[CNCMAN172]

Do you have manual for your Bob? It looks like you can select the power source from usb or external with a jumper. Make sure it is using the 5v from usb to make sure the ice on board are getting powered

Russ

[dazp1976]

Here is a lovely pic of the the engraver electronics before i hooked up mach3 bob

There's 2 ways you can do the bob. Common anode or Common cathode.
Common anode is when all driver positives are connected to vcc/pc5v+ and negatives are connected to control pins. (low).
Common cathode is when all driver negatives are connected to ground and all driver positives are connected to control pins. (high).

So common anode (for example 4 axis cnc)
ALL DRIVERS> pul+/dir+/Enble+ are connected to 5v+.
P1 is pwm, jumper select for pin or analog output.
P2X, pul-
P3X, dir-
P4Y, pul-
P5Y, dir-
P6Z, pul-
P7Z, dir-
P8A, pul-
P9A, dir-
P14, enbl- ON ALL DRIVERS
P16, aux (coolant)
P17, M3/M4 jumper select pin or relay

For common cathode simply switch all the +/- wiring around, some drivers prefer high pulsing. Change active low to high.
Eg, X= pul-/dir-/enbl- to GND. Pul+ to P2 dir+ to P3 (high).
And so on.


Mach3 for on board relay and analog use.
Axis as above for P2-9, pin? Port1
Spindle, step= P1, Dir= 0!!!. Active Low.

If you put dir pin to 17 the relay goes active on boot up.
If use spindle relays is checked and pin set in dir the relay does dumb stuff.

Outputs.
Enable#1, P14 port1
Out#1= Eg M7 mist, P16 port1. Low
Out#2= M4, fake ccw/cw output call it, P17 port2. Low
Out#3= M3, connected ccw/cw output, P17 port1. Low

Having m3 and m4 helps not confuse the single relay.

Spindle. M3, output#3. M4, output#2. M7, output#1.
Enable relays, enable pwm.

Should be more or less.

Here is a pdf manual. Wiring is done as common anode.

https://warp9td.com/images/BOB_Vendors/StepperOnline/ST-V2.pdf

[Shelby5041]

The bob was brand new..i opened it today...the red 5v led is lit up and i have 5v at output pin on bob...sonething simple must be incomoatible with these old 1980s drivers that im missing....thsnks for the manual...ill look at it

[dazp1976]

The bob was brand new..i opened it today...the red 5v led is lit up and i have 5v at output pin on bob...sonething simple must be incomoatible with these old 1980s drivers that im missing....thsnks for the manual...ill look at it

See my latest post.
Maybe these aren't enabled by default and need the enable signal.
Maybe they prefer common cathode/anode wiring.
Info and manual are in my post.

[Shelby5041]

My drivers are from 1980s..they do not look like driver in msch3 bob manual.....see attach

[Shelby5041]

My drivers are from 1980s..they do not look like driver in msch3 bob manual...how would i wire mine for y axis only

..see attach

[Shelby5041]

Here is the manual for my drivers..it mentions logic sinking is needed...im not into electrnics so i dont know ehat that means but it may hsve somrthing to do with my issue?...yes ive been looking at those pages a lot and its confusing to me....the driver logic common does go to chassis ground..i checked that the other day.

[dazp1976]

My drivers are from 1980s..they do not look like driver in msch3 bob manual...how would i wire mine for y axis only

..see attach

Defo Read pages 23 to 27 of the manual.
I haven't time.
My theory is the logic common is negative (it mentions chassis) which means, that wants to go to GND pin and the pul/ccw want to be positive high.
Common cathode wiring as mentioned earlier.

https://www.kollmorgen.com/sites/default/files/public_downloads/230-430T_Instructions_en-US_RevA.pdf

This can be figured out and work, that's something.
Defo compatible

[CNCMAN172]

The documentation on this board is terrible. On this board you must configure the estop inputs or it disables all axis. You need to wire up an estop switch to the Bob and configure the estop in Mach3. Once you have done this and it is not tripped all axis will be enabled. They show the 12-24v supply is optional but I could not find a schematic to verify. You have to configure the Bob correctly it is not because your drivers are from 1980

Russ

[Shelby5041]

Not sure..i used this style mach3 bob on 3 of my other cncs with no estop...and it works fine..but they are more recent machines....and the 12v-24v is optional but it is needed to enable the input section of the bob board if using limits and estop or probe which im not.

[dazp1976]

The documentation on this board is terrible. On this board you must configure the estop inputs or it disables all axis. You need to wire up an estop switch to the Bob and configure the estop in Mach3. Once you have done this and it is not tripped all axis will be enabled. They show the 12-24v supply is optional but I could not find a schematic to verify. You have to configure the Bob correctly it is not because your drivers are from 1980

Russ

Simply set active low/high state to act as a normally open switch. No switch is now needed.
Done.

Like I said before IO logic is just on or off.
Voltage on or voltage off. (active high/active low).
With switches, off is normally open, on is normally closed.

[Shelby5041]

Ill mess with it tomorrow..at this point i dont know how to wire these old 1980s unusual drivers to the mach3 bob...

The only wires i cut were the y axis pu and cw/ccw ...all other wires are same as before

So why connecting the pu and cw ccw driver wires to the mach3 bob and connecting logic ground to msch3 gnd and not working is a mystery to me

[Shelby5041]

Using orig setup is there a simple way to increase the voltage being sent by the parallel port just a bit to trigger logic high?..i rather not use bob and it seems mach3 bob may not work on this old technology drivers anyway... im not elect savy but what about just using an 1.5v AAA battery and connect the parallel port dir wire to batt neg then connect batt pos to the driver dir pin..would this add to the 3.5v from parallel port ? Or would this damage my patallel port?If not is there a way to add 1.5v before the dir pin to make it 5v total once signal is sent?

[dazp1976]

Using orig setup is there a simple way to increase the voltage being sent by the parallel port just a bit to trigger logic high?..i rather not use bob and it seems mach3 bob may not work on this old technology drivers anyway... im not elect savy but what about just using an 1.5v AAA battery and connect the parallel port dir wire to batt neg then connect batt pos to the driver dir pin..would this add to the 3.5v from parallel port ? Or would this damage my patallel port?If not is there a way to add 1.5v before the dir pin to make it 5v total once signal is sent?

Risk.
Go back to the pull up resistor idea.
Get the 5v power for the resistors from the pc.
Much of the cnc stuff I see seems to use 2.2k ones. Double check.
The way it works is: the higher the value of resistor the less current (Ma) can pass through it.
Trick is not to go too high or too low, hmmmm.


You've cut the wires already so if they still soldered to the paraport I'd use a plastic connector block. Join cable between driver and pport and Stick R in there on another cable going to 5v supply.

[CNCMAN172]

Dazp,
I do think this BOB needs to be configured for Common Cathode, but the manual you provided did not show much detail for this board, especially the configuration setup. If you zoom way in on the photo you can see the little white connectors are labels with Step/Dir and Enable. What I found seems to suggest the enable is controlled by the estop circuitry. Again, there is no schematic for this actual board making this a little difficult to configure and figure out exactly.

Shelby,
You can actually take a DB25 connector and solder on 1K to 4.5K resistors which will pull up the open collector transistors and that would allow the units to work. Open collector transistors always require a logic level low to turn on the transistor. The direction input requires a low to high transition according to your driver manual, but the PU stepping in put want to see negative pulses, so as the input comes in it creates a pulse signal. That is why the stepping signal works without the pullup resistor but the direction will only work in one direction.

Russ

[CNCMAN172]

Shelby,

Well I have finally had a chance to run down stairs and test my fix for your machine. It works perfect. The attached photo shows my test rig, and the second photo shows the schematic that fixes the direction issue on your machine. Send me your address and I will make a small breadboard with the few components and wires labelled so you can update the machine.

Attachment 479372

Attachment 479370

Russ

[CNCMAN172]

Shelby,
New cables for you.

[Shelby5041]

Cncman is awesome

He came up with a solution for my engraver issue

It now works great

)