Don,

It is normal - when starting Mach it takes over the PP and pulls low all the pins. What is not normal is that you don't see the direction pin changing state when moving the axis in different directions. This is strange. You didn't have anything connected to that pin when doing the measuring, did you? I don't know why that would happen...

Where did the D-sub 25 connector go in? How did you plug into the PP DB25? Can you measure the voltage of say the direction pin while it is not connected to the Gecko and compare it to the voltage when it is connected to the Gecko?

Dan

Hi Peter,

You need to check your sensors to see why you're not getting signals out of them.

Dan

Hi Don,

What keeps confusing me is that you're seeing the problem only when there is motion on two or more axes, but never when it's a single axis move.

Would be still interesting to eliminate the breakout board from the equation. I know you tested with two different ones, but anyway. When you tried running the Geckos directly from the PP did you do it with both computers and they both had insufficient voltage going out from the PP? Can you find another PC with a PP that would output 5VDC signals, or find a PP card with 5VDC to install in your current PC?

Dan

Kevin,

Most of the wizards have the option to select Metric or Inch units.

Are you meaning the tool table? Don't see why you'd want to reconfigure it... the values there are in the units defined in Mach. You can put a G20 in the beginning of a program and Mach will treat the length units as inches.

There are lots of CAM packages and the pricing differs a lot. Don't know what are the cheaper ones. There has been a lot of discussions on this over on the Mach Yahoo group, but I wasn't really following them.

Dan

Yes, start with the wizards.

You can use LazyCAM to produce Gcode from DXFs created by Autocad. Note that the free version of LazyCAM doesn't support some features like pocketing.

Dan

Hi Kevin,

You don't set a tool diameter for the roadrunner or any other program in Mach. There are two ways to produce Gcode - take the tool  diameter into account and plan the moves considering it, or use G41/G42 tool offsetting and then just write the gcode as if the tool had zero diameter (Mach would automatically offset the tool).

I have never run the roadrunner code myself. Probably it was assuming a particular tool diameter, probably not. See its size and select a tool that would give most details.

Dan

Do you have an automatic tool changer and you're afraid it won't work if the tool is stuck? The most right way is to fix the mechanical problem that prevents the tool holder from ejecting from the spindle. Then, if you still feel you need some safety mechanism, you can probably use proximity switches to detect if the tool holder has come out.

More details about your system would help.

Dan

Good work, Hood. Thanks for showing.

Dan

Yep

Dan

Somehow I can't see this. It might be the case with a DC servo motor, but I think you said you are running large steppers? I am not aware of any significant back emf problems with steppers.

When a stepper motor decelerates large mass from high speed it will act as a current source and send current back to the drive instead of drawing voltage from it. If the power supply voltage is near the drive's max it could damage the drive if proper means of dissipating this energy are not implemented. I was assuming that Don was having some moderate variant of this phenomenon, since the problem was only occurring when two of the motors where moving in the same time.


Dan