[Merchi]

So, I just end up building a cnc with these breakout board, thesedrivers (THB6064AH ) and 3 23HS8430 motors

As you can see the BOB is powered by 5V from a USB computer port and the drivers and the BOB 12V outputs, by a 36V external power suppply.

I took off the JP2 off for testing and put the JP1 jumper in 1-2 pins (enable signal active) in the BOB. In the drivers, the Vref value is adjusted to 1.8V for 3A motors and the J8 is set to 1-2 (enabled when input High)

All the limit/home switches and the emergency button work great, so the paralell port works ok (I guess). But the motors have no movement in any way.

Measuring the pins of the X axis (2-3 for Step/Dir) at the end of the paralell cable, the Dir works fine as it changes between 0 and 3.3V depending on the direction. But the Step pin only changes between 0.04 and 0.06 when pressed, so I guess something is wrong there, but I can't tell what

I tried with a couple of computers (both old Dell machines with paralell ports) and the result was the same in both (one is running a current machine with a PMDX BOB, so I guess that must be fine)

I attach some pictures of the boards and the paralell port config with the xml file. I just don't know what else I can try to guess where the problem is coming from

Boards (ignore the charge pump active led)

Attachment 369364

Attachment 369366

Port and pins:

Attachment 369368

Attachment 369370

Attachment 369372

Attachment 369374

Any help or test would be aprecciated :cheers:

[ger21]

You can't really measure the voltage on the step pins, as they are very fast pulses.
Are the motors locked up?

[Merchi]

You can't really measure the voltage on the step pins, as they are very fast pulses.
Are the motors locked up?

No, the motors turn freely

I know they should lock up when I turn the BOB and drivers up but I cant guess why they don't :/

What could it be ?

[ger21]

The motors are wired wrong, or the drivers are not working. (or dead).
Has nothing to do with Mach3, unless the drives have enable signals controlled by Mach3.

[SteveWill]

I had problems when I first connected my CNC up. It took like a week to find the right combination. I ran in to a line that was a enable signal that I over looked. Had to set it in Mach 3. When in one state nothing happen. As ger said steps are fast and may not see them but I was thing that you may have open collector driver that need pull up resistors. I would try a 10k resistors from 5 volts to the step lines. The trick is to get one motor to move.

[Merchi]

The motors are wired wrong, or the drivers are not working. (or dead).
Has nothing to do with Mach3, unless the drives have enable signals controlled by Mach3.

I think the motors are wired correctly as I wired them as in the manufacturer datasheet and I double check them manually wiring the cables to discover the 2 fases.

I wired them
Blue = B -
Red = B+
Green = A -
Black = A+

The drivers are new, so I guess they should be ok, but they do have an enable signal that I checked and that is at 5V in the BOB. Is there an enable signal that I should activate as output ? If so, how can I guess the pin ?
Even I do that, if it is already at 5V, I guess the enable is activated and it should work correctly

I attached pictures of the motors and of the enable signal pins of the BOB and drivers

[KH0UJ]

Neglect first the PC side, try to make the motors lock itself when turning ON, by the time the XYZ steppers lock then get back here for the ports and pins configuration, anyways the ports and pins you posted only one drive is going to work that`s if that`s the correct step pin and direction pin, so if you power ON the controller it should lock even without a PC.

[SteveWill]

I like KHOUJ idea about getting stepper to lock
I see 2 things on doc you posted. J8 needs need jumper on pins 1,2. and JP 1 needs jumper on pins 1 , 2 . This was the kind of stuff I miss when doing mine. then making sure i was outputing on right pin number in mach 3