Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: kolias on September 01, 2012, 12:10:38 PM
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I have a thread “New Build” which is related to the build of my new cnc but I’m starting this thread which will be related to the settings. I don’t know if its appropriate, pls correct me.
The E-stop is not working. I use the automated setup of inputs and Mach is picking pin #10 put this pin is taken by Y Home / Y- . So when I press the E-stop I get the message (Limit switch is triggered).
If I manually put pin #15 which it was suggested by others the E-stop is not working.
Also since the X & Z were travelling in the opposite direction, I ticked the reversed column in the Homing / Limits and now they travel in the right direction but I’m not sure if it is ok to do that.
I attach here my XML in case is needed
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If you press the E-Stop when you have pin 10 assigned does it work?
When you trigger a Y limit switch does it work?
Regarding the reverse, yes thats ok the other alternative is to change the active state of the Dir pin for that axis.
Hood
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Thanks Hood for the help
I downloaded the XML from Gecko and now the E-stop works fine but there are a few other grey areas
I have connected all shield wires from the limit switches to the DC ground bar. Should I do the same for all motor shields?
I set all limits using the “Automated Setup of Input Pins” and it assigned pin 12 for X & Z, pin 11 for A and pin 10 for Y. When I manually press any limit switch except A it triggers the “Limit Switch Triggered” message on Mach and have to press the Reset. But when I manually press the A I don’t get this message.
However when I press the A limit switch, on the diagnostic screen the LED lights up which means the A is active. BTW the A & Y are slaved and perhaps because of that it should not trigger a reset message?
I want to home the machine but since I have my doubts about the A I’m afraid to do so.
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Maybe I am misunderstanding you but you should not connect a shield to DC, the Shield should connect to what we call Earth and at a single point in your control cabinet, All shields should do this.
I would think the A should trigger no matter whether it is slaved or not, maybe it is just set as a Home switch rather than limits, if that is the case then it will not trigger a limit as it is simply set as a Home switch.
Hood
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The earth (ground) from the 120VAC is connected to a central ground bar and all negatives from the DC power supplies connect to this same ground bar, I was told its called Earthed Star Point.
So I will connect to this Star Point the motor shields too
You are right, the A limit is now set as a Home switch only. I will set it also as a limit (so it will be a Limit and a Home switch). Hope its ok to do that
Much appreciated
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and all negatives from the DC power supplies connect to this same ground bar
Certainly no expert on electronics but dont think I have ever seen that and have never done that myself.
You are right, the A limit is now set as a Home switch only. I will set it also as a limit (so it will be a Limit and a Home switch). Hope its ok to do that
Much appreciated
That should be fine.
Hood
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Certainly no expert on electronics but dont think I have ever seen that and have never done that myself.
That’s funny Hood because there is this John in another forum who is located in England and he guided my to wire my G540 and all other controls in my enclosure including beautiful schematics; he told me about the “Earthed Star Point” and I thought it was common over there.
Anyway my controls works very good so far
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Earthed star is common but it is for shields to drain to earth, its the DC 0v I have never seen connected to this point.
Hood
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Earthed star is common but it is for shields to drain to earth, its the DC 0v I have never seen connected to this point.
Hood
Have a look in post 95 to see the schematic
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/general_topics/154454-g540_e-stop-9.html
I hope its ok to post this link
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It may well be ok, but as said its certainly not anything I have seen before.
Jeff or Ray may be the people who could give you more of an idea on it.
Hood
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Don’t know what I did but using the arrow keys & page up/dn on my keyboard doesn’t move the axes neither the DRO. But pressing the ALT key to get the flyout screen to jog the axes works and then using the mouse to click on each axis moves the axis / DRO
The keyboard communicates with Mach because I changed some motor / limits settings.
Any help?
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You likely have the Jog Control switched off (Jog On/off button)
Hood
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Thanks Hood, now it works
Don't know how this happened but I will know about it next time
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I would like the up arrow in my keyboard to home the Y&A axes but if I click the reverse axis in the home/limits screen the keyboard works as I want but when I click to Home the machine the machine goes towards the Negative side.
Do I have to re wire the Y&A motors or there are other options?
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Set the Homing direction on the Homing and limits page, eiether have Home Neg checked or unchecked.
Hood
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Darn it, I forgot about these settings
Thanks again
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I have noticed that when the Y & X axes start / stop travelling they do it very abruptly and the whole machine sakes. The Z is normal. During the present testing stage, the velocity for all is set at 20 and acc at 2.
I wonder if there is a setting I’m missing or this is common on an all metal machine which are more rigid than my previous cnc which was made with plywood
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I wonder if there is a setting I’m missing or this is common on an all metal machine which are more rigid than my previous cnc which was made with plywood
Is the whole machine shaking as single solid unit, or are individual components shaking? If it's individual components, then it's probably less rigid than you think.
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Yes Gerry the whole machine is shaking as single solid unit including the table which I thought was built solid
Now I'm not saying that it shakes to the point of breaking but enough to think that something may not be right
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Well, my "solid" table was not so solid.....
I put two cross braces and now it is solid and the problem is gone
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Hi everybody
I'm new here but I want to help and off course be helped.
About your grounding set up:
Yes, common practice to connect earth wire (yellow/green) to the chassis of the machine.
Yes common practice to connect all earth wires to the same grounding point ( from motors or power supplies running from the mains)
Not common is connecting the negative wire to ground, it doesn't hurt but I never seen this done unless you put a small value resistor ( +/- 10 Ohms 5 or 10W ) to "lift" the ground.
Another thing is if you are using shielded cable for the steppers or limit/home switches connect only one side of the shied to ground.
Ok now for me
I'm testing a few things now that I started building my CNC mill and I run in some problems...
Yesterday I finally managed to get the motor to run (not perfect but ok for testing).
My problem now is/are the E-stop and limit switches, I tried everything and noting, no limits or E-stop.
I tried HI/LOW settings and different pins and nothing.
I know for a fact that the breakout board is working and putting out the correct voltage, the E-stop is connected to pin 15.
Any ideas ?
Ric
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I would say most likely you have the wires not connected to the right pins
Also in some breakout boards, the ground for the limits / Estop is separate from the ground of other inputs
Did you try the Mach3 automated setup of inputs?
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Hi Kolias
I will have to check that but I'm pretty sure the ground is common all around the breakout board.
I did try he automated setup but it didn't work.
My test setup is pretty cheap, 1 300VA toroid for the power supply, 1 2M542 stepper driver and a Chinese breakout board from the same manufacture that build the crap TB6560 motor driver (www.hyu68.com).
I repaired the breakout board and now is working fine(?)
Cheap stuff for testing before I start spending some money.
Ric
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........... and a Chinese breakout board from the same manufacture that build the crap TB6560 motor driver (www.hyu68.com).
I repaired the breakout board and now is working fine(?)
Cheap stuff for testing before I start spending some money.
Ric
Right away I would say that's your Chinese board at fault. When I started my 1st CNC about 6 years ago, I also bought a similar 4 axes board which I still have UNUSED because I was never able to figure out the pins ($100 down the drain). Unless you are an expert on electronics I will suggest to get another board.
There is an extensive thread at another CNC forum about the TB6560 but even that was not able to help me with mine and gave up
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Well I don't have a TB6560 board.
The breakout board is from the same manufacturer and like I mentioned before I fixed it and found out all the pin out (inputs and output).
I not for a fact that the board is working because I tested all of the pin one by one.
The input pins put out a LOW level signal (a few mV) on pins 10/11/12/13/15 and a HI level (4.99V) wen I press any of the limit switches or the E-stop.
The problem most be somewhere else and probably is some sort of configuration.
Going to have a look see on the tutorials
Ric
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Since the board is working the problem may lay on Mach configuration. I found the manual pretty good and if you follow step by step it may resolve your problem.
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Will give it a rest for now while I build the machine (build from scratch from the remains from a scraped EDM machine).
Will give it another go when I get a working "Y" axis so I can do a proper test.
Ric