Copied from personal thread:

I reinstalled the PMDX122, its the same, J8 to ground 5V, Step to common 1.3V
check the geckos step to common 1.3V, Power to Ground 42 V,
motors cool, cant move by hand while connected, MACH3 running but no movement.

All the ligths are steady green

image with all the ligths green
 

Conrado, I believe you need to set up some more in Mach3's Ports & Pins.

When you use your keyboard cursor keys to move left/right or up/down, the green leds for Direction should go on and off.

Have a look at:

Cannot get motor to turn - Mach Ports & Pins setup

Motors won't turn after the setting up - PMDX-122 jumpers incorrect

Stepper motor refuses to turn - Wiring & jumper errors

Gerald / Conrado,

It has been some time since I wired my machine but I think I see another problem. There are 4 Geckos, X1, X2, Y, Z but yet you are using J1, J2, J3, J4. I think X1 and X2 should both be going to J1?!

Nils, it doesn't make much difference either way, depends on whether one has used the "Slave" setting in Mach3 or not. If you look at our control box, you would see that we have also wired like Conrado, and used the Slave.

Sean left J4 open on yours for adding an indexer later, but then you are not using the Slave.

Both approaches work okay.

Gerald,

That makes sense thanks.

Check page 6 & 7 of the PMDX-122 manual. Make sure you are set properly for the version of Gecko's you are using.
The 203V is ground referenced, which means you would set the jumper for (pins 2-9 & grd) on JP1

I had a similar issue.

Note:

It appears that all the step and direction LED's on the BOB are lit at the same time. Can be (but not always) an indication that the ground/reference jumper needs to be flipped.

Sean:
I moved the Jumper on J1, when is at the botom two all lit green, not moving, when is at the top two everything is off, no lit

MACH3 Configurations
 

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1247151100

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1247151100

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1247151546

Conrado,

I think that your setup is incorrect.

According to the PMDX-122 manual, you have selected the correct pins, but the wrong active level. The green check mark on "Step Low Active" means that the active signal is LOW (0V) and that the inactive signal is HIGH (5V). The G203v requires just the opposite. Click on the step low active boxes so that you have a Red X in each box.

With the G203v common (terminal 10) connected to 0V (Ground), and the PMDX-122 step signal (J1-middle terminal) connected to G203v terminal 9 and MACH3 configured to give active HIGH signals, the motors should turn.

If the motors turn the wrong direction, toggle the Dir Low Active box in Mach3's setup.

Richards:
I changed the Mach3 Setup,acording to you. (Step low active X red)
still no move

Conrado.
Have you tried disconnecting the PMDX and jogging the step/dir input with a low voltage signal (like a AA battery?)

Sean:
Yes, I did, no movement

Conrado,

When I first turn on my machine, I have to hit the red reset button on the MACH3 screen before I can do anything else. Is your's requiring you to do that also?

I'm sure you would have already noticed but I thought I would ask.

Conrado,
My only suggestion would be to start with signal flow from motors and work the way out.
I am sure you have already done this, but as a refresher for those just reading:

- you may want to remove one of the motors from the machine and connect directly to the gecko. Removing all possibilities of faulty wiring or "from factory" wire defects.
- do the battery test again to see if you get any motion from the motors.

....if that doesn't work, i would start over from scratch checking with a meter output voltage of transformer, inductance of motors, resistance/continuity of all wires, resistors on the geckos proper value, PMDX outputs actually working, etc.

Let's do a test with three AA batteries connected in series.

1. Verify that you have stepper power supply Ground connected to G203v Terminal 1

2. Verify that you have stepper power supply +42V connected to G203v Terminal 2

3. Connect a current limiting resistor (8K to 33K) between G203v Terminals 11 and 12

4. Connect the Ground side of the battery pack to G203v Terminal 10

5. Touch the lead from the (+) side of the battery pack to G203v Terminal 9

Each time you perform step 5, the motor should make at least one step. Because of connector bounce, you may get several steps.

You do not have to have any other connections. Be sure that you DON'T have anything connected to Terminal 7. If that line is active (+), the G203v will be disabled.

Dough:

Yes I did push the Reset button (not work), I send a letter asking advice to the Geckodrive and PMDX support mail. Remember been a Newbie I make a lot of mistakes. so I wanted to know how to check if dirvers and breakout board are good if not busted.

Thaks everybody for your interest.

Thanks Mike - clearly an easier step-by-step than my ramblings.

Mike:

I did exactly what you described, using not 3 bateries, but a cell charger rated at 4.4 V

It moooveed!!!.

whats next?

With that test I assume that Gecko and Motors are ok, the PMX 122 is the problem, because its not giving 5V to common/step.

I checked wires, geckos, and PMDx122 and its 1.3V
while testing with 5V (3 pz AA bateries), geckos and motor work fine

Conrado, I am 99% sure that your PMDX is fine and that your problem lies with the Mach3 Ports & Pins setup.

Quickly looking through this thread, I didn't spot anyone mentioning the charge pump settings. Sounds like you set the jumper for the charge pump but that you havn't done the following:

Attachment 5184

I don't know why we checked the Active Low for the charge pump . . . it probably still works without it being checked.

Conrado,

The PMDX-122 comes from the factory with the E-Stop terminals jumpered together (J6-E-Stop, J6-Gnd). Are those two terminals still shorted together (or do you have a Normally Closed switch connected to them)?

When you use G203v stepper drivers, you should be using Figure 2 as a guide for correct setting of the jumpers.

NOTE: You can set JP3 so that the PMDX board ignores the E-stop and the charge pump.

Mike

Yes they are still shorted together.
just wanted motors to turn

I removed it and still no move, move the J3 jumper got the same results

Have you tried another computer? Do you have the parallel port address correctly identified? Etc.,

Can you take your Mach3Mill.xml file, change it to Mach3Mill.txt, and post it here?

yes, I tried on two computers, I will post Xml file

Conrado,

The fact that you have 5VDC when you check the PMDX-122 on J8 shows that the on-board regulator is doing its job. However, the fact that you are only getting about 2.2V at the control outputs shows that the buffer chips that drive the outputs are in their high-zener mode. High-Zener mode means that the outputs are "floating".

If you look at Figure 4, Block diagram of Data Bus Circuitry, you will see how it works. The PC's parallel port sends the step/direction signals on pins 2 through 9. The PMDX sends those signals forward to the control terminals J1, J2, J3 and J4 IF JP5 has pins 1 and 2 shorted so that the direction of the signals if from the PC to the Geckos and IF JP2 has its pins 1 and 2 shorted so that the buffer chip's outputs are ALWAYS enabled. Also note that for the G203v, JP1 must have pins 2 and 3 shorted together. Figure 4 shows why that is necessary.

If JP2 has pins 2 and 3 shorted, THEN you must also have a properly configured E-stop and a working charge pump. On the other hand, if JP2 has pins 1 and 2 shorted, then the board ignores the E-stop and charge-pump circuits.

On the PMDX-122 that I have connected to G202 stepper drivers on my test bench, I have JP2, JP3, JP4 and JP5 all jumpered so that the jumper is on pins 1 and 2. That defeats the E-stop and the charge pump circuitry, but it also allows me to play with all kinds of signal sources. IMPORTANT: My PMDX-122s have serial numbers 23280 and 23223. Boards with serial numbers higher than 24242 are wired differently than mine, so the jumpering of JP4 on newer boards is something that I have not tested.

If that solution works, then you will need to carefully trouble-shoot the E-stop and the charge-pump setup and jumpering until you find the problem.

Hi
this is my MACH3mill. xml file


Attachment 5190

I see that you do not have the charge pump set as in my post #21. Where are your jumpers now?