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IndustryArena Forum > CNC Electronics > CNC Machine Related Electronics > Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections
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  1. #1

    Post Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    TLDR: Without doing the proper research I bought an Amazon 'CNC Kit' and I am now trying to verify basic electrical integrity. The included docs don't match the components so I am hoping for some tribal knowledge on whether or not these parts are even compatible and if so how to connect them.

    Greetings all. My apologies if this is the wrong location. It appeared to be the most related forum. Since this is my first ever post I wanted to give a quick summary of myself.
    My degree was in Electronic Engineering but I spent the last 30 years in the IT world. So while I am not a complete noob to the circuitry portions, my knowledge is fairly dated.
    I enjoy building and creating and woodworking and recently decided to try to 'Build' my own CNC like so many others.

    So..... Here is where I stand.

    This is the kit that I purchased. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R9RGLN1
    The docs indicate that it came from www.jdswcnc.com

    The more I have researched, the more it seems that people prefer to stay away from the TB6600. But since I have the parts I have decided to try to trudge ahead so that others will benefit from what I have learned.
    The kit came with a Mach 3 software install disk which also includes many different schematics for connecting things. But they do not seem to be the exact same parts that actually came with my kit.
    Currently I am attempting to verify basic electrical connectivity to ensure that the components will function once the framing parts are built and installed.
    To do this I installed the Mach 3 software, connected the usb cable to the Motion Control board, connected the X-axis of the control board to the driver board and the driver board to one of the stepper motors.

    From what I can tell, I have the ST-USB Motion Controller Board and 4 BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 driver boards. I also have 4 Nema23 stepper motors.
    I am fairly certain that the Stepper Motor to Driver board connections are correct. My motors are connected as follows: A+ = Red, A- = Green, B+ = Yellow, and B- = Blue
    When I spin the stepper motor by hand, it does light the LED's on the driver board.
    The driver board is also connected to a 24V power supply that came with the kit. The driver board states 32V but the docs seem to indicate that it can work from 10V - 45V.

    Here is where things get fun. The included docs on the CD and the many on the internet seem to all disagree with the naming conventions. I have been able to find some cross references so here is what I have.
    ST-USB TB6600
    +5V = +5V This one appears self explanatory
    XP = Clk - From all my research the Clk signal is a reference to the Pulse connection and I believe this connection is accurate.
    XD = Cw- Research shows this is the direction setting and is correct.

    Now my driver has an enable pin. And a schematic/Doc I found from from Drufelcnc seemed to indicate that the ST-USB has a BP,BD and EN pin. However my board doesn't appear to have these pins. At least it doesn't appear to be.
    Oddly enough, my board does have a 5V pin for each of the 4 axis which the Drufel doc doesn't show. So while the list contains 12 pins in the Drufel doc they are not an identical match to the board print. Even the Drufel pic and list do not agree.
    When I performed my power up test, my stepper motor is locked. So I assume that is because of the disconnected Enable pin which I can't find on my ST-USB Motion Control Card.

    There is an additional V+/V- for 24DC to the ST-USB. From my research it is used purely for connecting an inverter based spindle to the setup. Something that this board has that others seemed to be missing. Most were purely relay based for an on/off relay to your router. Either way I have tried my setup both with and without the power connected to these additional pins. I did use the same power supply in case that matters.

    So here are my observations. When plugging in the ST-USB to the USB cable, the blue LED starts to flash and seems to flash the same pattern continuously. Two red LED's on the driver board light up and my stepper motor locks. I then used all of the available ways to move the X-Axis inside the Mach 3 software but nothing seemed to work.

    So, does anyone have any ideas/Tribal Knowledge/Documentation that might set me on the straight and narrow?? I can provide pics/YT Video links if they will help but I wanted ot test the waters to see if anyone was even willing to tackle this before I waste the servers bandwidth with pics.

    Thanks all if anyone is willing to take a stab.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    1982

    Re: Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    does anyone have any ideas
    can you formulate your question?

  3. #3

    Re: Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    Thanks for the response. I was attempting to keep it generic since my questions may come off sounding stupid or make it look like I just want people to just fix my setup without me doing my own troubleshooting

    However, I would say that my main questions are as follows:

    1) Has anyone out there successfully Connected the ST-USB to the BL-TB6600-V1.2 to run their stepper motor?
    2) If so then would you be willing to share any documentation links that you have found or created for connecting these two together?
    3) Should my minimalist connection described above, allow my stepper to turn when changing the X-Axis value in Mach 3?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IMG_3439.jpg   Mach3.jpg  

  4. #4

    Re: Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    In case anyone else stumbles upon this thread with a similar question I wanted to keep it updated with whatever findings I come across. I finally found a Russian YT video that shows these parts working together. I couldn't understand any of what was being said but it was enough to see how they configured everything and I was able to confirm that it is very likely that all of these parts are indeed compatible. In fact my connections were identical to his. It is possible that I just received a DOA motion board maybe. When plugging the USB connector into the Motion Card the attached stepper motors do a single bump step. IE cycle what appears to be a single 1.8 Degree step. Each time I remove and re-plug the USB cable the steppers advance one additional step. I am going to swap in my Arduino to see if I have any better luck with that running my driver board just to verify integrity of that end of my connections. I will update more later once I have something valuable to add.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    1516

    Re: Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    This any good to you:
    https://www.buildyourcnc.com/Documents/USB%20Motion%20Card%20STB4100%20Manual.pdf

    Generally for stepper drives you have:
    +5v in parallel to PUL+ & DIR+ on all drives
    Then >P to PUL- & >D to DIR- (> = your axis letter pin output) to each individual drive.

    If using enable feature:
    +5V parallel also goes to EN+ on all drives
    Then whichever pin output no, you want to set to it goes to EN- on all drives.

  6. #6

    Re: Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    [QUOTE=dazp1976;2461162]This any good to you:
    https://www.buildyourcnc.com/Documents/USB%20Motion%20Card%20STB4100%20Manual.pdf


    Thanks dazp1976. That document is actually one of the ones I had found and was using to setup my configuration. But I have to admit that I was missing one important piece. I accidentally stumbled across it while researching the Arduino piece just now in fact. One word. Plugins.

    Well the biggest lesson I have learned from this so far is never by cheap shady "Amazon CNC Kit's".
    Based on the documents I found buried in the CD I am now all but certain that the Mach 3 software it comes with is probably a pirated copy or at best a very shady license agreement.

    The biggest piece that I was missing was the configuration and plugin section. I got so caught up in just verifying basic connectivity before proceeding that I never dug into the fact that the Mach 3 program requires a specific plugin in order to talk to the ST USB Motion Card. Specifically the "RnRMotionControllerECO-V2.0" dll from the CD had to be installed before I was actually talking to the card. The flashing LED on the card should have been a clue. It went solid once I actually connected. After that I followed the configuration steps from that doc above and once that part was done, my steppers now turn.

    I still have a lot of configuration tweaks to perform once I actually build the rest of the unit. And one 'smoked' TB6600 driver to replace after I reversed the 24V polarity accidentally during all my troubleshooting. <sigh> But I now know the basic setup is sound and not DOA.

    I do need to continue to research the EN connections. Most people do not use them on this card but the docs indicate the pins exist. And most agree that not using the EN connection causes unnecessary heat build up in the steppers. Mine are a little warm as we speak actually. So I guess I need to research into whether it is preferred to lock the motors or leave them free.

    Thanks everyone. If I find out anything else useful that is related to this thread I will add it. But for now I think I have made it past my first boss battle LOL.

    Thanks all

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    1516

    Re: Seeking Documentation - ST-USB to BL-TB6600-V1.2 D409 connections

    Quote Originally Posted by Malachite View Post

    I do need to continue to research the EN connections. Most people do not use them on this card but the docs indicate the pins exist. And most agree that not using the EN connection causes unnecessary heat build up in the steppers. Mine are a little warm as we speak actually. So I guess I need to research into whether it is preferred to lock the motors or leave them free.
    Thanks everyone. If I find out anything else useful that is related to this thread I will add it. But for now I think I have made it past my first boss battle LOL.

    Thanks all
    Glad to hear you're getting there.
    Likely the Mach copy is shady but as longs as it works eh!.

    Enable basically disables the motors when not in use/idle.to 1, save power 2, reduce heat in an idle state.
    Can also tie it into an estop relay (or direct depending on voltges being used) to disable and stop the motors in an estop situation.

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