It's Alive!!!

After buying a new Straight Thru DB25 M/F cable from fry's 4.99$ (again) and fiddling with mach3 configuration I was finally able to get movement!

After I bought the cable i came right home, plugged it in and attempted to run it. It didn't work. A moment of fear occured because I thought I had not identified the problem properly. I had to disable the E-stop, ensure the pins were sending the right signals according to the provided documentation, AND make sure they were assigned to the active motor port. So i had to change six different 0's to 1's, and assign pin numbers again. No biggie, after that the X stepper moved after a G0 X2 command! Yay.

I quickly recorded a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-3UZTvABA

I was so caught up in the moment I didn't really notice the resonence, or the missed steps on the steppers. So that is the next hurdle to tackle, but at least all the steppers are moving in the direction I want them to :)

This CNC machine is proving to be like a child. You pour in love, pour in love, and get little back, but when you do get something back it is soooo rewarding. (not that I am an expert on children by any means.) So after a bit of tuning, the focus will shift to the CNC4PC board, and getting the spindle motor working as we want.

I also need to clean up the powersupply case, properly mount the control board, cut up some wire so we can easily attach the steppers where they ought to be on the actual machine. I'm not entirely sure on the layout we will take, but given enough time I'm sure we will find a solution. This was definitely the hurdle I feared most about this project, but it is quickly resolving down to the simple mechanical aspects, and money.

More to come later. I still owe you some pictures too.