Please help, I need some addvise

"Scale = 2000.0" on all three axis.

Would it help if I posted any of these files?

Here's a puzzling finding.

I've been testing voltage to help establish an understanding of where I am on that subject.

When I have the PC running and I'm at my desk top (Linuxcnc has not been started yet), I checked the output pins at the drive to confirm voltage from axis to axis for symmetry.
X and Y show 0volts for step and direction.
Z however has 4.9 volts on both step and direction.
Is parport 0 pins 5&6 sending voltage inappropriately to the output pins?
Could this explain why Z isn't working.

Thanks

Hi

I've been testing voltage to help establish an understanding of where I am on that subject.
When I have the PC running and I'm at my desk top (Linuxcnc has not been started yet), I checked the output pins at the drive to confirm voltage from axis to axis for symmetry.

You are wasting your time and confusing yourself into the bargain.

The state of parports are undefined until they are claimed by a driver. Until you start Linuxcnc any voltages you get at whatever pins, are largely meaningless and certainly no indication of your Z drive problem.

A simple test if one axis does not work.

Start Linuxcnc (not stepconf)
Check which axes jog OK and which don't
Shut down LCNC and power down the machine

Swap the axis stepper which does not work, to the output from a driver for an axis which does work
Power up and jog that axis

If that works, power off everything again reconnect the stepper to its original driver and connect the driver input from an axis that works to the driver for the one that doesn't.
Power up and jog that axis

If this all works you have eliminated the stepper and its driver from being faulty

You now have either defective wiring, parport or HAL connections.

I am frankly bemused by your hal file.
Your picture of your machine clearly showed 3 drivers each with a parport cable, yet you have everything on parport.0, nothing on parport.1 and just step/dir for Z on parport.2
You have 2 different parport pins connected to xenable, but no pins connected to yenable or zenable

At its most basic, have you actually got Z connected to parport.2 ( the third parport ) or did you read this as second parport and actually have it connected to parport.1?

regards

Arceye,

Once again I am taken back, your objectivity from halfway around the globe is impressive.
All I can say is “why didn't I think of that”!

As to testing X,Y,Z, I have to confess I didn't use Lcnc, I glanced through the manual and could only find a reference to “Jog Speed”, knowing absolutely nothing about the program as yet I would need a chapter number to learn how to Jog an axis with Lcnc.
Time is short at the moment so reading the entire manual at this time isn't possible.

I did use stepconf to do some testing with however.
I move the functioning X axis port cable to the Z axis breakout socket, Z works, it's choppy, and a little ugly, but it works. (I'll deal with ugly later).

Putting the cable back on the X socket were it should be, I then moved the wires from the breakout board the drive from the X axis terminals on the drive over to the Y axis terminals on the drive, Y works, it actually made the movement on X look a little less beautiful, and I was excited about how X was to watch. I hope I can get X and Z to flow as nicely as Y, at some point.

The drives and motors are good to go.
I could I have a potential wiring problem on Y, the former owner thought “the joy stick on the Y axis may be shorted out”, not sure how he came to that conclusion though.
I think I will pull all the wiring for the stick for now and deal with it later as well.

As to the balance of your observations.
I have discovered that the third breakout and the LPT port cable are for the joy stick.
I have entered the port address for parport 2 only because I may need it for the stick control later.
I re-ran stepconf and unchecked the 0xa000 port address and the hal didn't change.

Step Configuration wrote all that you see in the hal, in Parallel Port Settings I simply put X step and direction on pin 2 &3 respectively and Y on 6&7.
I re-ran the stepconf and replaced “Amplifier enable” with “Unused”, Xenable was dropped from the Y axis list. I then re-did it just to see what would happen and Xenable came back.
Should I mark these as unused?
Andy's point may make there use unnecessary.
Todd pointed out I really don't need any of them.

I did catch the incorrect #2 pin assignment on the command lines below, I changed it to 1, no change when trying to run the Z axis test program however.

net zstep => parport.2.pin-02-out
net zdir => parport.2.pin-03-out
To:
net zstep => parport.1.pin-02-out
net zdir => parport.1.pin-03-out

What else should I include for this axis in the custom hal?

If the z was moving roughly when you were jogging it connected to the x port. check your connections between the drive and motor. It is a common problem to have bad or burned contacts on the plug that plugs into the drive. Also open the drives box and check the connections between the driver board and the transformer. It is common for these connections to go bad.

I did catch the incorrect #2 pin assignment on the command lines below, I changed it to 1, no change when trying to run the Z axis test program however.

It is not necessarily incorrect, I merely queried if it was correct as that would explain no Z steps.
It needs to refer to whichever parport it is connected, only you know which it is.

Step Configuration wrote all that you see in the hal, in Parallel Port Settings I simply put X step and direction on pin 2 &3 respectively and Y on 6&7.
I re-ran the stepconf and replaced “Amplifier enable” with “Unused”, Xenable was dropped from the Y axis list. I then re-did it just to see what would happen and Xenable came back.
Should I mark these as unused?
Andy's point may make there use unnecessary.
Todd pointed out I really don't need any of them.

I think it is time to stop using stepconf for configs and for testing
Every time you go into it you potentially mess up what you have that works.
It is designed to allow people who know nothing about LCNC to get simple machines up and running initially.

It never produced a working configuration for me and after I eventually found out why, (the way it latched charge pump and estop) I have configured by hand ever since.

If you zip you whole config folder for this machine and attach it, we can then see everything as it is.

Next we need to know 'physically', what is connected to what
You have 3 ports each of 17 pins plus GND, can you do a small spreadsheet which maps what is connected to each pin.
This needs to be from looking at the machine, not the .hal file

I think the lack of jogging on Z is likely to be a simple non connection of signals, but as Todd says if it is poor when connected to a known good signal, there are other factors at work too
so check as he says.

regards

As to testing X,Y,Z, I have to confess I didn't use Lcnc, I glanced through the manual and could only find a reference to “Jog Speed”, knowing absolutely nothing about the program as yet I would need a chapter number to learn how to Jog an axis with Lcnc.
Time is short at the moment so reading the entire manual at this time isn't possible.

All you need to know is right / left arrow for X, up / down arrow for Y and pageup / pagedown for Z

There is a slider on the left side of Axis the screen for jog speed.

You need to start Linuxcnc, we don't even know if your configuration will run yet, the stepconf jogging test connects directly to the stepgen and does not use the rest of the config.

Also if you have only been trying to jog in Stepconfig's test area, I don't think it will be aware of the z connections on the 2ndary LPT port, so of course it won't work in there.

You need to actually start LinuxCNC and see what happens. When it starts don't forget that you have to press the "e-stop cancel" and "machine power on" buttons before it will do anything. (these are located at the top left corner of the Axis window.)

Once again I apologize, it was the port assignment not pin I was supposed to be referring to.
(Good thing I copied the text to contradict myself).

Arceye, I'm certain your advice on the step wizard is spot on!
I have attached a zip folder of the config. (At lest I think this will work, we'll see after I click "submit").

I could be wrong here but I think the attached screen shot of the wiring diagram may be safer than my doing a spread sheet. (I can't even make a clear delineation between a port address and a pin number)!
***Please note I did make the changes Todd shared, pin 1 to 10, 14 to 11, 16 to 12, 17 to 13***
Those are the only differences from the diagram. Let me know if this isn't inclusive enough.

I will dig into the drive and do some house cleaning/inspections, all the connections are surely due for some sorely needed attention.

When I start Lcnc and hit f1 the estop button background changes, when I hit f2 I get the following errors:
Joint 0 on limit switch error
Joint 1 on limit switch error
Joint 2 on limit switch error

What's all this?