A Axis not working

[midget214]

Well, it seems the A Axis port on the board is dead. At first I thought it was the motor wiring, but then I plugged in the x axis motor (which I know works) into the A axis to check if it was the A axis motor, I found that the x axis motor did also not work. Any suggestions? I double checked my config against the forum and it is 100% the same. The optos are installed correct. Check that as well.

[midget214]

I have done some more searching all over the place and I am starting to think that the A-Axis output is shot. I have connected my board to my pc, started mach 3 and hit the "Reset" button. The X,Y and Z steppers locks into place, but the A Axis can still be turned by hand. I jogged the A axis a bit and the A Axis LED flashes, but the stepper does nothing. I then placed a multimeter on the screws of the connector and there is no voltage there. Went over the settings again in Mach and all seems fine there.

[tom10122]

I think you config is a little messed up, i had a problem where it would lockup in emergency mode and move freely when out of it, did you send an email to seemecnc? John oly helped me fix my config on the phone, not all parrelel ports are the same.

[midget214]

Hi Tom,

Yeah I emailed the guys at SeeMeCnc. If the issue is not config related I am going to try and connect an Easy Driver to the 4 Axis board. Since X, Y and Z is working it will be a bit overkill to buy a new board just for that. An EasyDriver is just $15 and it is locally available for me (I live in South Africa). I just need the A axis to work and I will be printing. I got the Thermostat setup at the correct temp, and I have the X,Y,Z steppers calibrated.

So close, but yet so far as well.

[midget214]

No reply from seemecnc yet. I have downloaded the manuals for both boards in the mean time. It seems the 4 pins on the 3 Axis board is not present on the 4 Axis board, however it does look like the 4 Axis board has the holes for the pins. I might be able to buy a 4 Pin Wire-To-Board connector and solder it into place. The one thing I am not sure off is if the holes on the 4 Axis board correspond to the 4 on the 3 Axis board. Unfortunately the manuals did not mention these.

[midget214]

Tracing the circuits seems that the easydriver wont work on the 4 axis board. My windows xp has started crashing tonight so I will format it tomorrow. I doubt that it is causing the issue though. I read on the reprap wiki that some of these 4 axis boards have the 4th axis enable pin on the d15 port, and not on the d25. I have tried searching for some related info on that, but I did not find anything useful so far.

I have checked the voltages on the parallel cable and the signals seem to come through fine.
If re-installing everything tomorrow still does not work, then I am really out of options to try.

Im still waiting for a reply from John though, Im sure his busy atm.

I have to be honest, i kinda depressed struggling so much, but Im sure I will get it fixed eventually. - even if it means that I need to buy a new board.

[johnoly99]

midget, send me an email, and I'll set up a time to skype or ?

Sorry for the late responses the last week guys, I had family in from out of town for the week, and went "off the grid"