"Ref All" Issues.

[Mtw fdu]

Cheers. Pin 13 sounds familiar.

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

I think if you short that pin with one of the ground pins on the port you should get the input to activate.

[Mtw fdu]

I knew I had this pic of the board. Only trouble it is a bit hard to see the words properly. It still may help. Where are the grounds on this please?

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

The common for the switches appears to be the first terminal on the green connector.

[Mtw fdu]

This is what wires coming from that part of my board are.

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

From the schematic, it appears that those should go to your switch. If you jumper them does the input activate?

[Mtw fdu]

Before I do this a word of warning.

The pic shows the 2 wires are white and yellow. However the switch wires show they are white and blue, and white and green. Are these the same?
Just being cautious as I have blown the board before while trying to short wires together.

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

Not positive as I don't know anything about the board other than what you have provided.
Could there be a terminal block somewhere where the wire colors change?
I'm not sure why each terminal of your switch has 2 wires and the board only has one wire on each terminal. There must be a splice somewhere in between. That could be where your issue is.

My advice is worth exactly what you paid for it. As is, no warranty.

[Mtw fdu]

I understand what you are saying.

I was thinking about spraying some contact cleaner over the board etc to see if that may help. Give that a try first.

I will check where you have mentioned as well.

Mtw fdu.

[Mtw fdu]

Update.

I have short the 2 wires (yellow and white) but no home light came on.

I have checked where I think they go where a splice is but it seems ok. Have also sprayed contacts with cleaner.

Where to next?

Mtw fdu.

[Mtw fdu]

Update.

Just found the problem. The white wire has come off the solder joint. Here is a pic.

Now to find someone who can solder it back up.


Mtw fdu.

[Mtw fdu]

Another update.

Had a guy come around and he soldered the joint back together. Connected everything up and got the flashing output 6 again.

The home switch yellow light has not been on after the joint was soldered.

He then went over with a multi-meter and everything had proper power except for the 2 wires (yellow and white) at the board side. It only had 0.1 output. The pic is attached.

At this stage he told me the board is the next thing to change. Unless someone has any other ideas?

Thanks in advance

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

Maybe you could switch the yellow wire to the next pin and change the pin setting in Mach 3. It looks like you should have 2 extra inputs.

You might also want to check the jumpers on the board and make sure they are set correctly for your power supply. If there is an external supply, is it working?

[djreiswig]

After a closer look, I believe you have your switch on pin 12. On the drawing the pins are labeled Ext power, 10,11,12,13,15, common.
Your yellow wire is in the 4th pin which should be 12. Maybe move it to the right one pin. Or just try jumping the 5th pin and the last pin and see if your input activates.

[Mtw fdu]

Do you mean change the pin number in inputs from 13 to 12. Could that work as well?

Thanks for the quick response.

Mtw fdu.

PS I wonder why it has been working for so long on that pin number if it is wrong?

[djreiswig]

Yes, that could work as well.

[Mtw fdu]

Thank you. I will try that first.

Mtw fdu.

[Mtw fdu]

I changed the pin to pin 12 and tried it and it went down like it should, however it dived into the plate. Changed the wires to each and it still dives into the plate. Here is a pic of the wires changed. I changed the pins as well. Also I tried adjusting some other directional settings as well but it still didn't work.

How do I check the jumpers and external power? They have not been changed.

Mtw fdu.

[Mtw fdu]

Did it!!!!

I finally decided to bite the bullet and changed the board over to a new 1. Changed a few settings in mach3 and it will now hit the plate and sit just off. Here are the settings I changed.

Changed the active low to a red x and now the yellow light comes on when it hits the plate.

I did a dummy run and it works ok now.

@djreiswig A very BIG thank you to you for helping me through this especially with helping me learn a bit more about the pins setups...and everything else. Sorry I doubted you please accept my apologies.

@jester A big thanks to you as well for all your help.

I couldn't have done it without you guys.

Now having said that looks as though the board at the pin part was the problem.

Thanks again guys.

I also spoke to the guy who soldered up the wire and he said it could have hit metal and shorted the board from the wire which was off.

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

Glad to hear it is working.
In your pic of the connector above it looks like you moved the wire away from the right most terminal marked GND. This should be the common connection for all of the pins on that connector. One side of your switch should be on that terminal and the other should be on the 4th terminal for pin 13 or the 3rd terminal for pin 12.
How did you end up connecting your new board?
Switching the active low setting would just invert the function of the switch. You should have had the home light on all the time unless the switch was tripped. Inverting it would make it do the opposite.

[acourtjester]

Happy to help just one of many here that do help (great site and people). Many time the process of working on a problem you learn which will help in the future, and those that read along also. One thing is we all are still learning

[plasmanewbie]

Awesome, love to see this sort of thing

[Mtw fdu]

I ended up putting it back the same way as from the start with the white in the 15 pin and the yellow in the 12 pin but pin 13 seem to still work rather than pin 12 in the input settings page (which I thought was odd).

Switching the active low did exactly what you said. However it was the only way it seemed to work properly for some unknown reason. I tried first with the active with a green tick but mach3 came up with an error so I changed it. I will see if I have any issues with it in the future with the switch being opposite to the normal way I had it set with the old board.

Thanks again.

Mtw fdu.

[djreiswig]

Glad to hear it's working. Happy to help.

[Mtw fdu]

Progress Report.

After doing a couple small projects around the home I have notice my machine is a little different than before the repair. Not sure if it is due to the homing changed but more than likely (I think).

When I plug the usb into the computer from the controller there does not seem to be enough "clicks" than before. When I am running the program the torch seems to go down to the material and jolts around the table. My main concern is the THC. I set the volts to 117 for the 3mm plate I am cutting and rather than being around the 80 volts when running it has jumped to 95. Have put in all new consumables in still the same. Would like to get it back to the way it was previous to the repair. Also there seems to be a bit more dross than usual.

Any suggestions or ideas please? Do I need to set the active to a green tick again?

Mtw fdu.