Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: OHICAD on March 18, 2021, 08:20:43 AM
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I'm working on bringing a fairly large panel router back in line after a bad retrofit. All the limits on the machine and the spindle RPM sensor are NAMUR sensors, meaning they change amps rather than volts and I've got 2 sensors per axis, so 7 NAMUR sensors total.
So it's great I figured that out, but I'm a bit clueless on some basic electrical principals, but I can make analog circuits just fine.
How can I get the amplitude change to register in Mach4? If you have a basic circuit diagram you can point to, I'll puzzle the thing out, but I'm a bit at a loss right now.
Controller is ESS Smoothstepper via C11G and C25S breakout boards.
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To use these sensors with any of the Mach4 supported motion controllers that I know of, you will need NAMUR signal converters. These are expensive enough that replacing the sensors is cheaper assuming that is allowed in the work environment where you would be installing the equipment.
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I still have the OEM brain box and the spindle is brand spankin new to the tune of $14k. I ain't going to pop it open to plug an NPN or PNP sensor in the spindle. Would it be worth digging into the old controller to see what was reading the NAMUR sensors and if I can dig it out?
I'm lucky that I still have the OEM wiring diagrams for the machine, so if I just need to play follow the wire traces I can burn the time and do so.
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For anyone curious I decided to scrap the NAMUR sensors for the all the axis of travel and replace them with some cheap PNP proximity sensors from automation direct.
The spindle sensor now has a converter to read the NAMUR sensor on board. It seems that there was still a converter in the cabinet that I missed. Granted, it's only good for the speed sensor, but that will be enough.