[kish89]

Hello,

I have bought this controller from ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=260509188593

And I'm not sure if it is working properly.
I'm supplying it with 20V DC , and I'm using some 4-wire stepper motor from old printers.
When I connect stepper to driver(i'm supplying it with 20V), and to PC's LPT port , suddenly there is high current draw( about 2A), but steppers are not spinning!
When I disconnect cable from LPT port, current draw disappears and it is about 30mA, which is good because steppers are not spinning.
Am I doing something wrong?

I'm newbie in this, so please be gentle

Thanks!

[dilbert0815]

When I connect stepper to driver(i'm supplying it with 20V), and to PC's LPT port , suddenly there is high current draw( about 2A), but steppers are not spinning!
When I disconnect cable from LPT port, current draw disappears and it is about 30mA, which is good because steppers are not spinning.
Am I doing something wrong?

I'm newbie in this, so please be gentle

How about using a control program like Mach3 or EMC2 :withstupi

Stepper draw current without turning.

The board is passive and needs control from the control program.
It seems like the your board is enabled by a port pin that is already set on your PC without the control program.
Not very nice but not unheared of.
On my 5-axis board this is the case with the relay port.
I need to start the control program first before I turn on power to the stepper board.

Peter

[kish89]

How about using a control program like Mach3 or EMC2 :withstupi

Stepper draw current without turning.

The board is passive and needs control from the control program.
It seems like the your board is enabled by a port pin that is already set on your PC without the control program.
Not very nice but not unheared of.
On my 5-axis board this is the case with the relay port.
I need to start the control program first before I turn on power to the stepper board.

Peter

Probably there is a problem with LPT port (all pins are high), because there are 3 LED's on board for 3 axis, and when I plug cable to PCs LPT port , those LED's automaticly lights , and they shouldn't if stepper is not turning.

So, first I need to low all LPT pins , then I will post results.

Regards, Tihomir

[dilbert0815]

Probably there is a problem with LPT port (all pins are high), because there are 3 LED's on board for 3 axis, and when I plug cable to PCs LPT port , those LED's automaticly lights , and they shouldn't if stepper is not turning.

So, first I need to low all LPT pins , then I will post results.

Regards, Tihomir

LPT port pins are rather undefined.
There are definitely pins that are set low or highdepending on the BIOS or other things in the PC. These pins would enable funtions on the stepper control board.
So it's the job of the control program to initialise the LPT port first !
So PLEASE start a control program first, then continue.
Or you are chasing ghosts

When you have started Mach3, EMC2 or another CNC control program the ports status should be fine.
If not you might have a realy broken LPT and need to replace it.

P.S. By the way, stepper motors ARE powered and drawing current even while NOT turning.
The led only indicate the port pin status NOT that the motors shall be turning.

[kish89]

LPT port pins are rather undefined.
There are definitely pins that are set low or highdepending on the BIOS or other things in the PC. These pins would enable funtions on the stepper control board.
So it's the job of the control program to initialise the LPT port first !
So PLEASE start a control program first, then continue.
Or you are chasing ghosts

When you have started Mach3, EMC2 or another CNC control program the ports status should be fine.
If not you might have a realy broken LPT and need to replace it.

P.S. By the way, stepper motors ARE powered and drawing current even while NOT turning.
The led only indicate the port pin status NOT that the motors shall be turning.

As I said, the problem was in LPT port.
I'm using some old IBM laptop for testing purposes.
In BIOS there was one option "bi-directional" , and I have changed it to "output only".
If I leave "bi-directional" mode ON , in Windows Mach3 or any other software just can't change LPT pins output, as they are locked.
Now, everything is working, but steppers are pretty hot, but this is probably hardware problem, so I will play with current limiting.

Thanks for help

[dilbert0815]

In BIOS there was one option "bi-directional" , and I have changed it to "output only".
If I leave "bi-directional" mode ON , in Windows Mach3 or any other software just can't change LPT pins output, as they are locked.

That's strange.
The "normal" (non ECP) bidirectional mode is just a bit that needs to be flipped for setting output mode.
That should normally being solved by the windows driver.
How else a printer driver should be able to send data.

Could it be you have the wrong LPT driver enabled in Windows? I'm rather unshure wether the non-bidirectional driver would reset the direction bit correctly.
Otherwise I could not imagine how a "modern" program like Mach3 can ignore such standard features as the bidectional mode of LPT.

Another idea may be the IBM guys put in a mode for external floppy or other drives. Have seen something like this on older Compaqs. This might be non standard and Windows and Mach don't know about it.

Regarding current limitation: the board very likely has a feature called auto-flo . It should be possible to select the board to reduce the current in idle. That helps a lot keeping the steppers cooler.
If just those chinese stuff would come with better documentation

Peter

[kish89]

That's strange.
The "normal" (non ECP) bidirectional mode is just a bit that needs to be flipped for setting output mode.
That should normally being solved by the windows driver.
How else a printer driver should be able to send data.

Could it be you have the wrong LPT driver enabled in Windows? I'm rather unshure wether the non-bidirectional driver would reset the direction bit correctly.
Otherwise I could not imagine how a "modern" program like Mach3 can ignore such standard features as the bidectional mode of LPT.

Another idea may be the IBM guys put in a mode for external floppy or other drives. Have seen something like this on older Compaqs. This might be non standard and Windows and Mach don't know about it.

Regarding current limitation: the board very likely has a feature called auto-flo . It should be possible to select the board to reduce the current in idle. That helps a lot keeping the steppers cooler.
If just those chinese stuff would come with better documentation

Peter

It's not only Mach3 ignoring features of bi-directional mode.
I have tried to change state of pins (high ,low) with some tiny program(several programs) which controls LPT port, and I didn't make it.
When I have changed to "only output" mode , I was able to change states.
So obviusly there is problem with LPT driver (I'm using standard windows xp driver).
On other PC, LPT pins state can be changed with bi-directional mode ON.

I didn't see any "auto-flo" feature in board spec's.
Steppers are buzzing and squeing when idle..

[kish89]

On the board, there is 15PIN connector for manual control.
Can somebody help me make some schematic.
Pins are:
P1- X step
P2- X empowe
P3- spind
P4- X dir
P5- Y empowe
P6- Z dir
P7- Z step
P8- Z empowe
P9- Y limit
P10- Z limit
P11- Y dir
P12- Y step
P13- STOP
P14- GND
P15- 5V / VDD

[robohobby]

Hi there...

Mach3 uses its own "special" LPT driver, as the windows one was not stable enough to handle higher rpms. Perhaps reinstalling Mach3 (including the driver) might be useful.

Make sure you REBOOT:
* After uninstalling Mach+Driver
* after reinstalling Mach+Driver
...unless you like BSOD

Good luck...

Robo.

[DEJEDERAMA]

Please help!!!!!
I just finished hooking up my 3 axis cnc board (it is a tb6065 from ebay) and decided to give it a trial run with a hand controller (from ebay china as well), now only x axis is responding I switched the connectors at the board to test y and z axis to make sure the motors were working and they are , in other words , it seems that x axis output at the board is the only one that is executing orders , any suggestions? is my board shut? is the controller shut? Please help !!!!

[doorknob]

Do you have access to an oscilloscope?

A good way to start your troubleshooting would be to see whether or not the hand controller is putting out step pulses on the Y and Z axes, and whether the step pulses are appearing on the pins of the TB6560 ICs for those axes.

If you can not use an oscilloscope, then perhaps you could use (or build) a logic probe to answer that question.

Do you see any activity (blinking) of any LEDs on the board when you try to drive either the X, Y, or Z axis via the controller?