Easydriver how to get it to work?

hi,

I took the same measurements with Saleae logic analyzer.

So when i make a run in the test box. I get following results. Channel 2 is my step dir. On one pictures you see there the drop in voltage.

I am just wondering if the voltage pulses are strong enough to be measured by the drivers.

Please any advice if this is sufficient would be helpful. Can i use direct parallel port or do i need a breakout board to enhance the pulses?

A buffered breakout board has been previously mentioned as well as configuring the parallel port for single direction rather than bi direction. A breakout board purchased from a specialist supplier will provide information on connecting their boards up. Usually drawing drawing more than 2.5ma from a PP pin will cause issues.

Pictures are not as useful as a schematic.

It gets frustrating to repeat advice that has already been given.

Hi ozzyrob,

Ok, I get your point you don't want to repeat yourself, I am sorry for that.

The pictures I showed are the results from a logic analyzer on my own PP.

I have a breakout board coming in tomorrow, aswell as tb6600 drivers I will connect to that and see what happens.

My Mesa cards got in today but I don't want to use them yet till I fully understand and can make the PP work.
(Plus I just fried the motherboard on the computer I was gonna use. Spilled water of the watercooling on the rams. Fireworks... ) Was a fun day this way.

Many p-ports are 3.3V but 5V safe. The way to use them is in current-sinking mode. (also most can sing 15mA but might only source 3mA per pin).

The inputs to most stepper drivers are now opto-isolators, so you wire the +ve of the input opto to +5V (often from the PC USB socket) and then wire the -ve side of the opto to the parport.
You then need to inver the sense of the p-port pin in HAL so that 0V ( = current flow from 5V through opto to parport to gnd) is Step and 3,3V (= high impedance, no current flow) = space.

Tomorrow I will upload a schematic of tb6600 and the settings in stepconfig. See if I get it right.

If it is correct, here on the forum might be great if people would have a subsection where you can upload a wiring schematic for a specific driver and settings that work. It would make a lot of questions unnecessary. (For future reference than). It's just an idea.

HI Everyone,

I made a schematic of the connection of TB6600 to the Parallel Port. I hope it is correct. If not, please let me know, i will change it accordingly. And hopefully the next person can use it aswell. I used pictures to make it as noob prove as possible, cause i would like to get it the same way, with my limited knowledge of electronics.

EDIT: updated the schematic, if someone with the knowledge could check it, so i don't distribute wrong schematics


Regards,

Stephane

Your 5V supply should not be "independent" in that it must share a common 0V reference with the parallel port. If you use 5V from the PC PSU (conveniently available on the USB sockets) then this happens automatically. If you use a separate 5V then you can connect the PSU 0V to one or more of the parport GND pins.

On many drives the "enable" is a "disable" and can be left unconnected. If you want to disable the drives from LinuxCNC then you would connect the hal pin axis.N.amp-enable-out to a parallel port pin and use that.

HI andypugh,

could you check if the schematic is correct now? Thanks.

Not quite, the N in axis.N refers to the axis number of the drive.
You need a HAL line like:
net x-enable axis.0.amp-enable-out => parport.0.pin-013-out

hi,

I updated again, i hope now it has the perfect information for me and the next person