[speedy 1]

Greeting Mill/Turn owners

Recently purchased a second hand (maybe even third hand ?) Mill/Turn.
A clean 7 year old machine that appeared to never have cut any material.
No scratches or dings on the machine, stock tool bits are untouched, no part files or machining files stored on the basically barren computer.
Based on the nameplate I'd guess it was the third one made back in January 2015

Type M-CNC 9212
Year 201501
Serial #MS-0150003

As far as I can tell all the manuals are here.
Spindles will manual run from the VFD but any form of computer control does not drive the stepper motors.
Thinking the problem starts at the Gecko drive ... indicator light on the Gecko drive stays red.
Sorting thru the manuals and nothing is jumping out to me yet.

Any Ideas ?

Thanks
Steve

[instructor37]

Be sure the charge pump switch is in the OFF position.

[speedy 1]

Be sure the charge pump switch is in the OFF position.

THX
The charge pump switch was in the ON position ... Changing it didn't solve the issue though.
On the advise of Chicago Lathe tech support person I checked voltages, connections etc and got it running.
No idea what wiggle fixed the issue ... still a mystery ... but it works.

[instructor37]

Glad to hear- we found that the Gecko drives are sensitive to loose connections, so be sure all your stepper cables are secured with the screws.

[speedy 1]

New problem preventing the machine axis(s) from moving.

The stepper motors are now energizing but Mach 3 isn't talking to them.
The software is showing "Emergency Mode Activated" ... " External E-STOP Requested "
Pushing the flashing " RESET " button isn't clearing the problem.
Reviewing this issue on the internet the general forum chatter points to a grounding problem.
Anyone with knowledge of the Mill Turn machine ... is there a quick solution you can point out ?

Configuration details are set to the attached screenshots as provided with the machine computer.

[speedy 1]

Turns out the primary problem was a bad 25 pin printer cable between the computer and Gecko driver.
Took quite a bit of head scratching, watching YouTube videos, and conversing thru email with shoptask support to get to enough understanding with how MACH 3 controls the machine.
Hopefully will be making parts soon :-)