Hello all I have installed a Spark Concepts CNC XPro board on my newly built OX CNC. Impressed that it took 20 days from order to my door in Perth Western Australia ( Most isolated Capital City in the world) However... after hooking it up I am unable to get the X & Y steppers to opperate. I am using the Grbl Controller Software and the Z axis works perfectly but when I hit the arrows for any of the other axis ... pos. or neg. I get a very slight "nudge" from the Z motor but absolutly nothing from the others. ie. the X or Y arrows "nudge" the Z stepper ???? I assume that I have connected the Red/Blue .. Yellow/Green to the correct terminals. I have tried connecting the X axis to th Z terminals on the board (with the same wiring cofig.) but get absolutly zero from the stepper. Weird...... Where do you think I have gone wrong ?????? If I get all this going how do I "clone" the Y axis (Blue block on board. Hope for all the right answers from the Gurus.....Thanks Les
Perhaps unplug and do a check of your stepper motor wires with a multimeter (continuity check) just to make certain that Red/Blu are a complete circuit and Yel/Grn are a complete circuit. This, at least, will rule out possible incorrect wiring of the motors. Spark Concepts are showing a different color combination to the ones you are using so best to check this with a multimeter. Tweakie.
G'day Thanks for the reply. Before installing the plugs on the ends of the wires I did check that .. for example... when I joined the red/blue wires that the stepper was hard to turn ie. that pair was a coil. etc. I then followed the example of the Z axis stepper which already had the plug installed when received. I would then assume that the others should be OK. However.... at your sugestion , testing the Z stepper wires ( the only one working ) I found continuity in both pairs. This is a Nema 17. The other three steppers are Nema 23's and all have no continuity in any of the pairs !!!!! and oviously they are the ones not working. Surely I could not have three DUD steppers ???? Are all my assumption correct ? By the way the colour combinations are pretty much the sames as the video for the OX. build. Thanks for your help so far Regards Les Just had a brainwave.... checked the opposing pairs.. ie. Red/Yellow .. Blue/Green and found that they have continuity !!!!!! so the different size steppers seem to have different wiring colours .....what a trap . will reconnect in the morning and see if there is any joy.....
That's one of the pitfalls Les, there is no standard for the colors used so it is always best to check with a multimeter and verify the pairs before connection. Hopefully no harm done and you will be up and running in the morning. Tweakie.
G'day Tweakie Welllllll Who would have thought that the steppers would have the same colours but different configurations. By swapping the leads and sorting out the directions the OX is NOW WORKING as it should !!!! The pairs on the 23's are now red/green...blue/yellow Thanks for the kick to the brain it helped me heaps. Regards Les
This is one of those events that need Capital Letters to make the point!! "Who would have thought that the steppers would have the same colours but different configurations." Quote: Les. Gray
