Thread: How canyopu tell........

When power is applied to the drive, the motor should be locked up. If it's not locking up, I'd try it with a different drive. It's easy to destry drives, but much more difficult to damage a motor.

Originally Posted by SAISAY

whether a stepper motor is working?
I wired up a new connection for the Z axis.
When I turned on the machine it gave a loud whirring noise as if the router was moving, then it sounded as if it had reached the end off the road and the noise stopped.
Nothing was moving though but the cable near the plug got very hot.
Ii hope I don't have to buy new motors

Hi saisay

As Ger21 says, if a stepper motor is powered up properly, it will lock up with a kerchunk! This will happen before the driver is being actively controlled through Mach as well.

What is the size of the motor and what PSU are you using and what driver are you using on the motor.

Usually, the main reason for a lot of heating is a short in the wiring somewhere, or far too much power being applied, so as a first step I would inspect both ends of the cable and ensure that there are no stray wires touching where they shouldn't.

Whoa, I DID find out what happened.
As I said the cable got hot just before the weird noise started. Well it certainly did.
I never realised that the wires NWA are using are far too small to carry the current and that's why they are pairing them.
They are using normal moulded rs232 cables with hair thin wires. Don't know the gauge.
Anyway, the power demand finally got too much for the wires and they had a meltdown. LITERALLY.
I went to make another cable and when I cut the outside flex and the insulation off, all 9 wires were glued together with their melted flex
It must have blown the power supply because there is only a faint green light instead of a bright green one.
Luckily, I do have a spare one.
If there was a way to connect Mach3 with a USB plug, I would ditch the Shark in an instant.
I do not have a serial connection on my computer

For my Gecko G540 connection, which has 9 pin RS232 style connectors, I use this cable from Jaycar.
Also available from Homann Design.

Originally Posted by SAISAY

If there was a way to connect Mach3 with a USB plug, I would ditch the Shark in an instant.
I do not have a serial connection on my computer

One word. Smoothstepper.

And I think you mean parallel , not serial.

Originally Posted by Bob Willson

One word. Smoothstepper.

And I think you mean parallel , not serial.

I stand corrected, I still, however.do not have one on my computer.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

For my Gecko G540 connection, which has 9 pin RS232 style connectors, I use this cable from Jaycar.
Also available from Homann Design.

Sort of like closing the gate after the horse escaped.

Originally Posted by SAISAY

Sort of like closing the gate after the horse escaped.

I figured you have to replace the metled wires with something

So, look up the smoothstepper and use your USB port.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I figured you have to replace the metled wires with something

Why do I need shielded wire when the half metre wires that come with the motors are bare?

Shielded wires have no effect on the motors performance, but they can keep noise from effecting limit switches and other devices.

For a cheaper alternative to the Smooth Stepper, search for the UC-100.

It's also possible to use the ncPOD that runs your Shark with Mach3, but I don't know how stable or functional the Mach3 plugin is. I wouldn't recommend it.

OK, so I know the driver went kaput when the wires melted but how can I test the motors?
I don't want to wire up
a new controller if the motor is kaput as well
MeltedWires.pngBurnt wires.jpgDon't look good aye?

Test the motors as I said before by finding the two wires that make the motor harder to turn by hand.

When you know what the wiring connections are, then test that circuit with an ohmeter. Check a known good motor first. The one you are checking should have similar resistance measurements.

Well, a repaired control box is now winging its way from CarbaTec to me today.
Apparently there was a dead short circuit in the controller card (break out board?) that caused the power supply to only output 5 volts instead of 24 volt. I presume that was the answer they got from someone in the know?
Anyway, I have a new power supply (from JayCar), a new Main board and a new Controller card.
The sooner I get away from that Shark crap the better.