Need help in setting up a Maxnc 15 CL (older model 5 years old) with mach3

[samtc]

Hi,
I have a maxnc 15 CL mill, that I'm trying to get to work on mach2 or mach3 (Demo ver. ) because I don't have the disks that came we the maxnc. I can not get the mill to work at all, the only thing that works is the spindle, The step motors do not even moved at all.
Can any-body tell me what can I do to get the maxnc going again? 
Where can I get the pinouts of the maxnc so that I can setup with a mach CNC Controller? or
Does anybody have the setup disk for this machine that would like to shared with me?
The maxnc is about 5 years old.

Thank you.

[creep_pea]

Hi

As far as I know the motor pinouts are set and you can't change them in maxnc mode, you have got mach in maxnc mode its a tick box under config, ports and pins.

Cheers

Chris

[Brian Barker]

I just put an XML on the FTP server under Mach3 called Mach3MaxNC_CL.xml  that should help

[samtc]

I was also told that the Maxnc 15 CL step motor setup has changed a few times in the last five years.

I'm going to try the XML file to see if it works because I alredy try the tick box under config. menu.

thanks for the info.

sam.

[samtc]

I did try the XML file and the spindle work fine, the x-axis some times it works and some times it does not.
the Y and Z axis are not working at all.

The step motors must be config. a little different than the new Maxnc 15 CL....

regards

sam.

[HillBilly]

There are also parameters in the drive box that were set with the original software. If you try ro run the MaxNC CL with the MaxNC OL tick box in Mach these parameters will be corupt.

The file That holds these parameters is named SERVPR.DAT and contains tha following data.

20_ACCEL
10_PWM
28_MAXLAG
36_THRESH
30800_XTRAVEL
18000_YTRAVEL
24000_ZTRAVEL
MAXNC 10-2

Darek

[samtc]

So, I should make a file name SERVPR.DAT and write all the parameter that you give me.

then, put the file in mach3 directory.

regards

sam.

[HillBilly]

PIN ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE
MAXNC CL2 SOFTWARE

PRINTER PORT PIN ASSIGNMENT

1............... M3 OUTPUT (LOW=ON, PULSE FOR PWM)
2............... A AXIS (quadrature)
3............... A AXIS (quadrature)
4............... Y AXIS (quadrature)
5............... Y AXIS (quadrature)
6................X AXIS (quadrature)
7............... X AXIS (quadrature)
8............... Z AXIS (quadrature)
9............... Z AXIS (quadrature)
10.............. INPUT, MOVE ENABLE (LOW=NORMAL OPERATION, HIGH=STOP, SEE NOTE)
11.............. INACTIVE
12.............. INPUT, HOME SWITCH (NORMAL OPERATION LOW)
13.............. INPUT, G61 SWITCH SENSOR
14.............. M8 OUTPUT (LOW=ON)
15.............. NONE
16.............. OUTPUT, DISABLE POWER TO MOTORS (LOW=NORMAL, HIGH=DISABLE)
17.............. OUTPUT, RESET CONTROLLER (LOW=RESET, HIGH=NORMAL)
18.............. ALL SIGNALS GROUND
19 TO 25 ....... NONE


NOTE: MOVE ENABLE IS USED TO STOP THE COMPUTER STREAM OF CODES UNTIL THE SERVO
MOTORS CATCH UP. ON TIME-OUT IT WILL PRODUCE A SERVO ERROR.

This is the way I envision it working. when you open the MAXNC CL software one of the LPT output pins (probably 16) is turned on to put the drives in a SPI (serial peripheral interface) mode. At this point the parameters as passed to the drives through the quadrature signal pins (which are clock and data at this point.). Once this is done the controller sends a signal  to one of the LPT input pins (maybe 15) to tell the MAXNC CL software the parameters have been set. This is why the MAXNC CL software will not run if the controller is not present.

The MACH3 software does not care if the controller is present (good news for us using it for quadrature drive signals.).

The above explanation also explains how the parameters can become corrupt if you try the MAXNC OL mode. In this mode 4 outputs are used for each axis (all 12 LPT outputs.). If you were trying to jog in this mode the drives could be put into SPI mode and erroneous data sent.

Darek

[meiswink]

Do any of you know the lead/pitch of the screws on each axis?  Also, the number of divisions/rotation of the encoders?

[HillBilly]

20 threads per inch on the screws and 200 lines per revolution on the encoder. The stepper motor is also 200 steps per rev.

20 * 200 = 4000

1" / 4000 = 0.00025 resolution

Darek