Nice. I can’t see any of the markings on either board.
Can you confirm if your machine has limit switches? Is that what the lavender, gray, white black wires are?
I assume the brown, red, orange, yellow wires are for the other stepper?
Did you confirm that the laser pinouts match between board and laser module?
see if this helps ? I’m curious since there are two sets of y cables ( two motors ) where they would go since it looks like the CAMXTOOL only has place for one set of cable for the Y . I assume 12V PWM GRD is where laser cable goes ? no limits on old board .
Yes. But make sure the individual pins correlate to their respective function on the laser module. If the pins orientation matches the old board that should be sufficient as well.
Ah… didn’t realize you had two separate Y motors. It looks like they are duplicated on the original board. You’ll need to Y-split this on your board if you only have a single Y port. Normally these would be wired where one set of wires is backwards to the other to accommodate the fact they are on opposite sides of the machine and need to work in reverse of each other.
Other controllers would have the split done on the board. More sophisticated solutions would have a discrete Y2 stepper driver. But in this case it looks like you should just be able to share the connector.
Ah… didn’t realize you had two separate Y motors. It looks like they are duplicated on the original board. You’ll need to Y-split this on your board if you only have a single Y port. Normally these would be wired where one set of wires is backwards to the other to accommodate the fact they are on opposite sides of the machine and need to work in reverse of each other. So Maybe a splitter of some sort and reverse wires ? that’s
** a little confusing , not sure what color does what ?**
Yes. But make sure the individual pins correlate to their respective function on the laser module. If the pins orientation matches the old board that should be sufficient as well. So I guess I move wires to correlate ?
Thanks
You will need to rewire the laser cable. Keep the laser module side the same. On the controller side carefully pull out the individual wire ends. There may be a detent that you have to depress in order to get the end to release.
Then change the orientation of the wire such that:
I don’t see any markings on the board to indicate how the steppers would need to be wired. You may want to just try X motor as it’s wired. There’s a good chance it will work but may need to be reversed which you can do in GRBL configuration.
For Y I would assume for the moment that the cables have already been wired reversed from one another. The left 4 pins are one set and the right 4 are another. You could cut the existing connector down the middle or transfer the wires to another connector or just get a new cable. But just test each motor independently and make sure it moves up when jogging up. If they don’t both go in the same direction then you may be able to simply turn the entire connector around. If they both go in the same direction but in the wrong direction then either turn both or can be changed in GRBL configuration.
thanks so much !!
Got everything wired x axis works now but still having trouble with Y , I can get a signal to motors but they both just thump or activate but dont move ?
I’m assuming the wiring is incorrect. If you look at the original wiring for the Y-left motor, the colors seem to correlate to the X motor but in reverse. If you plugin the Y-left wires into the X-motor port in the same color order, does the motor move when controlling X?
If you can get that to work then move the wires over to Y port in the same order. Then test. Does that work? If so, repeat process for Y-right motor. Then make sure Y-right and Y-left wires are flipped opposite from one another and then combine. Meaning you want to make sure they’re both turning in the same direction as they are installed.
Went back to Lightburn software , nothing , I did get laser test on and x to move using Laser GRBL software , not sure why LightBurn doesn’t connect ??
I did the wiring test I believe wires are in reverse so motors would work …but all I can get out of Y is a thump or start of a lunge but no actually move .
Make sure you’re on the right port in LightBurn. But connection is really secondary. Let’s focus on the Y motors situation.
Focus on a single motor at a time. If you wire Y-left to the X port, can you get it to move?
If you plugin the Y-left wires into the X-motor port in the same color order, does the motor move when controlling X? no same problem no y control
Just to confirm, you’re attempting to control X, correct? But not getting movement in the motor?
You may want to confirm that the steppers are still functioning with your old board. If they are, then work out the wiring of the steppers. This video will show you how:
How To Connect 4 Wire Stepper Motors - YouTube
Basically, you want to identify which wires are phase pairs. Do this for Y-left first. Then compare that to X. Then arrange Y-left wires so that pairs are in the same positions as X. Which pair (A or B) goes to what is not so important, just that pairs are together since getting it “wrong” should only result in a direction change.
Once wiring is established then test again on X port. Then test on Y port. Repeat process for Y-right. Then making sure that left and right are in the proper direction then tie together.
I am thinking maybe y axis steppers are bad …any suggestions on replacements ? Thanks
Were they working before the board replacement? Steppers are fairly robust. Did you check to see if they work with the old board?
I’d be surprised if they both went bad spontaneously.
As for replacements I’d suggest matching size and sticking to a 4-wire solution unless you’re looking for a bigger project. You probably don’t want one that requires a lot of current given that you’re splitting the signal from your board. These should be fairly commodity really.
Were they working before the board replacement? Steppers are fairly robust. Did you check to see if they work with the old board?
I don’t know I haven’t been able to get old board to run since we went to windows 10 , that’s why I bought new board …I agree seems odd both would go out !! But I have tried every combination of wiring can’t seems to get them to operate besides the lunge . Strange too , can’t get LightBurn to recognize set-up just tried another open source software called open build it works just like Laser GRBL but again no y drive capability ??
Were you able to test the steppers using the methods in the video I linked? That will give you an idea if they’re in functioning order.
Also, were you testing with the Y-motor connected to the X-port?
Make sure you are on the correct port in Laser window. Also, in Device Settings try various combinations of “Enable DTR signal”, baud rates, and transfer mode.
I tried connecting y motors to x-axis on controller same result , switched x and y on control board y axis on board will run x motor no problem ( so its not the board ) , I did finally get LightBurn to connect but same result with y motors as Laser GRBL software no y drive control ??
So sounds like you’ve been able to isolate the issue to the motors but still find it unusual that both would go out.
Can you confirm that you used a meter to test resistance of the coils to identify the pairs? Or used the technique to touch wires together and turning the stepper? Just want to confirm that the steppers are indeed dead and not just wired incorrectly.
If they are truly dead then sounds like you’ve already proven that a replacement stepper should work without issue.
so I am back at it again !!! ordered two new steppers motors ( not received yet ) but I also ordered two new 2 axis GRBL control boards ( this time with individual x and 2 y axis inputs ) also bought light burn software . now with still old y axis motors rewired everything and now with 1st new ANNOY TOOL control board getting no movement ( probably a setting ) but haven’t sorted it yet , any ideas ?
