Machsupport Forum
Third party software and hardware support forums. => Sieg Machines => Topic started by: wwholden on September 07, 2013, 11:00:15 PM
-
I just recently bought a Grizzly G8689 (X2 Mill) off craigslist that had already been converted to CNC. I got everything but the computer that it was configured to. I am trying to set up my computer with Mach3 installed on it. Im having a problem when the Z goes to rapid upward. All 3 axes are driven by Nema 23 425's (KL23H286-20-8B) I have played with the velocity and acceleration settings and it works great when Im using the jog buttons on the control. So if I manually jog Z up it works perfectly fine. I do believe Im well under its max speeds because it was skipping steps around 350ipm. However as soon as I run a program that has a G00 Z+... it seems like its ignoring my motor tuning settings and just trys to max it out so it skips steps and Z might move .100" when it was programmed to move 1.000" I currently have my settings for all three axis at 2000 steps for one revolution, velocity at 200, and acceleration at 30. Not sure what "Step Pulse" and "Dir Pulse" are used for but they are both 0.
Also Im thinking I may have a problem with my Y axis stepper. When in idle it makes a clicking noise every 5 seconds. It also is a lot hotter than the X and Z axis steppers. Anyone know why it could be doing this.
Im new to Mach so any help is greatly appreciated!
-
Welcome to the forum!
Being new, the most help anyone could likely give you is the following link. http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf I bet your jog rate is not 100% and a G0 is. You can open the mpg flyout and see what the slow jog % is by hitting the tab key. Hitting the tab key again will hide it. Rapid jog is holding down the shift key then pressing a jog key. Otherwise you will be in slow jog.
Brett
-
You didn't mention what stepper motor drives you're using, but almost all require a pulse width of at least 2 and some work better with it set to 5 or more.
A steady clicking noise like you're seeing can often be caused by a process running in Windows. But, they can be very hard to track down.
I've never used a mill, but I'd say that 200 velocity and 30 accel are quite a bit higher than most users are running? Especially with 425oz motors, which are about the slowest sinning Nema 23 motors you can get, unless you are running them at 72V. I'd try cutting both of them in half and see if you get better results.
-
The breakout board is a Probotix PBX-2 and the three drivers are Probotix SideSteps. I am unsure how to adjust the micro stepping. That is what you referring to correct?
-
No one said anything about the microstepping.
Increase your pulse widths from 0 to 5, and reduce your Z axis acceleration to 10-15 and velocity to 100. I think you're trying to go faster than your motors and drives are capable of.
-
Ok great Ill try these out right now and report back. Just to clarify your talking about both Step Pulse and Dir Pulse right?
-
yes.
-
Using the shift button while configuring my motor tuning settings was the main issue. I can oddly run my Z (80ipm) faster than my X (75ipm) and Y (75ipm) steppers. Changing the pulse width from 0 to 5 seemed to make no difference. Also increasing the acceleration from 10 to 30 to 50 to 80 seemed to have no impact. 1 through 10 do though. I left all three steppers at 30 on the acceleration. Will this give me any issues or cause damage?
I deleted some of the start up processes using msconfig. The Y axis seems to be behaving much better!
-
Also increasing the acceleration from 10 to 30 to 50 to 80 seemed to have no impact.
I wouldn't even expect it to run with an accel of 80. If you're not seeing any difference, it's probably not accelerating at those rates??? I still think 30 might be too high, but if you're not seeing any difference, than I suspect it's not actually set to 30. Not sure why that is, though.
-
My Y axis is back to making that clicking noise again. I spoke to soon... Any ideas how to track down whats causing it?
-
I have not read the complete thread ........
You motor is getting hot due to high current drive setting. So reduce the amps and see if the clicking sounds goes away.
Hot steppers do weird things.
The clicking can be due to stuff running in the background, as Gerry said and also a crappy signal coming from the PP.
In general, if due to a bad signal from the PP, there is no cure since the affending signal is already mixed in.
So due what Gerry recommended. One axis at a time please!
RICH
-
lil bit of everything here :)
i find that steppers, left idling, can get hot from their angular position. think about it. they have 200 steps say. they land on one of them, theyre fine, they dont require much power to stay put.
when they stop on one of the halfway steps due to microstepping, a lot of power is consumed as first one coil is energised, pulling things that way, then the other.
hysteresis and eddy currents and such forth. but then, clicking can be other things to. i dont argue that there can be other things afoot.
the stepper, or the drive clicks?.
anyways. a fair temperature rise at times in steppers, i consider fairly normal, especially when idle!
i may be wrong, its just my theory.
mine never seem to get as hot when being used heavily as when idling, at least. strange that?
acceleration curves. and velocity.
obviously you found that in motor tuning. i advise starting low, and working up. 100IPM. 10 for accel. or .25 seconds or something. you can almost count down its acceleration curve. its guaranteed to never skip a step, under the heaviest of cuts.
the machine is useless if it loses steps just by making rapid moves!
akin to a drag car...you dont go nowhere if you just spin the wheels, no matter how much power you have! its all about controlling that power ;)
also, if it can accelerate fast enough, it will break things due to g forces... unlikely but theres the possibility. more likely to break tools when zeroing! slow and steady does it. slow accel is real nice when jogging up to a surface. gives you some time :) other times its annoying as all hell! its a compromise...
you increase it to what looks good. i think i run mine so its at 0.1 seconds, or about 12. as for max speed...kernel speed can also affect this, but...starting with the lowest, default kernel speed, set max speed so it can beat a snail there, isnt scary fast, and doesnt obviously lose steps!
its only a lil mill, it doesnt need much :) all that overdoing it achieves is frustration.
-
I hope this information isn't too late but if anyone else has encountered problems with a clicking noise in their probotix steppers, I found that this solution helps:
The probotix stepper motor drivers, like the probostepvx, have mode switches to control the step output of the motors. Unfortunately, since the mode switches are actual physical switches, they can not be set to exactly the number of steps that are usually required, because there is a sixteenth separation between the steps set by the switches. However, if you set the mode switches to a step value that is close to the step value set in Mach3, it should eliminate the clicking noise. It worked for me. Another problem is stepper motor jitter, which I haven't completely solved yet but I think is related to an adjustment of the VREF.
Or just contact probotix, they are usually sort of responsive so maybe they could help.