How to "enable" motors with an output pin with PMDX-411 & Mach4?

[GilchristT]

Hi

I've a 411 with the latest drivers and firmware (0.44.214) and Mach 4 4.2.0.2914.

I've four stepper drivers and all is working fine, motor movement, speed, homing switches, etc.

However, I've the enable pin for all four drivers wired to a single pin on the 411, pin 14. It's working because the pin seems to be permanently set to low and the drivers use low = enabled but I want to disable them when Mach4 is disabled.

I've gone into Configure-> Mach -> Outputs and set "Enable #0" to enabled, device = SmartBobUSB, Pin = 14, Active Low = yes but this doesn't seem to make any difference?

If I toggle enable/disable several times with the PMDX diagnostics window open I'll occasionally see the marker for pin 14 flash yellow and hear the machine clunking as power drops and re-flows to the stepper but the pin never goes high.

Am I doing something wrong?

The stepper drivers are PoLabs PoStep25-32s if that's any help?

thanks

tommy

[Bob at PMDX]

Do you have a break-out board between the PMDX-411 and the motor drivers?  Or are you wiring directly from a DB25 connector plugged in to the PMDX-411 to the motor drivers (and limit/home switches)?

How and where are you measuring the voltage on pin 14?

When you have the PMDX real-time diagnostics window open, do you ever see the pin 14 indicator turn green?  Or does it stay read and occasionally flicker yellow?

And finally, send me a profile package of your current profile.  Go to the Mach4 "Help" menu and select "Support", and then "Package current profile".  Save the resulting file and then either post it here to the forums or email directly to me at bob at this domain.

Bob

[GilchristT]

Thanks Bob, have e-mailed you with further information.

I'll update this post if/when we get a resolution to help anyone seeing a similar issue.

tommy

[Bob at PMDX]

We are investigating an interaction between Mach4 and our plug-in related to the Mach4 enable/disable state and active low enable outputs.  Stay tuned...

Bob