Messages

681

General Mach Discussion / Re: Changing from Bipolar Parallel to Bipolar Series

« on: January 13, 2010, 04:23:35 PM »

One correction: Bipolar series wiring will produce more torque but lower acceleration and max velocity with all other things being equal. If you need to make any changes in Mach it will be in motor tuning. You may need to lower your acceleration and max velocity but you'll have to test it out and see.

682

General Mach Discussion / Re: stepper motors rotates only in one ways

« on: January 09, 2010, 10:27:51 AM »

Well, it could be any of the following -

1) Stepper wires hooked up incorrectly. Having one wire loose can cause a motor to only rotate one direction.
2) You 'Direction' pin assignment in 'Ports&Pins' is incorrect.
3) You have the system Hotkeys assigned incorrectly.

683

General Mach Discussion / Re: grounding issue? spindle help....

« on: January 07, 2010, 10:01:50 AM »

You have a noise issue. Spindle motors (well any motors really) generate a LOT of electrical noise when starting. Very often this will cause other nearby electronics to have problems. A VFD can compound problems as they are very often good noise production units as well. You need a line filter and/or line reactor depending on what type/size of VFD you have.

If you have a smaller 110V single phase VFD driving a 1 HP or smaller motor you can probably get by with a unit like this: http://soigeneris.com/cncparts2.aspx. If you have a larger drive/motor or a three phase input drive you'll need to look at your drives documentation  to see what they recommend. Most drive manufacturers will have reactors/filters available for their drives. A line filter like the one linked to above should be placed as close to the drive as possible. Depending on the size of the drive, type of power input etc, you may need a filter/reactor between the drive and motor as well. Take a look at your drives documentation to be sure.

The line filters I sell (above link) work very well but you just have to make sure that it will fit your situation. Feel free to send me a PM or email if you have any questions.

684

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! We are being spammed!

« on: January 07, 2010, 09:33:42 AM »

Just a note: rather than create another thread to report spam use the 'Report to Moderator' link at the bottom of each post. This will send them an email and one of them will be able to react more quickly.

685

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with G-540 and xyz probe

« on: January 04, 2010, 01:22:21 PM »

What I can say is that all my inputs are connected to the same "DC Common" as the G-540 and my probe works with an additional wire run from the DC Common to the router mount that I clip on when I need to use the probe. Would love to know another way to do it without the additional DC Common wire if you would care to share that.

If your using a solid probe, that is one that works by making electrical contact between the probe and workpiece, then you really need one wire hooked to the workpiece and one to the probe. Never try to use the machine frame as a DC Common as most likely it will be bonded to (earth)ground.  If you try to run a signal back through (earth)ground you'll cause all sorts of problems.

686

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with G-540 and xyz probe

« on: January 04, 2010, 07:12:31 AM »

'GROUND' is NOT the same thing as 'DC Common'. The inputs on the G540 need to be pulled low, that is - connected to the same DC Common as the G540, to work properly.

687

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Vista Pulse Spikes Gone!!!

« on: January 04, 2010, 07:09:56 AM »

You should really install the OS with all the APCI stuff turned off. That will eliminate most of these types of problems.

688

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Running on new windows 7

« on: January 03, 2010, 10:58:00 PM »

Someone was reporting getting Mach to run on a Win 7-64 machine by using XP compatibility mode. The LPT driver is not signed so it will not run in 64 bit mode.

689

General Mach Discussion / Re: e-stop

« on: December 27, 2009, 08:40:11 PM »

An E-Stop MUST remove power from the things that move. You can never rely on any circuit board to keep you safe. The input to your PMDX board is there to help inform Mach that an E-Stop has occurred it does not make an E-Stop circuit all by itself.

690

General Mach Discussion / Re: Modbus vs Pokey

« on: December 27, 2009, 10:26:36 AM »

I would first start by looking at the actual number and types of I/O required for your entire machine + tool changer. Then you can look at which solution may work out best for your needs. Would a second LPT card be enough? Maybe a SmoothStepper would give you all the I/O you need for both the machine and tool changer? Etc, etc..

From the point of view of ease of configuration for a 'newbie' I would say that modbus would be the most complex but has the greatest number of external devices that can be connected through it. If your currently running a single LPT card then adding a second one would probably be the simplest. The SmoothStepper and Pokey would be somewhere in the middle.