Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?

I just migrated from Mach4 and Pokeys57cnc, and was hoping to keep Postep60-256 drives in my new setup. I wired postep drive to Mesa 7i96s as follows: Postep pins 1/2/3/5, 2 to TB1 pin1 (GND) / 3 to TB1 pin5 (DIR+) / 5 to TB1 pin3 (STEP+) and 1(enable) to TB3 pin13 (OUT-).
I have been at it for about a week now, I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. Using Pncconf wizard, the home/limit/ estop are working but the drives are not getting enabled and the stepper motors are not getting any pulse.
any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
ps! I am very new to Linuxcnc, migrating from Mach for almost 2 decades.

Your old drives should be just fine.

Was Mach 4 running via the 7i96s too?

Sometimes the enable input disables the drive, though I'm not sure that's the problem in this case specifically.

What version of LinuxCNC are you using?

Are you using AXIS?

Sometimes a picture helps to "visualize" the problem.



$96 drives are definitely worth keeping.
6A phase current (4.2A RMS) without a heatsink is pretty impressive.
By the way, how many drives are there and what is your power supply?

Can you show a bit more about how the enables are wired?

What is OUT0+ (TB3 pin 14) connected to?

Why do you need to wire the enable pins at all?

The power switch disables or enables the drives.

Mach was running Via Pokey57CNC. I think I just got tired of Mach, LOL!
the thing with Postep60-256 Enable (inverted, 0=enable, 1=disable).
I am using LINUXCNC 2.9.4 and I am using AXIS for now until I get it up & running, trying to test with 3 axis  with the goal of a total of 6 (gantry has X1 & X2).
using engmate power supply 36V 10A
wiring is as follows: AxisMesa connectorMesa pin (TB1)Mesa signalPoStep60 IDC pinPoStep signalX1 (master)7i96S TB1Pin 3STEP0+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 5DIR0+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 1 (TB1 GND)GNDIDC Pin 2 (or any GND pins: 2,4,6,8,10)GNDX2 (slave)7i96S TB1Pin 9STEP1+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 11DIR1+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 7 (TB1 GND)GNDIDC Pin 2GNDY7i96S TB1Pin 15STEP2+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 17DIR2+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 13 (GND)GNDIDC Pin 2GNDZ7i96S TB1Pin 21STEP3+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 23DIR3+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 19 (GND)GNDIDC Pin 2GND
for the enable I tried to use TB3 pins 13 (OUT-) connected to pin1 of all 4 drives (enable pin) and pin 14 (OUT+) connected to Mesa GND. 

Typical issues with step/dir  not working are wiring or step pulse length being to short

I would make sure the initial step pulse length is at least 5 usec (5000 ns in LinuxCNC)

For the enable (since its active low) I would connect all enable pins to a say 1K pullup resistor
(so they default to being disabled) then connect OUT0+ to all enables and OUT0- to the drive
ground pin

 

so sorry for the mumbo-jumbo I created earlier attached is a pdf for the pin locations   

Hmm...
That wiring seems correct.

I blame the enable pins.

Me sure the drives are not disabled.

I bought some drivers, wired them up, turned them on, only to realize they did not work and the fault LED came on.

I fixed them by disconnecting the enable inputs.

Powering the enable inputs often disables the drive for some reason!

Maybe shorting the enable inputs together is a good idea, just to make sure there is 0 voltage to disable the driver.

Though why the drives worked with Mach but not LinuxCNC, I can't explain.

The Leadshine manual I read (prior) says this:

Regulated or Unregulated Power Supply
Both regulated and unregulated power supplies can be used to supply the Driver. However,
unregulated power supplies are preferred due to their ability to withstand current surge. If regulated
power supplies (such as most switching supplies.) are indeed used, it is important to have large
current output rating to avoid problems like current clamp, for example using 4A supply for 3A
motor-Driver operation. On the other hand, if unregulated supply is used, one may use a power
supply of lower current rating than that of motor (typically 50%～70% of motor current). The reason
is that the Driver draws current from the power supply capacitor of the unregulated supply only
during the ON duration of the PWM cycle, but not during the OFF duration. Therefore, the average
current withdrawn from power supply is considerably less than motor current. For example, two 3A
motors can be well supplied by one power supply of 4A rating.

Perhaps Leadshine is a bit too conservative, I guess you can get away with even less power supply capacity.