I'll order an oscilloscope this tonight. Are you saying that If the 5V converted encoder signal resembles the raw 12v encoder signal wave then I should be good? I feel I might be overthinking this, but I wonder if the voltage regulator would slow down the signal from the encoder to the controller. Thanks for your help!

Jonathon

If the encoder does output 12v square wave then you would have to use something like a fast opto to convert it to 5v square wave.
I am not great with electronics so cant really help too much in that regard I am afraid.
Hood

A quick update......

After many hours spent talking with tech support for yaskawa, pouring over the nearly useless electrical prints provided by matsuura and lots of twisting wires together, I was able to move the servos using a 1.5v battery. While the manuals mentioned earlier in this thread seemed promising at first, the servopacks turned out to be significantly different. Only sheer trial and error yielded the correct wiring.

The encoder issue is another problem though. I bought three fast optocouplers from Automation Direct to convert the 12v pulse to a 5 volt pulse. These seem to work. However, something seems awry with the output from the stock encoders. Three Small LEDs built into the optocouplers light up when the coupler receives a signal from each of the channels on the encoder. For some reason or another, only two of the channel LEDs light up- A and B. I don't have my osciliscope up and running yet but my plan is to test the raw encoder output on the Z channel.

Now, I'm pretty sure I Know the answer to my next question here, but I have to ask anyway. First though, I have tried to run the autotune function with what I am presuming is only the A and B channel. The result is a moving axis that oscillates back and forth around a point like it were make of warm jello. The autotuning program only manipulates the P and I gain and leaves the D value at 0. This seems odd. But the most troubling thing is that when I hit the e-stop, the axis starts to drift. I don't have the servopack wired such that the IP-A can disable the axis upon e-stop triggering. I know that I should, but why would the controller continue to send out a reference voltage after the estop has been hit?

And the last question of the night will has to do with tuning the servo amplifier. The IP-A manual states that the servoamplifier must be tuned prior to attempting to tune the controller. While I am using both the original servos and servopacks which should already be tuned for the servos, I'm not quite sure that the original reference voltage was + or - 10V. What kinds of problems can this cause and what are some things I can do to alleviate them?

Again, thanks for any and all help Hood.

Jonathon

You will not likely see the Index pulse without a scope, it is very short in duration and your only chance is to know roughly where the Index is and very slowly rotate the motor back and forth until you find the exact point. Just a fraction of a degree either side and it will be gone.

When you hit E-Stop the IP-A is not controlling the analogue output, you will get noise on it which will make the motor drift, it will just be mA but that is enough. What you need to do is have an enable connected to the drives from the IP-A so that when you E-Stop the drive is disabled.

If the original analogue command voltage was other than +/- 10v then it will spin slower or faster at 10v depending on whether the  input was lower or higher on the original.

Usually there is a way to scale the input top the output, ie so many volts per 1000rpm. So say you want a max of 4000rpm then you would adjust the drive so that 2.5v = 1000rpm.

Hood

Hood,

    Thanks for the response. Thats great news to hear the encoder is working properly. I looked over a yaskawa manual for a servopack that is not completely dissimilar from mine. The wiring is different, but there is enough similarity between the two to follow their reference voltage adjustment procedure. As you mentioned above there is a way. On the front of the drive there is a  variable resistor which can be used to set the proper response to the reference voltage. There is also a vr to adjust the zero movement voltage. Obvciously, I probably shouldn't mess with that one though.
 
   As far as sending drive enable signal, there are four voltage inputs to the board: +15V -15V 24V and 5V. I'm fairly certain given the design of the similar yaskawa drive for which I have a manual that the 24V is the enable signal. The 24V controls 2 large relays on the base of each servopack that enable the drive to move in the positive or negative direction. According to the manual, the NC limit switches interrupt the 24V signal to each of the relays when triggered. I will install a relay (because I don't know the amperage draw) rather feed 24 directly from the IPA and enable the servos this way.

 Tonights questions is a shot in the dark, but I think I'll ask anyway. On the front of the drives , there are three small contact relays. Two relays control 24v and when active trigger the larger relays that I mentioned above.  The third controls the 110V ac which I presume is the power to the drive. Beneath each relay, there is a teardrop shaped component labeled SUP. I'm fairly certain this stands for voltage suppressor, but I'm not sure. When I google voltage suppressor nothing like whats on the board comes up. I attached a picture in the hopes that someone will recognize this part. Thats the first part of the question. The second part is a bit embarrassing. When I was fiddling around in the cabinet and testing the 24v input, I accidentally touched the 24V positive wire to a 110V ac source. FWAP!! Five out of six of those little babies sparked and blew apart; the large relays mentioned above clicked off. Lemme tell ya, that took the wind out of my sails! After more research trying to identify the parts, I discovered similar components wired into the back of a contact relay board I had previously removed from the machine. I clipped 5 of them out and soldered them in place of the blown ones. I hoped this would solve my problem, but no such luck. I can turn the drive on with the 24 volt signal, but the suppressors immediately short out. Unlike the first time when I blew them, the drive stays on, so I assume that continuity is maintained. However, the suppressors take on a charred appearance and even initially spark. I've replaced them twice now and the problem persists. I know this is outside the scope of the original post, but I'm not even sure where I would post a question like this one.

Thanks for any and all help!

Jonathon

No, wouldnt bother with the adjustment for the zero movement, it will just end up moving anyway and you would have to continually adjust it. Using the Enable is the way to do it.

Cant really be any help with the suppressors maybe the CNC Zone has a section for electronics?

Hood

Its been a while so I thought I would post an update.

I haven't fiddled with the servo drives since I posted the problem with the voltage suppressors. I did contact yaskawa again hoping to identify the mystery component. While they told me they are surge protectors, the exact specifications are proprietary. Go figure. At this point, I'm considering replacing them with an off the shelf radio shack part that won't fail under the current load.

I ordered an MPG module from CS labs per Hood's recommendation. Because the mpg encoder emits a 12V signal, I got another Fast optocoupler from automation direct. They convert the 12v signal to 5v. As you can see in the picture, I haven't wired it up yet, just snapped it onto the din rail earlier today.

I also bought an ENC threading module. I'm hoping to do rigid tapping, or semi rigid tapping or synchronous tapping, whatever the heck they call it when the z axis follows the rpm of the spindle. I admit, I've done zero research on setting up rigid tapping on a cs labs controller so I'm not even sure I need the module. I was just ordered it with the MPG module to save on shipping. If I don't use it on the matsuura, I'll use it on a lathe retrofit I hope to do next.

When I started the project, the first thing I did was connect the DL06 plc to mach3 and test out modbus tcp. It took a while to simply connect the pc to the PLC. Hours of research revealed that oem firewall settings in windows interrupt the communications and must be deactivated. You want an unfettered signal between the two. After a solid connection was made, I learned how to work the modbus tcp setup page. This step was extremely frustrating as only through trial and persistent error did I discover that mach has to be shut down and rebooted every time you change a setting on this page. (very much like the brain set-up). Next, I experimented with using brains to activate outputs and internal contacts in the PLC. I learned basic ladder logic by watching endless you tube videos on the subject and reading the exhausting and thorough DL06 Manual. I can't thank Scott Schaffer aka Poppabear enough for turning me onto the idea of using a DL06 for the toolchanger and other accessories. Using modbus tcp, brains and a plc all in conjunction allows awesome control over the machine and all its functions. For example, I'm thinking of creating a program in the plc which will allow me to flip a switch on the control panel which will activate a program that will send periodic blasts of air via pneumatic solenoids at the tool to help with chip clearing, but only if the spindle is active. This will help tremendously with deep pocket milling.
Another cool thing you can do with the DL06 is control the spindle vfd. This is imperative for the tool changer, as the first step in the process is to rotate the spindle at very low rpm until the dog locks it into the correct orientation. Did I mention that I love my DL06? AD customer support has been super helpful as well. As a first-timmer, its not easy integrating all this hardware. Without this forum and their customer support, I'd be bald from pulling my hair out.

Lastly, I redesigned the control panel. I'm having it waterjet by a company here in town and then I'm taking it south to Denver where another company will laser etch  the button labels. Ive included every button I can imagine needing, but if i missed one, please speak up. The two unlabeled circles in the center are joysticks and the small rectangle box above them is a USB port for loading programs. The large box in the lower left hand corner is for the MPG of corse and the unlabeled circle above it is the estop. I'll post a pic of the control panel the minute it gets back from laser etching. 

You will need the Enc module for rigid tapping, you will also need an encoder connected directly to the spindle.

Personally I prefer the old serial (Non-plugin) interface for the PLC but others seem to prefer the TCP.
I do not have to restart Mach after changes to the PLC but maybe that is a quirk with the plugin/TCP.
With Brains you definitely do not need to restart, you just need to reload them after any changes.

On my machines now I have a power button that switches on the computer, there is then a relay connected to the computers power supply that brings in main contactors which in turn power the 24v power supplies and the logic to my servo drives. This means there is a single button to switch on the whole control and then I have another On/Off integrated button to switch the mains to the servo drives.
Regarding your spindle and coolant, you really only need 1 button for each as in Mach they are toggle buttons, ie if off a press will switch on, and vice versa.

Hood

Just a quick update. I got the control panel back from the waterjet and laser guy. The laser etching didn't show up as well as I;d hoped, but I've been told that I can rub acrylic paint into the etching to make it pop a bit more. I installed the myriad of buttons in the panel and mounted it in the machine. Since I don't have room for all the buttons I want and a screen, I'm mounting the screen and keyboard console off to the side.

I also spent a few hours yesterday convincing the DL06 to talk to the GS2 drive.  The first problem I encountered was  differentiating between necessary and unnecessary ladder logic to get the dl06 to write to the drive's modbus registers. After a few hours I was finally able to write to registers in the PLC via the TEST MODBUS window in mach3 and have the PLC then write to the registers in the GS2. I then wrote a simple brain using the spindle LED and the commanded speed DRO and modbus. Unfortunately the GS2 drive speed reference uses HZ rather than RPM. To achieve 1750 RPM you would send 60HZ to the speed reference register. I'll have to write a program in the ladder logic to perform the appropriate calculations to convert the commanded rpm to hz.

The one odd thing that I'm not liking about the DL06 to GS2 interface is the lag time between when I tell the spindle to power off and when it powers off.  Precious seconds pass after I click the spindle button and when the spindle actually starts decelerating. Whats odd is the spindle is much more responsive powering on than off.

Is there a reason you are using the PLC for the spindle control rather than using the IP-A?
Hood