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Messages - crystallattice

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1
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: November 23, 2011, 01:26:33 PM »
Hi,

Yes, they work quite well. Although mine burnt out due to insufficient load.... ???

If you look at the schematic/manual of the board, you will see a DC-DC converter to isolate the 5V supply of the board from the USB port (Black rectangle made by Mornsun). The manual does not state this but the datasheet does - the DC-DC converter does not have short circuit protection and also needs a minimum of 10% (of max) current draw to function properly.

You can connect a LED to the 5V output and ensure it draws 20mA and you're sorted as the max current the DC-DC can supply is 200mA.

Other than that, remember to connect pull-up resistors to all the step/dir outputs as they are open collector type drivers and to have a common ground. The PWM speed output is the same. I used 10Kohm. I have not tested the 8 dedicated outputs or the speed feedback. The nice thing about this setup is that you can use another PSU to feed the step/dir outputs (remember the board can only supply 200mA max so it is best to use another PSU) also keep in mind that the step/dir output drivers can only sink about 15mA (check manual) so adjust your pull-up resistors according to the PSU voltage you use.

Double check the max input voltage of the 16 inputs as they are low voltage/current types and you need to include a series resistor if you want to use say 24V as the input voltage.

If you go to the cncdiy website there is an option where you can register to get access to the manual, which is newer than the other one which I found somewhere. I can try and attach it to a later reply as I do not have it on me. I did not read the whole manual but recall that some things were a little clearer.

Anyways, hope you get it working and welcome to the CNC arena

Best Regards

2
SmoothStepper USB / Re: Comments on smoothstepper
« on: June 24, 2011, 01:21:02 PM »
Yes, but luckily I speak C! The one company said I can have it for $240 including shipping, so about a $50 saving which can go towards customs duties.... My pennies are also tight but it's my birthday next month and since my bench grinder gift to myself was not much of an succes I'll need some more retail therapy to make me feel better!

Best regards

3
SmoothStepper USB / Re: Comments on smoothstepper
« on: June 24, 2011, 12:31:04 PM »
Thanks again Tweakie, I'm torn between the devil I know and the one I don't. I've read a lot of negative things about Ss, homing limits not working, eratic spindle and promised features which is still not completed. Yes, the Chinese one does not really have any support system, unless I can get hold of the guy who made it. The guy from CNCDIY said he can send the source code, this will help with debugging and future modifications. Either way both are made in a far away country. As a side note, I just bought a Metabo bench grinder which is giving me problems - local support is very poor, might as well not have any!

Best regards

4
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: June 23, 2011, 11:34:23 AM »
So does the kernal speed not affect a USB breakoutboard? I seem to have tracked down the guy who makes the other board. It seems he has done some extensive testing, a few million cycles in Mach3 without problems. He has also made some improvements on the board over the past 2 years or so. It was difficult following everything as it was posted on a chinese forum. I asked Walter from CNCDIY if a faster speed is available as it seems the guy who made it did so for using on an engraver which might not need as a high speed. It would also be nice if he made the source available for those of us adventurous enough to try and modify it. Will see what else I can do.

Best Regards

5
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: June 23, 2011, 08:14:40 AM »
Hood, how do you use Mach and which servo drives do you use? Mach has a kernel speed limit of 100KHz (as far as I know) and the Geckos have a limit of 250KHz.

Best Regards

6
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: June 22, 2011, 03:13:06 PM »
Oh well lets hope the Uni is brave enough to try it as it would be good to see how well it works. Shame the frequency is just 200KHz though.
Hood

Hood do you really think 200KHz is slow? I spoke to the student who built the CNC and he said he has set Mach to about 75KHz. He uses servo motors with Gecko drives, but think that steppers would perform just as fast. I can't remember what feed rate he could get but remember that it was quite fast. I tried to see what the smoothstepper specs are and it seems it is 4MHz but when you look in the documentation it seems there is a mistake/contradiction when you look at the explanation about the buffered time vs speed.

I looked through the other card's manual again and it seems it is is fixed at 200KHz but you can adjust the buffer time and the usb speed is rated at 48Mbs (running directly into the microcontroller - which seems like it is acting as usb to parallel bridge) as opposed to the smoothstepper @12Mbs with a FTDI bridge chip which might be the bottleneck.

PS. There seems to be a forum at: http://cncdiy.forumr.biz/

Best Regards

7
SmoothStepper USB / Comments on smoothstepper
« on: June 22, 2011, 12:35:05 PM »
Hi Guys,

I've been looking at a USB breakout board and found the smoothstepper and the other one iIve been discussing here: http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,18782.0.html.

I'm very tempted to go for it rather than the ss but thought that I should ask the ss users what they think and if they would reccomend it. I noticed a lot of issues with the ss, but then again, people only complain if they get stuck not when everything is working. My concern with the other one is driver updates and support. Not that the driver needs much updating if there are no bugs...

Best Regards


8
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: June 22, 2011, 07:55:09 AM »
Thanks Tweakie, this is the same files I got from the http://www.cncdiy.org site. I had a look at your site and the things you have done with your CNC, I'm stunned and very jealous!!!! Can't believe the laser cutting stuff. I really need to get a CNC!

9
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: June 22, 2011, 03:13:28 AM »
Thanks Richard, can you please also post the other files?

I don't know what you guys are complaining about, that is a very comprehensive manual, if you can read Chinese....

I looked through the manual and found the name Xulifeng, a google search yielded a site, can't see the relevance though, but did find something interesting on there..... http://www.xulifeng.com/cp.asp?sort=9&id=9# Makes me think I should think more outside of the box.... would have had 1000's of patents by now....

Another search did give some interesting results: http://www.usinages.com/download.php?id=65828 The links gives you an english manual.

While I'm typing this I'm also checking in the two manuals that I just downloaded. Damn! This english manual makes me want to buy it! The cncdiy.org website which the document refers to sells the board for about $40 cheaper than the first link I posted but think the other is more reliable... The site also offers a circuit diagram for the board! Not something I've seen for other boards! The site also has a youtube vid showing that the board works (aka lights flashing and steppers moving...)

I thought I should check out what the link I got the other manual from was all about (http://www.usinages.com/portal.php) looks like some French? CNC site. Parlez-vous Français ?

PS. I also found this yesterday: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-3-axis-CNC-USB-Card-Mach3-windows2000-xp-vista-/220785284546?_trksid=p4340.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D15%26pmod%3D260759887366%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D803314460510465115

Any comments?

I'll test the dll on my MAch3 so long - just to see what it does...

Best Regards


10
General Mach Discussion / Re: USB Breakout board for Mach3
« on: June 21, 2011, 10:28:19 AM »
Hood, I'm not sure how many I/Os the other boards have but this has three outputs per axis, alot of inputs, speed output and input for the spindle and if memory serves me correct 8 outputs for coolant and other stuff. If you count the opto couplers by the inputs you should get and idea of how many are available. Judging by the string of LEDs it would seem there is more. Either way, for my purposes I think it will be enough.

I did a quick google search for the "usbmove.zip" they refer to but only found some chinese links. I will ask the guy when he reponds to elaborate on that. Maybe it's a generic Mach3 dll?

Otherwise I thought I could convince the university to buy one for a student... If it works I'll buy my own, if not, I'll still have my bucks safe in the bank!

Best Regards

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