Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: radioactive on April 03, 2009, 11:55:54 AM
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Finally finished up my wiring last night, or early this morning actually. Using a smooth stepper with a PMDX-122 on port 1 and a rogersmachine encoder board on port 2. Can't get the outputs to work on the rogersmachine board, but that is a topic for another thread.
Using G320's to drive the servo's. I just hooked up the encoders on the servo's and powered them up for the first time last night. I don't have an oscilloscope for setup of the G320's, is it really required? I powered it all up and the Gecko's were all faulted like normal when they first power up. I reset my E-stop switch (actual switch) then pressed my Gecko reset button to clear the power up fault. The manual says to hold it for 5 secs, at about second number 2, the Y axis ran inwards until my Vise contacted the machine and a fuse blew.
Not sure why it would do this? I haven't started to setup the motor tuning or made any adjustments on the Gecko's yet. I thought I had to have it powered in order to do that.
I was able to replace the fuse and try it again. It is repeatable. Once I reset the Gecko's, the Y axis moves quickly and I can Push my Gecko Stop button (Grounds the ERR pin on the Gecko's) to halt it.
Any ideas?
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Is your encoder hooked up the correctly? Make sure its connections are good.
Hood
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I'll check on the wiring for that axis tonight. Thanks
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Hi, Radioactive
Do as "Hood" stated and then, With the 5 volt power on the Gecko, check power to encoder's, Check the A & B encoder pin's on the Gecko for on/Off 5 volt's while moving the motor shaft slowly.
If the A/B pulses are there, Swap the A/B wires around, You should be getting good at hitting the E-Stop by Now. :D
Hope this Helps, Chip
Getting late again
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I found the "B" wire loose at the servo motor terminal strip. However, once I landed it, and tried to reset the drives the Y axis still moves in the same direction however only a 1/4 inch at a time. Short movement, pause for one second, moves again, etc.
I tested and found 5V, ground, and 5 V pulses while moving the motor by hand. I suppose I will swap the A and B wires next. Not really sure why it would respond this way if they were swapped though?
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Hi, Radioactive
Swap the A B wires that should fix it, But sound's like you have the Enable terminal held in Reset all the time.
You should only apply 5 volt power to it to Reset the drive's. Re-read over the paper work.
Chip
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Well I looked in the Gecko instructions and it listed that the servo power wiring being backwards could cause this condition. So I swapped the power leads and all is well. The drives reset now.
Now I can't seem to clear a Servo drive disable signal, however no Gecko faults are present? It may be the RogersMachine interface plugin...
Chip, I was holding the Reset button in and trying to count to five. After 2 seconds, the drive would move a 1/4 inch, pause for a second, and repeat. All the while I was holding the reset button in.
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OK, removed the RogerMachine plugin for now and no more servo drive disable. So I went thru the motor tuning section and setup the servo info as appropriate. I can reset the E-stop and it will hold it's position. However using the jog menu nothing moves? Mach 3 shows the position should be changing, but no movement out of the motors... Could this be due to not tuning them yet? I don't have an oscilloscope and haven't done anything yet other then the initial Gecko instructions, limit is at half, gain is at zero, and damp is at 25 percent.
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Hi, Radioactive
Make sure you have Port "1" selected in port's & pin's, Motor Output's for Dir & Step Port's.
Also do you have a Pulse Frequency showin on the Diag. screen.
Chip
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Port 1 is selected on the ports & pins page. However, there is no pulse freq shown. It says "External"?
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Hi, Radioactive
Sound's like you have a Plugin running, SStepper or Gaila, They need to be turned OFF under General, Control PlugIns, Then Re-Start Mach3..
Chip
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Thanks Chip, I will try it tonight. I don't want to ask a stupid question, but why would the SStepper plugin need to be turned off? Wouldn't it need to be on to work properly? Just trying to understand my actions.
Thanks for the help...
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Hi, Radioactive
If your not running Warp9 Smooth-Stepper Board, It's a USB device, When you start Mach3 select the Normal Printer Port Control, Then verify that SStepper Plugin is X'd out in Plugin's page.
PM message your phone # by clicking on my user name, I'll give you a call tonight at 9:00 FL time, If your in US or CA.
Chip
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Just to clarify, I am using a smooth stepper board.
So I'm assuming the pulse frequency shown on the diagnostics screen of Mach 3 normally says "External" since the SS is generating the pulses?
Still don't get any response from the servo motors during jog commands. Mach 3 shows the position changing, but no real movement. The servo's do hold their position though. Meaning if I try to turn one by hand, it will resist and hold it's current position.
What should I check next?
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WooHoo!
Got it figured out. I didn't have my charge pump ckt enabled as an output from Mach 3. The PMDX board wasn't allowing any outputs because of the lack of signal.
We have movement now!
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Hi, Radioactive
Good to hear, Let the games begin.
Chip