Machsupport Forum
Third party software and hardware support forums. => CS-Lab => Topic started by: Jimster on December 15, 2018, 06:31:19 PM
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Hi Guys,
I'm using CSMIO IP/A on my old bridgeport milling machine for a few years now. All has been ok, but index homing has just stopped working. I've reloaded a previous config and get same issue. So I think its a hardware / sensor issue.
The machine references the z axis fine, then starts the y axis, moves the the homing switch, and reverses direction, usually then it starts slow then moves quicker, but it doesn't ever speed up, and doesn't find the index.
any ideas what to check next? If I manually turn the servo the DRO on the mach3 DRO display changes , so I guess the encoder is working?
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Hi,
I presume your encoder is differential?
If that is the case you will have an A channel, a B channel as the two quadrature signals but you should also have an index signal,
commonly called I or Z. Your quadrature signals are working as evidenced by your test of manually turning the servo but that does
not test the presence of the index signal.
You'll have to devise a test for the index signal. The index signal is so brief that measuring with a multimeter is likely to miss it and you
might conclude that the encoder is faulty when it is not. Observing the signal with a scope is the correct procedure.
Craig
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I think the encoder is differential, I'll need to double check, it was a few years ago since I did the conversion.
is it likely that one channel could go down, or would it more likely be a cabling fault?
maybe this is an excuse to buy myself a cheap scope
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Hi,
is it likely that one channel could go down, or would it more likely be a cabling fault?
It could be either. The index signal must hook up to the CSMIO/A and that is where I would probe the input. If the signal is present
then the index homing fault is due to the CSMIO/A or Mach, if the signal is not present then either the encoder or cabling is faulty.
The advance of application specific digital technology has resulted in some very cheap scopes becoming available. Being able to use one
to advantage and interpreting the results still requires all the old skills however. By all means get a cheap scope, this might be your first foray
into that experience, just don't expect a scope to magically solve all your problems, intelligent application is still required.
Craig
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Presuming you are using the motor encoders rather than linear scales, your servo drive may allow you to observe the index pulse via the drive diagnostic facility. This would indicate whether the drive itself was receiving the encoder index signal. If this is OK, either the drive is failing to output the index to CSMIO, the cable between these is faulty, or the CSMIO is not recognising or processing the index.
Allan
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Yes, I'm using servo's with rotary encoders on the back. I'll double check the cabling on them.
Thanks for all the info guys
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I've checked all the cables, and all looks good, I've also tried moving the encoder input to another channel on the encoder, but still have the same issue. I've tried checking the output of the I channel of the encoder with a DVM, but as you say I can't see anything changing, I have a constant 3.5v.
I updated the firmware to the latest version for mach3
Is there anything else I can do??
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The index pulse is very short, so you would need to turn the encoder extremely slowly to check as above, but given care and patience it should be possible to verify it in that way. Maybe you could verify that you can see the pulse on a channel that is known to be working properly. That would show you just how easy, or otherwise, it was to see the single line transition.
Allan
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ok, so it looks like the encoder was faulty, I've now changed the encoder and index homing is now working.....ish!
Now I have a new problem, The machine doesn't home in the middle of the Y Axis anymore. My thought is this is becuase the new encoder has a different number of pulses per revolution compared to the old one. The old one had a 1250 PPR. This is my new encoder, (which is the same as I use on my z axis, which works perfect) https://www.cui.com/product/resource/amt10.pdf
Where in the software do I change the PPR to the new figure, I assume is 2048 ppr?
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I'm not sure why the axis no longer homes near the home switch.
You need to change your ppr to 8192 (4 x 2048) as per data sheet:
All resolutions are listed as pre-quadrature, meaning the final number of counts is PPR x 4.
You do this within the CS Labs plugin.
Allan
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I load the plugin configuration, click on the y axis, then under index homing is encoder pulses/Rev, I've changed this figure but it makes no difference. Am I in the correct place?
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Yes, that is correct.
Have you also changed Mach's Counts per unit to match the new encoder, and is the Y axis working except for index homing?
Allan
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No, I haven’t . Where is that setting?
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Sorry yes, y axis looks to be ok apart from scale being wrong
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I have changed the steps per on the motor tuning and setup page, oddly this made no difference
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This is making no sense to me: how can your servo operate correctly if the steps per unit has no effect? Is the same encoder used by both your servo amplifier and your CSMIO, or do you have separate encoders for each? Is the CSMIO encoder input fed directly from the encoder or via an encoder output of your servo drive?
I think you need to go back to the CSMIO plugin and check that your Y axis is configured to use the proper encoder channel.
Allan
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The encoder doesn't connect to the servo amplifier, it only connects to the CSMIO, unless there is another encoder built into the old bridgeport servo's?? I'll go an check the cables in the workshop
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ok I've doubled checked the wiring, there is only 6 cables going to the servo, so no built in encoder there. I've also double checked the encoder is connected to the right input on the CSMIO.
I also tried disconnecting the encoder, which resulted in the machine not able to detect move moment of the Y axis so I get a PID error as expected. So I'm sure the machine is looking at the correct encoder, but can't understand why the changes I'm making to the config are not having any affect?
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I've had a quick look through the XML config, and I can see the values I'm chaning in MACH3 are updating in the conifg
EncPPR1 and Steps1 are of the value
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From your description it sounds as if you have wired and set everything correctly. I assume that you have powered your encoder with 0V and +5V from the CSMIO.
Can you verify with your DMM that the CSMIO is actually getting the differential index pulse (both +ve and -ve) from the new encoder? Assuming you are using plugin 2.910, as you said the system was several years old, I think the CSMIO diagnostic contains a page that indicates how many counts from the limit switch opening occur before the index pulse is received. These values should be nominally half a motor turn (approximately 4096 pulses).
If CSMIO is getting the index signal but is not responding to it, I think it is time to check the CSMIO itself. To do this you would need to connect the encoder to a spare channel on the CSMIO and then program this channel as the encoder input in the plugin config.
Allan
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Ok, so I tried moving the encoder to another input (5), and still had the same problem. I then reflashed the csmio and bingo, after a reboot of the device it started working perfectly again.
Thanks all for your help and thoughts
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Glad you seem to have got it working again.
Strange occurrence though. Did you re-flash with the same plugin version or was this updated?
Allan
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The plug in was updated also