Mystery hardware

Just tested, no it does not.
But it does make the sound no matter what the computer is doing just as long as it is connected.

Thats odd. If I disconnect the Y-motor and then connect the board to both power and computer, the Z-motor makes a noise.
I cannot say if it has done that all along as it is not as high as the one the Y-motor made so maybe I just couldn't hear it before.

Ok, so I can't find any other thread that explains the pinout for the 4-axis and for the life of me, I cannot figure it out by looking at the board.

I have a multimeter. So I thought that I could just look at the pinout in the datasheet for the TB6560AHQ, but I ran in to a couple of problems.

1. I cannot find the pin that should be step, I don't know what it is called by Toshiba.
2. All the pins I can find (CW/CCW must be direction and Enable must be... well enable) all lead back to pins 18-25 in the plug. Since these are not used I figure that I cannot use the multimeter (or ohmmeter?) to find the correct pinout. Or at least I am doing something wrong.


If I disconnect a motor, another one just starts to make the noise.

Any ideas at all what I can do?

Couple of things...

I would not recommend connecting or disconnecting the motors with power applied to avoid possible damage.
If you are not running EMC with it set to the correct parallel port you do not know what the output of the parallel port pins are doing, they could be floating or set in another state.
So I would not apply power to the board with it connected to the computer without EMC running.
Have you set the pins as recommended in the pdf from your first post (the Mach settings)?
Fig. 5 for step and direction
Fig. 6 for enable


Rick G

use pin 1 as amplifier enable rather than pin 4
pin2 x step
pin3 x direction
pin4 y step
pin5 y direction

try that combination first
and then we can see if we can locate the other axis

I would not recommend connecting or disconnecting the motors with power applied to avoid possible damage.

Fortunately I have read somewhere else that these boards do not handle that sort of thing well, but thanks for the heads-up.

Have you set the pins as recommended in the pdf from your first post (the Mach settings)?

Yep.

If you are not running EMC with it set to the correct parallel port you do not know what the output of the parallel port pins are doing, they could be floating or set in another state.

Yes, this struck me last night as well. In fact, today I am trying with a different computer. This one is using a PCI-card because as most computers these days, it does not have a parallel on the motherboard.
I tried using pyParallel to mess with the port, but with no luck. The python module could not find a suitable port in the machine. So I will try installing EMC on another machine I have. An old P4 from a gutted HP, I just hope it has enough umpf to run it.

cncbasher:
Thanks, I will try that as well when I get the new machine up.

andypugh:
Yep, pretty sure it is 18-25, I used the little moulded numbers you mention on the cards-port to figure it out.

They probably go back to an opto-isolator, and then from there to the plug, and your multimeter won't work through the isolator (that's rather the point).

Arh, shoot. Of course!. How can I be so thick, I know exactly how that works, but for some reason it just didn't occur to me last night. A massive DOH! to me

O.K.
If you have EMC running on the right parallel port when an axis changes direction the direction pin changes from say high to low or the opposite. It will stay in that state until the axis changes direction again.
If your breakout board is working and you know where the direction pin for an axis is you can measure the voltage (on both sides of the opto) and then see which parallel port pin cause the change. You can do this by trying different pin settings in EMC and on different axis.
You can also try the parallel port tester to toggle pins and look for the results on the board.
You can also toggle parallel port pins with hal commands.

Of course the motors will not work until this is sorted out and you have the enable working, but if you find a few pins the rest should be easier.

Rick G

HAHA. A little off-topic, but here goes.
I have just set up an "ancient" machine that has been sitting in my garage for at least 3 years.
It is the guts of a HP Workstation DC6400 IIRC that has been sitting there in the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Getting sunlight through the glass door and is covered in dust, dirt and dead insects.

I plugged in the power and two pilot-lights came on, but when pressing the power button nothing started. The only thing I got was a confirmation from the chipset that I pressed the button.
No alarms or any other indication of the problem. Thought for a second that the CPU had kicked the bucket or maybe just that it had a bad connection.
Just to try it, I unplugged the onboard battery and plugged it straight back in. Not the clear the BIOS as it must already be cleared, but to reestablish contact with the battery. This worked!

Holy smokes, it booted!

The power system on the board made a chirping sound for a second and then went quiet. The harddrive sounds like a mouse or hamster is trapped inside. I am guessing the header-arm has a tight bearing and the cold dish casing coupled with the fact the any lubricants have almost certainly set solid, is probably what is causing the strange noises.
As I am writing this it is installing EMC2 and the noises have almost gone now.

This machine is just hardware mounted on top of a wooden board, so no protection. And before it was left in the garage it was not treated well either.
I am a little impressed by the fact that this sprung into life again. I have booted systems older than this one, but this is by far the most abused. And all it took was a little jiggling of the battery

Now, to see if it actually solves any problems breathing life in this old mule

EDIT:
And to top it all off, it actually works better than the C2D system I had used till now. OpenGL works on this onboard videocard so I can actually see what EMC is doing.