Glass Scale Input

[pofo]

I have an Acu-rite system that I am retrofitting with DSPMC and Mach3. An Acu-rite system does not have encoders on the motors. They use the glass scales as the motion feedback. I have connected the glass scales to the DSPMC encoder inputs.

Problem - how do I also feed the glass scale outputs to the Mach3 DR0? Can the DSPMC do this for me?

[TOTALLYRC]

HiFO,
The encoder inputs (X,Y,Z) to the DSPMC are read out directly to the corresponding Mach3 DROs.

Mike

[pofo]

Thanks Mike. Is there anything I need to configure in the plug-in to make that work or does it do that automatically by the fact that the DSPMC plug-in is present?

The reason I ask is that as you know, Mach3 has both encoder inputs and DRO inputs. So somehow, it needs to know to use the encoder input for the DRO.

[TOTALLYRC]

Hi Pofo,
The way the plugin is written is that the encoder feedback for the motors is displayed to the X,Y,Z DROs.
It also allows manual movement of the machine with the DROs keeping track of the position.
If you were using the glass scales in conjunction with motor encoders that that would be different.

[pofo]

Ok, very good. Thanks for the answers Mike.

[pofo]

I'm still confused. In section 7 of the current manual (Mach3 SW Integration), sections 7.2 and 7.3 show the mapping of DSPMC pins to Mach 3 I/O. Nowhere is listed the J6 quadrature encoder inputs.

In the screenshot shown on page 34 of the manual, it shows the Mach3 Ports and Pins configuration, with the Input Signals tab selected. At the top of the list is the X++ and X-- inputs. I'm assuming I need to assign those to the J6 encoder pins. But since there is no mapping of the DSPMC J6 connector, I don't know what to put into the table for the encoders.

Do I need to configure these inputs or will the plug-in take care of J6 for me?

I have the same question for teh Encoder/MPGs tab. It lists the 4 encoders, and it wants port and pin numbers to be assigned, but I don't know what to put in there.

[TOTALLYRC]

IIRC The J6 encoder inputs are hardcoded to the dro's via the DSPMC plugin. You would assign which encoder goes to which axis via the config plugins page for the dspmc.

THe X++ and X-- are the limit switch inputs.

Mike

[pofo]

So I don't do anything on the Encoder/MPG tab.  Ok, thanks again Mike.

[pofo]

One more question - I do or don't enable the Encoder1,2,3 on the Encoder/MPG tab? I assume I enable them as needed, but ignore the pin assignments.

[pofo]

Ok, encoder is now being displayed on the Mach3 screen, but it is off  by about a factor of 12. Where do I set the encoder count/inch? I don't find it anywhere.