Messages

1

Modbus / MP-03 ModIO pendant issues

« on: March 14, 2015, 03:14:01 AM »

Hi all,

Got very strange behavior from my ModIO MP-03 pendant from Homan Designs - up until the last two weeks it's been working perfectly but since then, I'm having issues I can't seem to resolve.

Setup -
Windows 2000 running Mach 3 V3.043.066
Gecko 540 motor drivers on 4 motors, dual drive on Y axis
USB SmoothStepper v17f
MP-03 pendant, running the plugin version 2.5

What's happening is this - once Mach3 starts, the pendant is displaying the axis positions correctly, both in machine coordinates and work piece coordinates, and correctly indicating if the EStop alert has been triggered(the red ESTOP LED flashes . On successful EStop reset, the pendant LED goes out. However, the pendant remains OFF mode, regardless of what position the left or right 12 position switches are in.

Looking at the MP-03 page in Mach3, under the MPG Status, MPG tick and counts both remain at 0.

Going to Function Cfgs/Setup Modbus Serial Control, the configuration is setup as per the plugin help file; going top the Test Modbus screen, the port (com 1 at 57600 baud, 8-1-n) with slave address 6 opens with no error, but trying to read the registers results in a timeout error. Slave address is the default, 6.

Anyone got any ideas? I'm tearing my hair out, been trying to get this sorted for a week - the fact that the coordinates are displaying and the EStop led is working makes me think it is communicating with Mach3 at some level, but otherwise I'm stumped.

Thanks in advance

Geoff

2

SmoothStepper USB / USB Smoothstepper and FT_IO_ERROR - noise is the killer? Was for me

« on: June 17, 2014, 11:17:07 PM »

Hi guys,

I just thought I'd post my experience sorting out my USB Smoothstepper. I had all the usual FT_IO_ERROR issues, and trawled through all the posts here, and as well as talking with Greg got the issue resolved and my system's running smooth as silk.

Here's my setup -

Windows 2000 pro server, SP3, Pentium III 450mhz CPU, 768mb RAM (yes, I know, it's a dinosaur but it's an old database server I had and it's built like a tank and very reliable).
Mach3 Licensed version R3.043.066
Gecko G540 motor driver
CHinese Huanyang VFD, 1.5kw spindle, liquid cooled,  driven from Mach3 using  the USB - RS485 plugin developed by Seb
(here's the link http://royaumedeole.fr/informatique/plugin-mach3-pour-vfdhuanyang/mach3-plugin-for-huanyang-vfd/)
USB driver for SS is 2.08.24
Mach 3 plugin is V17F.

The USB SS board itself is mounted on electrically isolated stand offs in a new enclosure I'm building to clean up the connections for the home and limit switches and house the independent power supplies for the coolant pump and heat exchanger fan for the spindle. The SS board is currently running of power from the USB cable from the server. The cable itself has a ferrite noise filter.

The router bed itself is a modified Joes Hybrid, dual drives on the Y axis (A slaved to the Y) bed measures 800 x 1200.

The reason I upgraded was the best feed rates I could get before the motion started getting jerky and missing steps was no more than 500mm/min, and much less on curves, even with the CV settings in Mach 3 adjusted.

First install, following the install and users guide , on the first time Mach 3 fires up, selected the default options for the SS plugin and restarted Mach 3. Immediately started hetting FT_IO_ERRORS and "watchdog timeouts exceeded - if persists, contact support". As mentioned in some of the posts here, I increased the watchdog timeout to the max of 3.1 but with no success. Got in touch with Greg, he suggested deinstalling the drivers and reinstalling, as well as trying new versions of the USB drier and Mach 3 plugin (Mach 3 plugin V17FE and USB driver 2.08.30), again with no success.

After another trawl through the forum here, it was becoming more apparent that the problem was noise related - the USB SS appears to be susceptible to noise, and looks like the possible (probable?) cause of a lot of these issues. Even though the PC, Gecko power supply and the VFD for the spindle are all going through a common earth, I ran an earthing strap between the PC case and the Gecko power supply case, and then set the Mach3 debounce setting to 750 and the plugin filter settings to 10 and the problem disappeared. So now I'm getting a good clean signal via the USB cable to the SS board, and the motion on the router is smooth as silk. I'm still experimenting with the motor tuning, but I'm getting rapids of around 2200 - 2500 mm/min with no lost steps.

All my motor, home and limit switch cables are dual core shielded, and the power cable to the spindle is shielded. I've set up a movable gantry above the table to carry the spindle cable, vacuum hose for the dust collector and air line for the mist cooler so that moves the spindle cable away from the motor, home and limit cables. Even though the system is working fine at the moment, I'm going to install an independent, regulated 5v external power supply for the SS board, and put ferrite filters on the rest of the cables. Maybe overkill, but I'd rather do a bit more work to ensure the systems reliability.


So far, very happy with the results - like I said, it took a little while, but the end result was certainly worth the effort.

Cheers

Geoff

3

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: A new Huanyang VFD plugin

« on: May 22, 2013, 09:30:45 PM »

Chaoticone,

Think so, see the attached PulleySetup pic.

royaumedeole,

Unchecked the PWM checkbox (SpindleSetup), but no change, still throwing "PWM Buped to minimum setting" (SpndleStatus). I've attached the motor outputs screen as well; not sure if the motor output for spindle needs to be enabled?

Thanks very much for the quick responses, last hurdle to be cleared before I can start cutting.

4

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: A new Huanyang VFD plugin

« on: May 22, 2013, 08:52:36 AM »

Hi all,

Apologies in advance if this is an easy fix, but I'm having issues getting the plugin configured. Running Mach 3, Gecko G540 driver board, Huanyang 1.5kw water cooled spindle and VFD. Loaded the plugin no problem, and the driver Seb linked to on his site for the RS-485 USB adapter. COnfigured the plugin as per the instructions, and finally getting the "Configuration OK; SPindle speed 3000RPM at 50hz" message. All the parameters set in the VFD as per Sebs instructions. (The spindle ran fine when in manual mode and not connected to Mach 3).

What I'm getting when I try and run the spindle from the Mach 3 interface is the stats message "PWM bumped to minimum setting".

Pretty sure it's a configuration issue, anyone got any ideas?

Thanks in advance