Easydriver how to get it to work?

Hi,

I have bought a simple step/dir driver to get to know linuxcnc as suggested by someone on the forum.

So I got the easydriver from schmalz and one NEMA 17 motor.

I followed the connection diagram. 12v power in and connect step, dir and ground. And I checked the wires coming out of the motor to connect correctly to coil a en b.

I attached my parallel port with a extension cable and a special header with screwlocks to easily connect the wires. I run the parallel port test program found in the wiki. I get voltage changes on every pin when I do that. In bios my parallel port is set to bi-directional. Address is 0x378.

I opened linuxcnc stepconfig. I left everything there standard and went to y axis. Cause I connected pin 4 and 5.

When I click test axis, whatever I do nothing happens. I checked the voltage on pin 4 and 5 when I press the buttons. pin5 will have 3.10 v to 0 and the other way around depending the direction I click. Pin4 goes from 0.07 to 0.11v when I click the jog command. So it seems the parallel port is working.

So why isn't the motor spinning.

I am noob, just learning my way little by little. Hope someone can help me out how to get this working.

edit: have tried to move the motor shaft when power is on, it can't be turned. I tried to manuall like morse code tap the step with 3.3V and the motor spins around. ( I can not get it to spin the other direction using 0 or 3.3volt to the dir pin and simultaneous give morse code against the step dir. it holds in place but does make noise.

1. What i noted too, When i measure the powervoltage over pin 5(dir) and ground pin 21 without having a wire from the driver to ground, i get 3V but when i connect the ground pin from the driver ( ground, step, dir ) to pin 21. Than i only get 0.22v over pin 5 and pin 21. It's like when in complete the loop as it should the voltage drops down completely.

2. Well i think to be short the following is a major problem. Whenever i click, test the motor ( run command in testpage ) the voltages drop from 1.15 to 0.07 on both step and dir pin during the entire run command. That doesn't make any sense to me. Shouldn't there be higher power to the pins on a run command????

Help pls.

Stephane

My best guess whey it would not step when connected to the parallel port is because it looks like you did not have a ground wire connected between the parallel port (pins 18-25) and JP2 pin 1.

Alright.

I tried aswell with the ground wire to pin21. Picture was after that attempt.

When I had it connected it was like my voltages on the pins were even lower, including on the dir pin.

JP2 to pin 1? What is that exactly? I have read things about JP2 , on the board where is 3/5 V. That's when I fried the board. So what and where is this JP2 thing? And why pin1. What does that do?

Edit. I found in schematic that jp2 is the step,sir,ground location. So step to pin4 - dir to pin5 and ground to pin 21. But I tried this, it didnt do a thing. So question is what needs to go to pin1 ?

The lower voltage seen on the STEP pin during testing will be due to the STEP pin pulsing.

The lower voltage seen on the DIR could be due to the DIR being driven low for the direction selected.

You really need a logic probe, logic analyzer or CRO to see what is happening on these pins when Linuxcnc is sending signals to these pins.

One thing I would do is change the Paralell port from Bi directional to a single directional mode. You may not be getting enough drive in Bi directional mode without buffers......Just throwing this thought out there.

Are you using a laptop or a desktop ?

Hi again ozzyrob,

I am working on an older desktop... E5200 p5 motherboard.

By buffers you mean use of breakout board with independent power supply to highten the signals coming from the parallel port?

Ok. Logic probe, logic analyzer or Cro? Where do I get this... This is completely new to me!

Thanks again! Really, it's really really much appreciated. It seems it's always u or Todd who answers my "noob" questions.

Edit: I ordered another 4 of these easydriver cause current one I fried trying to get motor spinning with my raspberry pi, I soldered the 3/5v thing in lower left corner together and let's say that create some smoke. I won't do that again.

Ozzyrob, just googled info about the logic analyzer, so if I am right this would be able to register the pulses on the step port .

I can get this one fast:
www.antratek.be/saleae-logic-4-logic-ana...2d6ok3YaAgr0EALw_wcB

This reads up to 12MS/s but is that good for linuxcnc or do I need a model that can handle more (price goes steeply up than)

Would this be fine?

Regards,

Stephane

Good as desktop, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with the signals.

Yes a breakout board with buffers, it adds some protection between the computer and the rest and insures that the signals going out reach 5v.

I wouldn't bother too much with a CRO or logic analyzer, they have both pretty expensive pieces of equipment.

Here is a little info about a logic probe www.radio-electronics.com/info/t_and_m/l...gic-probe-basics.php

They are quite cheap, but I must admit to, say too many years, of playing around with electronics and not having owned one.

www.talkingelectronics.com/te_interactive_index.html is a great resource for basic old school electronics. On the left hand frame about 80 - 90% of the way down, "Talking Electronics Magazines:", are links that the publisher has gratefully made available for free download. I believe almost of the projects mentioned in the magazines are still available. These were published well before Arduino and the like......well before the Internet was a household word, when the 555 ruled supreme hahaha

No need to spend that much,
One of these: www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-USB-Logic-Analyz...045573.c100505.m3226

And some someware from the sigrok project: sigrok.org/wiki/Main_Page

And you are good to go. Has more or less the same functionality as the Saleae gear......but at a much reduced price. I have one buried on my workbench and intend to get it out shortly when I start testing my Beaglebone Black setup.

There are some good tutorials on youtube regarding the sigrok software. I believe along with it's protocol decoders you can decode step & direction signals, but I haven't played around with that part as of yet. Just be sure not to go over 5v on the inputs or you may break a smoke valve within the device.

After all your frustration I think a laugh maybe needed.
www.thecompassadjuster.com/education/res...-of-electricity.html

Thanks for the info.

I saw these aswell but it's China, I order a lot from there but this time it is time sensitive. So I ordered an original saleae, I guess it's a once in a lifetime purchase normally so a little more expensive but I will have it on Wednesday . Just in time to test my port before my driver's get here .

That leaves me 2 more days to memorize the entire manual

And than this stupid 4cm wide driver with only 3 connecting cables has to work! (Easydriver) I start to wonder what's easy about this tiny thing. If i can't get it to work ,I am eating my hat!

Hi all,.
So I have one oscilloscope and connected it to my parallel port. I have here 2 pictures of the result. When I click jog in the test x axis stepconf wizard .

1 is working on sensitivity of 1v and 50microsec.

2. Is working on sensitivity of 2V and 0.1millisec.

You can see the pulses. Only thing I am wondering now... Are these pulses strong enough for the easyDriver to see as both are falling under the 3v. I thought the easyDriver needed 5v step inputs. If this is not strong enough voltage wise how to solve? Also I am getting tb6600 drivers in tomorrow. Again for testing. Would these pulses do?