[Newbie] Motor shafts not turning on cnc machine

Thank you for that information. In the meantime a friend of mine who knows computers much more than me checked it out and it seems to be o.k. The computer is only a few months old so doesn't have much on it. It did come with security and I did hook it up to the internet which I don't need , so I will disconnect the internet and disable the security for starters. You gave me lots of information and will take some time to learn and understand, so stay tuned.
Randy
 
Your issues are much more likely to do with parallel communications or the Mach3 settings than windows security and being hooked to the internet. I'm using the same board with TB6600 drives but running LinuxCNC rather than Mach 3. Are you sure that you have good communication from the PC to the board? That's the first place I would start since using the parallel port was so many versions of windows back it may require some serious tweaking to get that working.

You can also download a version of LinuxCNC that will run off a USB thumb drive http://www.linuxcnc.org/docs/html/getting-started/getting-linuxcnc.html which may help with troubleshooting. It's a dedicated machine controller operating system so you don't have to worry so much about the quirks of windows and keeping it updated. If you're not super familiar with windows 10 you might as well start here since much of what you need to learn doesn't have anything to do with general productivity computing and it sounds like you're running a dedicated PC for your machine.

Once you get your computer talking to the controller board then you can hook up your drives and stepper motors. It took me a lot of tweaking the settings to make mine do what I wanted, this is definitely not a "plug and play" exercise so don't expect it to be easy no matter what software/hardware you have. However, many people are using these controllers and cheap drives successfully so keep at it and keep searching for info. I didn't get my stuff running right until I watched some youtube videos and read the manual backwards:rolleyes:

Cheers,

John
 
Hi John,
I am not using the parallel port, I'm using a smooth stepper that connects to a usb port. No I'm not sure about a good communications from pc to BoB. When everything is on I get two steady red lights, it looks like there is another light that is not lit at all, it's so small I can't tell. Do you know how to check the BoB to see if it's working? Yes the new computer is dedicated to the machine. I have another computer with windows 10 which I am very familiar with. I have been at this for about 2 months, lots of reading and youtubes. I will look into the linuxcnc link you sent. Thank you for your help, I do appreciate it. Santa Cruz, Elk Rapids I live about 60 miles north of Santa Cruz in San Ramon
My Regards to You Randy
 
Hi Randy,

Looking at your photo which is kinda small it does appear a cables are hooked to both the parallel and the USB ports. Unless your ST-V3 is different from mine the USB is only used to provide power to the board. It's this one, right?


I selected the ST-V3 board based on price but I had to buy a PCI parallel card for my PC in order to make it work. I've been in the tech industry most of my career so I'm pretty well acquainted with this stuff but it kinda kicked my but for a while before I got it working. So, unless there's something I'm not understanding about your setup you'll have to do the same as me and either get a parallel card or use an older PC that has one built in.

I do have a Mesa Electronics Ethernet controller card I'm planning on using when I get around to building a new control box but getting it to talk has been a challenge so far with different builds for LinuxCNC that I hadn't anticipated. But, it's all part of the learning process I signed up for when I decided to build my own machine. Here's one of my build threads if you're curious.

www.hobby-machinist.com

Homemade vertical mill/drill CNC project

I'm sure some of you have seen my posts in the general section about this project. https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/homemade-vertical-mill-drill.77611/page-3#post-664686 But now that I'm ready to start on the controls I figured it would fit better here (mods please let me know if...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com

Cheers,

John
 
Hi John,
Yes there are cables from the usb and parallel port on the bob. the usb is for the 5v power. The parallel port goes to the warp 9 smooth stepper, then the smooth stepper goes to a usb port on the pc. As you know mach 3 does not support windows 10 64 bit system. The smooth stepper is supposed to fix those problems. The parallel port is only used for the screen.
I looked at your project, it's nice to see movement and progress, looking forward to that day.
Best Regards
Randy
 
It might be useful to try and isolate where the failure is. I was looking at the USB SmoothStepper manual and it describes how to test the connection to the smoothstepper from Mach3 One you have that verified, then I suggest that you add the BOB and test for something simple, like a limit switch or the ESTOP. Once you have that working then move on to configuring the steppers.
 
rdbradley8 said:
Hi John,
Yes there are cables from the usb and parallel port on the bob. the usb is for the 5v power. The parallel port goes to the warp 9 smooth stepper, then the smooth stepper goes to a usb port on the pc. As you know mach 3 does not support windows 10 64 bit system. The smooth stepper is supposed to fix those problems. The parallel port is only used for the screen.
I looked at your project, it's nice to see movement and progress, looking forward to that day.
Best Regards
Randy
Click to expand...
Hi Randy,

I had heard of the smooth stepper and I just looked over their website, but I'm not really sure why it makes sense to use one over an ethernet or USB controller board especially since it costs nearly as much. In any case verifying connectivity is key, according to their website it uses a parallel connection to interface with the controller board. The USB version only seems to work with Mach 3 which is end of life so I'm also unclear on why one would build a new machine but use obsolete software to run it.

Your photos only show the ST-V3 so I assume the parallel cable is connected to the smooth stepper which is hooked to your pc via USB. If you want it to work you will have to confirm connectivity from your PC > SmoothStepper > ST-V3 > stepper drivers > stepper motors. Or, USB from your PC to the smooth stepper and parallel to the SainSmart ST-V3 to the stepper drivers to the steppers. If any of these connections (either physical or software) aren't right you'll be dead in the water.

Parallel communication is what allows your PC to tell the ST-V3 how many steps (and what direction) to have the stepper drivers turn the motor shafts (your original question). The smooth stepper is a motion control device that tells the ST-V3 (which is a motion control device in it's own right) what to do using parallel communications. Your screen (display) is driven by the video chip set on your PC, it is not an any way related to the parallel port on the ST-V3.

I'm sorry if this all sounds convoluted but I come from the days of soldering custom DB25 parallel cables for connecting 300 baud modems to the first IBM PC's, and modifying the communication strings to make them talk over POTS telephone lines. The smooth stepper may allow you to bypass having a direct parallel connection to your PC but it's not really "fixing a problem", it's just letting you use today's serial communication (USB) instead of legacy parallel communication because modern operating systems don't allow direct manipulation of hardware like older systems did (for security reasons mainly).

Your system just has an additional piece (the smooth stepper) that mine doesn't because I use parallel communications straight from my pc.

I hope this helps you solve your issue. The smooth stepper people do recommend against using Mach3 since it's end of life even though the sell a product which apparently requires it. I understand how people like to keep older, familiar software around since it used to be my job to get rid of it. I was updating my Windows 10 system the other day which dual boots on the Ubuntu Linux machine I'm typing on now and it struck me how Microsoft continues to keep patching their old stuff for as long as customers will stand for it. Windows 10 is now TEN years old, used to be three years was a long time to keep an OS around but now????

Good luck with your machine.


Cheers,

1ohn
 
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Hi John,
I only know how to build stuff, I know exactly nothing about the electronics/software to operate the cnc, which leads to total ignorance and not doing enough research, I ended up with outdated electronics.
In device manager > smooth stepper> properties, it says "this device is working properly". The lights on the board are doing what they are supposed to be doing. On the bob, when I'm logged into mach 3, I get 2 steady red lights. I connected an emergency stop to the bob from ground through the switch to input 4, then I entered pin 13 for the e-stop in mach3. Didn't matter if the switch was activated or not when I pushed the reset button in mach 3 it wouldn't stop blinking.
I have been going around in circles with the physical wiring. At first I wired it by the diagram the company sent me. Then I got on the internet and wired it other ways. Bob's are not expensive, I'm thinking about buying another one. If that's not the problem I'm ready to buy other components except for the motors. Does your components support windows 10 with a 64 bit system? The internet is filled with suggestions and ideas which leads to confusion. I would like to have a system such as yours where someone could guide me through the process.
Cheers to You too,
Randy
 
Hi Randy,

I’m not familiar with Mach 3 at all so if that’s what you plan on running I really can’t help. I’m sure your configuration can be made to work but any of these systems will require some learning on your part, I know it did for me;)

If you can find an older PC with a parallel port you can install LinuxCNC and that should be able to talk directly to the ST-V3.

Others may be able to address the Windows 10/smooth stepper config.

John
 
On post 14 there is an attachment called wiring driver.jpg

I built my own GRBL controller, with stand alone drivers, and I remember you have to jump those two pins you have jumped, but I recall I had to then run a wire to my CNC shield or ground I believe. Your pic just shows them jumped but not conntected to anything else.

I don't have my control box in front of me, but here is a link to GRBL controller where it shows two of the pins jumped and then running to the CNC shield. Sorry for the spotty info, but the pic you posted jumped out at me, like hey I remember jumping them then running it to somewhere else in my control box.
 
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