My kit doesn't run
 

My kit doesn't run

Hello friends, this affternoon I wired my first CNC Keling kit, 3 stepmotors of 640 oz/ inch, 3 drivers KL-5056, a parallel port board C10 and the power sources. I did it according to the wiring sample that Keling offers for this kind of kit, I checked every connection several times, I have to say that I don’t understand very well the function of the DIP switches which are in the drivers, then I plugged it to my computer and I run a sample in Mach 3 however it didn´t work, I check the essencial set ups for the program, the cable of the parallel port, the set up for the jumpers of the parallel por board, and so on, but nothing, the power indicators are working, drivers and the power source have these lights. In this moment I’m not sure about the possible cause of the failure, I presume:
Altough the program (Mach 3) is running properly it could be generating a bad signal or even no signal, I have only a copy of this program.
My computer (a desk one) and the parallel port board are not generating a significative signal for the C10 board.
Or the C10 has a problem.
I hope you can help me,and if you can, explain me a little more about the DIP swiches that the drivers have, thanks so much for your attention.

We are going to need some pictures and some more setails on how you have the dip switches setup. Also you need to make sure your computer is setup correctly. What is the 640oz motor your using?

coinhunter,

It is not clear to me that you configured Mach for the motors and in ports and pins. Usually the problem is in the way the motors are wired or the configuration of Mach. These are vital for the system to work correctly. If you have not read the configuration files that you can download from Mach, I would suggest that.

Post what you pages look like.

You say you have a copy of Mach. That you downloaded or received from some one. It is easy to down load the latest.

We are happy to help and you might go to the Mach forum if you want Machs help.

Check whether the Mach site has a config file for your setup. I downloaded one and had my system running in minutes (after I swapped around 2 incorrectly wired connections).

I had a computer that couldnt drive the geckos, I had to add a secondary parallel port and it fixed the problem, not sure but that worked for me.

Thanks for your replies, finally I solved the problem, I moved the circuits from the sockets and moreover I moved the DIP switches of the drivers, now I have another problem: My motors work really slow, they run the instructions of the program but without an adequate speed, I think that the problem has to do with the DIP switches but I don't understand the function and use of these ones so it is only a suposition, I set the highest speed in Mach 3, however the movements doesn't have a significative increasing.
Driver from Kellin have eight DIP switches:
Number 1, 2 and 3 are used to select current (amperes)
Number 4 is a mystery, even the brochures from Keling doesn't have enough information about this switch, the table says: "SW4: "1" = Half Current "0" = Full current, I dont understand these terms and how they can affect the performance of the system.
Number 5, 6, 7, 8 are used for Microstep, in the same way, it is not clear for me the use of these ones.
Until this moment I have used the motors in a series connection, maybe a parallel conection would work in a better way, wouldn't it?
Thank for you help.

How can I post photos? Thanks for your interest.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=72

Start here.

Set switches 5 and 8 to 'Off' and switches 6 and 7 to 'On' to select 10 microsteps (which matches the number of microsteps of the Geckdrive stepper drivers that most of us use). When you set the stepper driver to 10 microsteps, the stepper driver will need to be pulsed or 'stepped' 2,000 times per revolution. (A motor without microstepping requires 200 steps per revolution.) 10:1 microstepping gives very good resolution and still lets the motor perform properly (according to Mariss at Geckodrive).

Set Switch 4 to 'Off' so that the current will be automatically reduced to 50% when the stepper is idle (otherwise, the motor will get too hot when it is idle).

Set Switches 1, 2, and 3 On or Off to match the current setting of your motor. It's usually best to select a current setting that matches the motor or one that is LESS than the current setting of the motor. If you set the switches to a number higher than the current setting of the motor, the motor will get too hot when it is run at high speed or when it is pulling a heavy load.

I would wire the motors either half-coil or parallel instead of wiring them bipolar series. Either half-coil or parallel will allow the motors to reach much higher speeds. Half-coil will give you about 70% of the torque of parallel, but it will also let the motor run much cooler than it would if it were connected parallel. I always wire my motors half-coil except when I really need the extra torque that parallel gives. I don't like to run hot motors and wiring them parallel lets them pull 30% more current which means they get much hotter.