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need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:37 pm
by Rex
I am retrofitting an Emco 5 CNC. All the OE electronics are gone.

I am using this stepper driver. http://www.xylotex.com/XS3525V202.pdf

....with this stepper motor http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.co ... h256-28-4a

Powered by a 12V 5amp power supply

Running Mach3. I have it all hooked up on my desktop, set the Vrefs per the Xylotex instructions.
Connected the 8-wire stepper using the Bipolar series diagram.

Now I'm getting lockup when I apply power, but I can't get it to jog in Mach3.

Any suggestions welcome.

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:37 am
by hanermo
If the dros move in mach3, your bob address is wrong.

Whats the connection done with ?

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:19 am
by Rex
The DROs do move.
The BOB is built in to the Xylotex driver. The printer cable plugs in to the board.
The pin assignments are correct in Mach3 per the board documentation: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Is that what you mean by address?

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:00 am
by DICKEYBIRD
I'm no expert but have you checked to make sure the Enable jumpers are in place? Other than that, dunno unless those 8 wire steppers can somehow be wired that causes them to lock up yet not move under Mach control?? All mine have been 4 wire; screw up the wiring & they just don't work. Thought just occurred: parallel port setting, ie: ECP or the other, I forget which. Also, the fellers over on the Mach3 forum have always been a great help to me. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php

ps: When you get 'er running, you'll probably want to go to a higher PS voltage, at least 24V if not 30V. Prolly be kinda slow on 12V.

Good luck & please post the fix.

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:23 am
by Rex
Dickeybird

Enable jumpers are correct, checked those last night.

Stepper wiring: online documentation is conflicting. The supplier is Automtaion Technologies which has a support forum on CNCZone. That person was no help - two-sentence instruction that conflicted with the documentation. No answer to followup questions.

I set the Par Port according to the Mach instructions. The defaults looked right. I don't recall anything about ECP. It is a new bidirectional Parallel port card. Cable is straight through on all pins.

Actually, I bought a 24V PS for this project. When I hooked it up I got no output, so I got out the 12V PS just to get it going. I'll get another 24V PS once I get the axes actually moving, even slowly.

Thanks for the input. Maybe I need to try this on the machsupport forum. I did search that forum but found nothing helpful.

I'll continue to monitor this thread of course, and post when I find the issue.

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 1:02 pm
by DICKEYBIRD
I wish I could be more help. This stuff is hard on us old guys without loads of 'puter knowledge. I'm thinking it's something in your parallel port setup though. I've seen quite a bit of chatter about those add-on PP cards. Oh yeah, you do have XP 32 bit right?

Good Luck
Milton

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 1:28 pm
by Rex
The shop computer is XP 32-bit. Parallel port was OE on the MB.
The home computer is Win7 64-bit. Parallel port is a new PCI card bought yesterday.

Behaviour was the same on both. Beyond the port address, pin assignments and axis enables there isn't another variable that I know of.

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 3:08 pm
by DICKEYBIRD
Hmm, definitely should work with the XP/32; pretty sure I've read that Mach doesn't work with 64 bit anything via the P/P.

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 10:37 am
by Magicniner
64 bit Windows doesn't support parallel ports

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 10:55 am
by Rex
Yep, I'm finding that out. I'll take this rig back to the shop and plug it back into the XP machine.

I did notice that after trying to reset the LPT port address, when I pulled the power from the stepper drive, the motor buzzed momentarily. It did not do that before, so maybe that's a clue as to the issue.

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:11 am
by DICKEYBIRD
Hey Rex, did you ever get this going? If so, what did you do?

Re: need help - test my Emco 5 CNC retrofit setup

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:45 am
by Rex
deleted. I have two or three conversions going at the same time, and this post goes to the Emco lathe project.