Mach4 nightmare

[stevehuckss396]

I have searched and watched all the youtube videos and cannot come up with an answer.

Brand new computer with windows 10
Old Lathe control panel with zero wiring changes. Added ESS smoothstepper and plugged the old parallel cable into the new ribbon cable
Installed mach4 and setup the smoothie
Configured everything to what I believe is correct. Checked many times

X and Z axis will only jog one way and they move together. I have X configured on pins 2 and 3 and Z configured on pins 6 and 7. I have checked at least a dozen times to be sure that X is motor 0 and Z is motor 1. I switched back and fourth between the smoothie setup and the mach4 setup but I have to believe I missed something or clicked something that should not be clicked.

Anybody ever have this kind of thing happen to them? If someone could maybe suggest some things to check? I can post photos of setup screens if that will help. I have been running licensed Mach3 for 15 years so this upgrade to mach4 is alot of "new" for an old fart. Im stumped!

So this morning  I tried to start from scratch. I reinstalled everything. Ran down the Warp9 installation guide step for step. Everything seems to be doing what its supposed to. X+, Z- & Z+ jog buttons make both motors move at the same time in the same direction. X- jog button does nothing. I think the ESS must be bad. What else could it be?

[EddyCurrent]

Are you connected to the correct port on the ESS ?

[Dragonfly]

Mach4 Plugin for the USS (USB SmoothStepper)

The USS will not run satisfactorily with Mach4, and so there will never be a Mach4 plugin.

 

https://warp9td.com/index.php/sw#PluginUssMachFour

This seems to be the answer ...

[stevehuckss396]

I have the ESS not the USS.

Yes I have good communication with the Ess. The install went great and found it right away. If I turn off power I get the error message and am able to restore communication with no trouble. It's just when I jog both motors move together.

I think I have a bad ESS. Motors jog together and wont reverse. According to the DRO's mach thinks everything is fine.

[dave benson]

HI Steve

You may have better luck on the ESS forum.
to try to narrow the problem down a bit try this:

Fire up Mach4 and the machine, check the jog buttons are still not working.
Then go to the MDI page and set a suitable safe feedrate type in something like
G1 X2
G1 X0
If the the behaviour is the same as the keys then you may want to check the pin out
on the cable.
There might be some confusion here as they say they have changed the IDC
numbers to suit the DB25.

If you have a Multimeter:
I'd find the X direction pin on the IDC header of the ESS (unplug it from the machine) and send
commands like G0 X2 from the MDI see if it's high or low Type in G0 X0  see if the direction
has changed state. if it hasn't changed state it's most likely a software setup issue
could be a hardware issue but unlikely unless you have plugged that pin into 12v.

If the pin on the IDC header has changed state then the port pins setup (for that pin is good)
and the problem lays with the controller hardware not the ESS  either the cable pin assignments
need reviewing or the cable has a fault.

If on the other hand the motors work fine from the MDI screen then it's a software set up issue
for example you may have set the X and Z motors to be slaved or may have set the same pin numbers for them. or the macro's for the Jog buttons may need to be looked at.

Some Bobs need power supplied to them, and to do this on some controllers you need to set a Jumper.


Dave

[Bubba]

Removed my original post because is irrelevant. Somehow I understood the whole setup was working previously under Mach3.

[stevehuckss396]

I forgot to mention it  but I did the mid thing and no matter what I typed in the motors move together. I sent an email to warp9 so I will see what they say. The multimeter might be the only answer.

[Garyhlucas]

Sounds to me like you may have the two axis slaved together like on a router with two motors per axis.

[stevehuckss396]

Yes it does but in the setup they are not slaved. Also they dont run in reverse. I emailed warp 9 a couple days ago for some suggestions but have not got a reply. Maybe i should scrap the ess and start looking for something else.

[dave benson]

Hi Steve

The ESS is a nice (and spendy) piece of kit and once got going it will
serve you well.

If your at a loose end while to'ing and fro'ing with the emails you can make this test
which will tell you if the ESS pins for the Z and X direction are operating ok.

Disconnect the plug from the ESS to your machine so that you can probe the port
at the ESS.
Fire up Mach4 but do not try to move any axis or do anything on the keyboard keyboard.
Probe the state of the pins.  note down the state of the pins. 
for example they could be both High.
Now go to the ESS ports and pin page and invert those two pins,save and exit mach4
maybe even at this point kill the power to the ESS this might not be necessary but I'm
cautious.

Fire up Mach4 and the ESS and probe those pins again.
If the ESS's port pins are OK, then both of them will have changed state.
If they have then the ESS can control them then it's either it's a settings thing
or a cable pin assignment.

If you got this far and the Ess is good then I would plug in the cable, at the ESS and probe
the DB25 on the other end. not plugged into the machine yet.

You might need a friend to help, as one of you is probing the port the other one
is pressing the keys. If you have a budget multimeter then it may have a slow update
rate meaning that some fast transient signals might not be registered, giving you
a misleading reading (the X and Z step pins) so press the keys log enough for the meter
to register.

If you get good signalling then the cable is ok, if not you may have to re-assign pins
or check for solder bridges ect.

Things like this are hard to diagnose at the machine little lone half a world away
I think you have wires that are touching for example the X and the Z step pins
this is why they both spin your motors when pressed.
and the dir pins when connected together will give you only one direction.


Dave

[stevehuckss396]

If I take the parallel cable out of the ribbon cable and plug it back into the other computer with mach3 on it it works just fine so there are no wiring errors from the breakout board out. The only thing that has changed is the new computer, ethernet cable, ess, and the ribbon cable.

I have a new bob coming with a male db25 on it so I can plug the ribbon into the bob and eliminate the parallel cable. Should be here in time for the weekend. I can swap that out and bust out the fluke and see if I find anything.

[stevehuckss396]

Panel photos

[EddyCurrent]

Mine is connected from the bob to port1 via a ribbon cable so it's a direct 1 to 1 connection of the pins, your parallel cable might be wired differently so eliminating that as you suggest is a good idea.

[Dragonfly]

I also hold suspicion about the cable. Standard parallel cables actually do not have 25 separate wires. They are less and about 10 pins are tied together to ground. On a classic parallel port they work OK but maybe on ESS pin wiring there are more actively used pins and signals are interconnected or shorted by the cable. Not familiar with ESS though, just an assumption.

[stevehuckss396]

Well it's fixed!

What fixed it? I have no idea! I had a breakout board with a female DB25 so I replaced it with a BOB with a Male DB25. Plugged the ribbon into the BOB and it worked fine. Must have been the parallel cable? The BOB?

The smoothstepper seems fine although I never received a reply to a request for help.

I now can carry on with setup on the Mach4 and get back to making parts.

Thanks to all who offered help. Much appreciated!