to 15. 15 in the top row is unticked and comes on when I hit emergency stop. So that would seem to be right. All the rest from 10 to 15 are ticked (except the E stop on the top row).
Now I connected another switch to inputs 1 and 6 in the DB9 male connector last night. And it worked, or at least something changed. When I hit the new LIMIT switch it stopped motion and the M1--, M++ and M1 home lights came on in diagnostics. I saw this as a win and went to bed. But I have come back to the home switch. Now it is soldered into a different pin on the db9 connector, next pin #2 so would think it would be set differently in ports and pins. The only combination of ports and pins that I could get to work that didn't leave the LEDs on permanently in diagnostics and set of the reset button was to have all the settings the same for both the home and limit switch. Which was port #1 pin 10.
Nothing else would work. But even with the limit switch doing something there is still no response from the home switch soldered to pin 2 on the DB9 male connector, not in Data Monitoring or in diagnostics.
When the limit switch is hit pin 10 in the data monitoring goes of, unticks.
When I tried changing that same limit switch to pin 11 and switched it, pin 10 in data monitoring did the same indication in pin 10.... So I know that it is defo in pin 10 and seems to be right.
Now I've checked inside the box. Looks fine, the enable button works fine ( as long as Mach3 is on).
Attachment 331328Attachment 331330


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[KelvinG]

Hey

First off, thanks for the pictures. You know what they say about pictures! I've got a few for you too.

Let's talk about the voltage readings you got first. Looking at the switch, your wires should be on the terminals labeled C & NC. With everything turned on, and the switch just setting there, you should measure something close to 0 volts DC. When you operate the switch you should measure something close to 10 or 11 volts DC. We are not worried about millivolts here. You should see ten or more volts change. Assuming wired correctly, (and from what say it seems to be). You either have no voltage, busted switch, or a short. Because you got other pins to work I'd guess you have voltage. But you can check that by removing your DB9 connector and measuring right on pins 1 & 6 on the control box DB9. You should see 10+ volts DC.

While your DB9 is off, set your meter to ohms and measure the switch, (C & NC). Just setting there it should be close to 0 ohms. Operate the switch and it should got to infinite ohms. If it stays close to zero ohms, (which your voltage readings suggest) you've got a busted switch or a short. On your DB9 connector & switch look for solder bridges, fine whiskers of wire, etc. that could cause a short.

Now as to why M1 home, etc. light up.



Now mine will be different from yours because I have each home switch on a different input. Nothing special about doing it that way, it just how I like it. So on my machine, from the G540 point of view input 2 is X home, input 3 is Y home, & input 4 is Z home. Notice those are the only items enabled and they are associated with port 1 pin 11, 12, & 13 respectively. Also notice the "active low" for each of those is X'ed. That means for the computer to treat that function as "active", (i.e. X home switch tripped) it needs to see a high voltage on that pin, (the 10+ volts DC we talked about earlier).



Now remember I configured port 1 pin 11 as X home, pin 12 as Y home, & pin 13 as Z home. All "not active low". So, on the plug in configure screen, port 1 pins 11, 12, & 13 are not checked. Which means the computer doesn't see any voltage on those pins, (which means no voltage on G540 pins 2, 3, & 4). Now because those three pins have a low voltage and I configured them as "home switches" "not active low" the M1, M2, & M3 home LED lights are off because they are not active.



Now I manually hold the X home switch tripped, (open). That puts 11 volts DC on G540 pin 2. Which is reported to the Plug in as port 1 pin 11. So you get a check mark showing that pin's voltage just went high, (11 volts DC). Because I have port 1 pin 11 configured as X home, "not active low" the M1 home light comes because the high voltage on that pin says it's active.

If all that techno babel made sense, you should be able to look at your configuration and anticipate which functions will come on when a certain port and pin goes high. And that all boils down to G540 pins 1, 2, 3, & 4. Do they have voltage and does it change when a switch is operated.



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[pari]

Hi again, sorry it's late again. What a weekend...pulling my hair out and I think I'm going mad. But maybe it seems I not mad after all.
The pin I'm using has no volts that i can see.
I wrote Peter (Homann) explaining my dilemma and he has sent me an updated schematic with some corrections on it and some advice to check the pin according to them.
So for now I'm not going to do any more tonight as I start my working week tomorrow and I'm mentally shagged out from the stress of it all.
I will try to do some more in the evenings after work if I can cope with looking at my machine after a day of fixing customers shoes and watches and try to get further with it.
I'll let you know how it goes once i have an update.
This is the updated schematic.
Attachment 331358Attachment 331360

[KelvinG]

Well sh*t, that explains a lot. If I recall correctly you were using pins 1 & 6. Pin 6 isn't connected to anything. Which explains why you weren't sing any voltage. It would be like you taking your volt meter and putting one probe on a battery terminal and holding the other probe in the air, zero volts. And the G540 would see the same thing, zero volts.

Use pins 1 and 5 like this drawing shows and I bet you see it work on the plug in data page. Configure like I explained and I bet things will start working for you.

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