[tmd019]

I am a Mechanical Engineering senior at Louisiana Tech University, and our group
chose to build a portable CNC machine for our senior design project. We have chosen to convert a mini drill press and a milling table into a 3-axis milling machine. We have finished construction of our driver board, downloaded TurboCNC 4.01, and we are trying to gain movement in the stepper motors. I am unfamiliar with TurboCNC. I have been trying to output G-code from TurboCNC to run the stepper motor, but nothing seems to work. If someone could give me some advice, it would be a great help.

Tom

PS: All voltages and currents on the driver board have been checked and are correct.

[GaryCorlew]

I use mach3 so I am not familiar with turbocnc but have you setup your ports and pins?, You also have to setup your steps per inch. When you turn on the power supply do your motors lock up?

[Madclicker]

You say all currents and votages on the drive are correct, but do you know that the drive is working correctly? You can apply step and direction signals to confirm this.

[tmd019]

Well first of all, I only have my X-axis motor connected at the moment. When I turn on the power, I can still turn the stepper motor shaft with me hand.

Is there a freeware version of Mach3 or Mach2 out there?

Tom

[tmd019]

How would I go about applying a single step to the motor without TurboCNC?

Tom

[Madclicker]

Well first of all, I only have my X-axis motor connected at the moment. When I turn on the power, I can still turn the stepper motor shaft with me hand.

Is there a freeware version of Mach3 or Mach2 out there?

Tom

You can get the free trial version that will do everything you need.

[Madclicker]

How would I go about applying a single step to the motor without TurboCNC?

Tom

Apply ground to the dir signal and use a function generator with a 5v square pulse as the step signal.

However, if you can turn the shaft with your hand after you apply power the drive is probably not working.

[Bubba]

Are you trying to run Turbocnc in a dos window or have you actually booted to a dos prompt? Turbocnc will NOT acess the prot properly in a dos window!

As stated above, you have to configure the port pins and possibly you have to "enable the drive"

Are you running a break out board (bob) or wiring directly to the driver and what driver are you using?

[tmd019]

Are you trying to run Turbocnc in a dos window or have you actually booted to a dos prompt? Turbocnc will NOT acess the prot properly in a dos window!

As stated above, you have to configure the port pins and possibly you have to "enable the drive"

Are you running a break out board (bob) or wiring directly to the driver and what driver are you using?

Can someone tell me how to configure my port pins?

I am also wiring directly to the driver.

I'm sorry if I am asking simple questions but I am very new to this entire process.

Tom

[Madclicker]

Can someone tell me how to configure my port pins?

I am also wiring directly to the driver.

I'm sorry if I am asking simple questions but I am very new to this entire process.

Tom

Take it one step at a time. Since you built your drive, make sure it works.

[tmd019]

When I turn the power on, the cooling fan will start to run. Because of this, I am fairly certain that my power connections to the driver board are correct. But I am guessing that my problem might be some other place on the board.

Any suggestions?


Tom

[Madclicker]

What drive and motor are you using?

[tmd019]

We ordered the 200 oz-in 3 axis package from HobbyCNC.com. I will post the link below that states all of the components used.

http://hobbycnc.com/hcncpropkg.php

Tom

[Madclicker]

I think you will get better help in the hobbycnc forum:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=240

[ger21]

If the motors don't lock up when the board is powered up, then the board is not working, or the steppers are wired wrong. You might want to contact Dave, or join the HobbyCNC support forum at Yahoo if you can't get the help you need here.

Also, if you're trying to run TurboCNC in any OS other than Win98 or earlier, it will not work at all. Although it will work in Win98, it won't work well. Best to run it from DOS directly.

[tmd019]

If the motors don't lock up when the board is powered up, then the board is not working, or the steppers are wired wrong. You might want to contact Dave, or join the HobbyCNC support forum at Yahoo if you can't get the help you need here.

Also, if you're trying to run TurboCNC in any OS other than Win98 or earlier, it will not work at all. Although it will work in Win98, it won't work well. Best to run it from DOS directly.

Well for starters, I am running Windows XP. I guess the next step is to try and run in DOS directly. I am more worried about my motors not locking up when power is applied. I guess I will try to look at the instructions again, and reconnect the stepper motor.

Tom

[ger21]

If you're using XP, try Mach3. watch the setup videos at www.machsupport.com

But get the motors to lock up first.

[tmd019]

If you're using XP, try Mach3. watch the setup videos at www.machsupport.com

But get the motors to lock up first.

Do you know of a trial or freeware version of Mach3 out there?

Tom

[ger21]

Mach3 is free for up to 1000 lines of g-code. Just download and install and you're good to go. Any version should be fine, but you'll probably be safest with the current lockdown version from www.machsupport.com

[Torchhead]

Go over to the Electrical Engineering Dept (I KNOW they have one at TECH!) and find a lab assistant that knows how to read a schematic and use a scope and pulse generator. There is a lot more to a drive than just getting voltage to it. You have to troubleshoot this one thing at a time. There are too many variables right now. First the motor drive has to be confirmed as working, then setup the software and finally the motors and mechanics. The fact the motor does not lock when you apply power is not a good sign. Even with no Step & Dir signal most chopper drives will lock the rotor on the motor at power up.

PS stay out of the AG dept. Those people will HURT you! (:-)