Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 06:35:54 PM

Title: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 06:35:54 PM


I am in the finish stages of building this contraption and have come upon an issue that I have not been able to resolve. (I am sure due to my lack of knowledge in electronics).

The machine is a gantry router with dual X motors. I purchased a Logitrol 5 axis controller which works fine if connected directly to the parallel port of the PC. I wanted to have a breakout board to give me some more options so I bought a C23 BOB from CNC4PC and installed it between the PC and the Logitrol driver (uses Geckos). I understood that the signals should pass through the board uninterupted, however I cant get anything to move when the board is in the mix.

If anyone has had any experience with this board or similar problems I would greatly appreciate some input .

-10F and project is on hold...(looking for a rope)
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 24, 2010, 06:43:18 PM
No experience with CNC4PC BOBs but often a BOB will require a power supply and sometimes also an enable signal, could that be your problem?
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 06:52:38 PM
I have the enable hot wired now , I was using the safty charge pump and also tried it disabled. The 5V supply is connected. All the LED's are lit just seems no signal is getting thru, the DRO in Mach shows the move is being made just that the motors arent reflecting that. They dont move at all but are powered.
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 24, 2010, 06:59:04 PM
Might be worth an email to Arturo at CNC4PC to see if he can help, obviously it is either the BOB or a wiring issue if you can run fine when the BOB is out of the equation.

Sorry im not  much help :(

Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 07:05:40 PM
I sent him an e-mail, just waiting for a reply.
 I am thinking I might need a DB25 spitter to go to the breakout board and driver so the signal is not interupted but I could still use the I/Os to run options. Is that somthing that could be done? I am pretty new to all the electronics involved in this. I built the entire 4x10 router frame in less time than I have in wireing and troubleshooting...

Thanks for the input: Gary
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 24, 2010, 07:17:10 PM
Wiring a CNC is always the big time eater, especially when things start getting more complicated than a basic setup.

You could use a splitter but another option may just be to solder to the pins inside the control box.
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 07:23:38 PM
I am not sure what you mean,

The controler has 5 geckos and its own little breakout board, the ribbon cables with DB25 go in the front and out the back. I am really not sure if I have everything plugged into the correct places.

Where would the solder connections be made??

Sorry if I dont seem to know much about this but the truth is I really dont. The advertisements sure made it sound easy though!
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 24, 2010, 07:30:08 PM
Afraid its me that knows nothing of the Logitrol controller, I just presumed that the Parallel cable went from PC to control and inside you could solder to the socket that the cable goes to. Does the breakout inside not have spare I/O connections that you could use?
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 07:42:48 PM
The board inside the controler has a few connections (4 relays) it also has  4 wires coming out of a DB25 port for XYZ home and PC ground, this seemed strange to me as it was a 5 Axis controller and I need to slave two axises for "X" and will need two more home switches than there are connections to operate??? Therefore the C23 board.

If you are planning a trip to Alaska in the next week or so maybe you can stop by and take a look?  LOL

Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 24, 2010, 07:49:11 PM
It feels like bloody Alaska here at the moment, has been down to minus 18 here and inland a bit  minus 20 or so ;D
With one port you only get 12 outs and 5 ins so if you need more you will have to add a second port.
You can however connect all your switches up in series and only use one input for home and limits for all axis. When homing Mach will treat the switches as home switches then once all axis are homed it will then treat them as limits.

Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 24, 2010, 07:59:29 PM
I didn't know that I could use one input for all homes, except the slaved axis I presume. do I have to run a jumper between the pins that Mach is assigned for the homes and limits as it fails if I have the same pin assigned in two places.

I do have two paralell ports however. I will be operating several other options with them though, ( dust collector, spindle coolant, tool changer options ect.

Where are you at that it is colder than Alaska??
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 24, 2010, 08:21:46 PM
I am in Scotland, the UK has been having a colder than normal spell of weather, its not got above zero for probably 4 weeks here and even during the day it has been regularly -7 or more and often going into double minus figures during the night.

Are your switches normally closed? If they are then you can wire them in series and use only one input and set that one pin in Mach for all the Home and Limits. Slaved axis may require separate switches but not sure as I have never messed with them.
When you say it fails if you have the same pin assigned what do you mean?
Hood.

Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 25, 2010, 01:36:52 PM
Scottland!, My wife really want's to go there. She has some distant relatives there.

The manual with the board says I can't have the same pin assigned in more than one place.
Is Mach OK with assigning two inputs to the same pin number? Could it just be the BOB that wont accept that?
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 25, 2010, 06:48:29 PM
It is fine for limits and homing, other things its not good.
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 01:27:00 PM
Thanks Hood
Arturo replied on Christmas no less! now there is some support for you!
I was missing one of the two 5V connections that I thought was to power the optional relays.
It was not optional as I thought since it powers the other side of the board. Everything is working now. ;D

Is there anything I can do to get more speed out of my motors? I turned up the velocity in motor tuning but am only getting 130IPM on the Y&Z(ball screws) but am getting 400IPM on the X(rack and pinion). The motors don't seem to spin as fast as I expected. Will turning up the pulse speed increase the motor RPM?
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 26, 2010, 02:08:06 PM
If you are meaning that you can not get more Velocity on the motor tuning page for X and Y because it is at Max then yes you can increase the kernel.
If however you are meaning your motors are stalling at 130IPM then no increasing the kernel wont help.

Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 02:45:57 PM
OK
I am going to bump up the Kernel speed and see what happens.
Stand Back!

Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 04:53:06 PM
That worked, up to 230IMP Y&Z and 500 X.

I am now trying to get the slaved axis to work. The motor is powered but I am getting no motion.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. I set the slaved axis X to A and rebooted, only the X runs. I messed around with homing and limits, still no movement.

Any Ideas???
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 26, 2010, 05:00:21 PM
Do you have the Port and Pin set for the A in the Motor Output page of Ports and Pins, remember its not the same port and pin numbers that the X has but it is whatever you have the A connected to.
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 05:05:13 PM
Yes, they are set to the Mfg port diagram. and I did change the A to linear insted of rotory.
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 26, 2010, 05:08:21 PM
Should work then, if you want to attach your xml I will have a look to see if I can find a problem but if its the wiring you will have to test with a scope or voltmeter to make sure the signals are getting through.
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 05:12:26 PM
How can I jog the A axis to see if it is working, are there keyboard hot keys for that?
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 26, 2010, 05:16:56 PM
If its slaved then I dont think you can other than jogging via the X, not 100% certain on that as I have only messed with slaving on the coil winder and never tried jogging the A on its own whilst slaved. If you unslave it however you could press the Tab key on your keyboard and in the flyout screen you can use the mouse on the 4+ and 4- buttons to jog.
Hood
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 05:19:45 PM
Thanks Hood,
 I will unslave it and try that.

Gary
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: gary22 on December 26, 2010, 05:46:08 PM
ARRRRRRRRRR!!  ???

Unslaved it and it still wont move, I have 27V on all four wires, is there any way I can test for a pulse without a scope?
Title: Re: Logitrol and C23 BOB Question
Post by: Hood on December 26, 2010, 05:52:09 PM
Yes, if you connect the voltmeter to Dir pin and the common of the axis in question then you should get 5v jogging one way then 0v the other.
If you connect to Step pin and common pin then depending on active Low setting you will either see the voltage at zero and increase a bit as you jog or see 5V and decrease a bit as you jog. Best to start at the cable if you  disconnect from the BOB, you will likely have to change the active state of Limits and E-Stop though so you can do that. If its working from cable then you can test out further.
Hood