Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: hermeticsj on June 10, 2013, 03:03:58 PM
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Hello,
I'm reasonably new to CNC, however, the codes we run for our parts are very minimal.
Currently we have 2 HAS CNC machines that we outfitted with 600W lasers for laser welding of aluminium, titanium, and stainless steel parts. The HAS machines have been connected to the laser controller that turns over controls of its relays to the program, allowing us to do things like open/close the shutters, and to turn the gas on with gcode in the programs.
Now we are looking to outfit this sherline 4 axis mill (it is actually a x-y table that we added a z post, as well as a rotary stepper motor for the r axis) with a 70W laser for welding of smaller parts that do not require a lot of weld penetration.
For the sherline I have hooked the motors up to the Sherline controller that came with the x-y table. When using it with the linux software Sherline supplies, all 4 axis work on their own with gcodes. I decided to switch over to mach3 for its customization and ability to handle more relays than the stock sherline program.
I can not seem to get the computer to communicate with the motors. I'll attach the XML file I'm using, it is the Sherline Mill (inch) XML on the mach3 website.
All I've written is a little test program to see if I could get the computer to talk to the motors.:
G00 X2 Y2 Z2
G04 P2.
G00 X-2 Y-2 Z-2
When I run the program, I can see the tool path change as expected in the tool path window, but no response by the motors.
I've also tried to go through the tutorial for the program set up and motor tuning on the mach3 website, with no success. In the motor tuning set and setup window, the motors do not respond when the velocity/acceleration bars are moved.
Any troubleshooting help would be greatly appreciated.
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I ran the driver test program, and it is saying that the computer is pulsing too fast. It shows a yellow bar, then even that disappears.
I'm using an HP Desktop with:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.2GHz
2GB of Ram
32-bit operating system
Are there any ways to slow down the pulse rating? I'm thinking that may be my issue with motor communication.
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Fixed the pulse rating issue. Still not getting any motor response though.
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I don't think I've defined my address correctly for the serial port. Its COM7, but I can't seem to find the hex address to input it...
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I don't think I've defined my address correctly for the serial port. Its COM7, but I can't seem to find the hex address to input it...
Not sure I fully understand exactly what you are doing.
The hex address relates to an LPT (parallel port) not a serial port so it is unlikely to be COM7.
Tweakie.
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I had to install a serial port card in the computer because it did not originally come with one. Once it was installed and the drivers were installed, they showed up as COM7 and COM8 on the device manager list.
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Sorry, my fault, I did not explain properly.
Mach3 operates from an 'LPT parallel port' or an 'external motion controller' (using Ethernet or USB) or an 'internal to PC' motion controller. As far as I am aware there is no COM serial port option.
Tweakie.
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I am sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear in my email I sent you. Mach3 can only take LPT, not serial. You will need drives that take commands from whatever device you are using to output the signal(IE: Smooth Stepper and Parallel Port will only send out step/dir commands). You can replace the drives, or look into something like this:
http://salecnc.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=138&osCsid=vtr4tvh3tnihcnnroe67q79re2
Someone here on the forums may know of a better or suitable solution for you.
Thanks
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Andrew,
Reading back you did state that mach3 uses LPT. I must've overlooked that fact. Thanks, I'll go get a couple LPT PCI cards later today and try it out.
Sounds like I might have been banging my head against the wall for no reason.
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Are your drives capable of taking step/dir commands? If they are not then the LPT cards wont help until you get drives that do.
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I can only assume that they do really, since they are on a sherline table and rotary. I'll look into that before buying a LPT card though.
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So I installed an LPTcard into my computer (yes the motors can receive step/dir instructions)
Attached is my picture for the LPT port. I'm not sure what to tell the hex address portion of the ports and pins menu of mach3.
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Does this help ? http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,24786.msg175400.html#msg175400
Tweakie.
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Its also covered under the troubleshooting tutorial video which is also a good resource in case you still cannot get the motors to move.
http://www.machsupport.com/videos/
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That did it! The motors are running perfectly. Now to figure out relays and M functions and limit switches.
Thanks for the help.
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So I just now got back to this laser welding project after 2 months (got pulled in another direction during that time) and I am having trouble making a PMDX-109 breakout board work with Mach3. All I have been trying to do is send the breakout board a signal to close a relay using an M-function from Mach3. I can't seem to find where I can define the output port and pins for a given M-function. These relays are going to control things like the laser's shutter being opened/closed, and the gas solenoid to switch on and off. I tried using the spindle M-function, but did not have any luck there. Is there a list of M-functions that can be equated back to the outputs page of the ports and pins window? Or do I have to do this through some other route?
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So I successfully made a relay switch over with m-functions this morning (a small victory I know). I've been searching the forums on how to set custom M-functions in the M100 and higher range, but I'm not sure I understand what is meant by saving in 'macros' folder to enable them. How do you let the program know that when say, M101 is called I want it to turn on output 1?
I found out that cycle start, hold, stop, etc are pretty easy to set up with OEMs, so I should be all set with that. Just need to figure out these custom m-functions and should be ready to go.
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I think you should be using M calls of M1000 and upwards (not M100).
For example: M1000.m1s macro containing the command line ActivateSignal(OUTPUT1) will turn on Output #1 so all you need to do is configure Output #1 (Ports & Pins / Output Signals) to the output port and pin number of your choice. Then include the command M1000 into your GCode file to make it work.
More info on macros and the OEM Button codes can be found in this document http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mach3_V3.x_Macro_Prog_Ref.pdf
Tweakie.
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Thanks for the reply, it cleared up what I hope are the last of my lack of understanding as far as the basic set up goes.
May have a few more about setting the second parallel port to have more inputs, but I'm not that far yet.
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Thanks for the reply, it cleared up what I hope are the last of my lack of understanding as far as the basic set up goes.
I'm not certain we ever get a total understanding - I have been using Mach3 for many years now and to be honest, I still don't know the half of it. ;D
Tweakie.
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I got another (hopefully easy) question.
I'm using a PMDX-126 so I can have external cycle start, feed hold, and rewind functions. Those are working fine, the OEMs thread was very clear on how to accomplish this.
Now I am trying to control both the PMDX and the sherline board with the computer. I have two parallel ports on this PC, so I thought this would be simple. I plugged the PMDX into port 2 and the sherline board into port 1. This was because I had originally set up my motors on port 1. I moved all of the OEM triggers to port 2, but Mach keeps asking for an external E-stop. I tried setting the port for the E-stop to port 2, since the PMDX has a dedicated spot for E-stops, but after pressing apply, and exiting out of the ports and pins tab, the program returns this, "Your reset command is failing due to an external influence...etc"
When i return to ports and pins the E-stop was reset to be at port 1. Is this just where the program wants the E-stop to be connected? That is fine, but in that case, how do I reconfigure my motor outputs so that mach knows to communicate with port 2?
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What does it say on the diagnostics page? Active state of E Stop possibly?
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I would love to answer that question, but unfortunately, I blew out my PMDX board. There was a water leak on the floor from another machine in the room...
I tried turning the E-stop to active low in the ports and pins tab to no avail.
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So I've got some time to work on this again (finally) and I'm still pretty much at the same point as before.
I can only get one of the boards to work at a time.
If I make the motor control board communicate with port 1, they turn perfectly fine, but the breakout board for OEM triggers does not.
If i make the breakout board communicate with port 1, it works fine, but the motors do not move at all.
That makes me think that my second parallel port is not functioning correctly. But I'm not entirely sure how to fix it. The hex address is correct as far as I can tell.
Any ideas would be very appreciated.