[CleverTet]

Hello all,

My dad got a cnc machine from a guy on craigslist who said he'd help him set it up. Now about a year later the thing still wont run. The power supply is able to get power and the computer has a working parallel port but when I try to run it with mach 3 I get nothing from the cnc machine.

Heres picture of all the hard ware

https://imgur.com/a/Cb5bQnL

What would be the next best step to trouble shoot?

I'm going to try and download another program to see if I can get some results.

[awerby]

Does your computer run a 32-bit Windows OS? If you go into BIOS, does it show a EPP or ECP parallel port? When it's powered up, do the motors lock up? Do you have the correct pins indicated in the ports and pins dialogue? Is the emergency stop active? Do all the pins in your parallel port cable have continuity to all the pins on the other side? What kind of breakout board and drivers control this machine?

[he1957]

Turn the big red E-Stop knob to disable E-stop and enable the controller. If you know nothing about the electro-mechanics then search this forum for troubleshooting approaches and/or try a google search on the same subject.

Another approach would be to follow the guidelines of installing and testing a CNC machine from about the part where the mechanical parts have been installed and tested to run smoothly with no power and no motors engaged via their belts or other couplings but it would be a good idea to check all that anyway.

The dust in the photos indicate it has done some work.

If you feel confident to proceed then do so otherwise consider asking for help from someone who can visit the machine.


Cheers,

HarryE.
===

[john-100]

in the first 2 photos none of the 5 inputs are connected so the E-stop will need disabling in Mach 3
if the E-stop switch is connected it can only be controlling the power to your router and possibly the power to the stepper driver power supply

do you have any documents for the 4 axis stepper driver ?

not only do you need to know which 8 pins are the step & direction signals for the 4 axis
you need to know which pin or pins are used to enable the 4 axis -
assuming 1 pin controls a relay that could be used to control the spindle that leaves 3 pins that may enable the 4 axis


John