Issues with setting up 3 axis mill

I am building a 3 axis vertical mill and have spent more than a month trying to get the motors to run.iI am using raspberry pi 4 and MESA 7i76En  step generator with 3 CL57T (v4) stepper controllers (closed loop)..
X and Y axis both work fine in pncconfig but I always get encoder fault on the CL57T for Z tests as soon as I try to move it.

So far I have tried -swapping motor positions - always Z died so not motor.
swapping controller positions - always Z dies so not contrroller.
Swapping encoder leads - always z drive died so not leads swapping MESA stepper leads - always Z died 
swapping order of mesa connections - always Z died 
I have noticed that often on moving X or Y the Z motor will make a noise, without movement.

Anyone have any additional ideas to test? 

Hi,
where is your motor wired?
X-Axis is stepgen.00
Y-Axis is stepgen.01
Z-Axis is stepgen.03 
What is on stepgen.02?



 

Was on Stepgen 2 but was trying 3 to eliminate that as an option

i mean on your mesa 7i76e card. Stepgen 3 is the top socket on TB2
your issue sound like a wiring problem
 

I understand. I was using Stepgen 02, but on the files sent I had tried using Stepgen 03 to eliminate the Mesa card Stepgen 02 from the error chain in case it had been damaged in the previous attempts

Are you having this problem with LinuxCNC or pncconf?
The noise from Z when you move X,Y really sounds like a wiring issue

Suggestions:

Test with LinuxCNC, not pncconf

Change this hal line:

set setp hm2_7i76e.0.dpll.01.timer-us -50
to
setp hm2_7i76e.0.dpll.01.timer-us -200

Check the Z wiring

Change the step/dir wiring to single ended:
Drive DIR+ and PUL+ to 7I76E +5V
Drive DIR- and PUL- to 7I76E DIR- and PUL-