Messages

1

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: October 05, 2015, 08:59:38 AM »

Thanks for your help we did get it working yesterday. I set it up so that home and limit- were used on each axis. Not ideally how I wanted it but workable. (I would still prefer the home to be the minimum position and not the maximum.  However at least it meant that I only needed connections on the ribbon connector.

I would like to just raise another slight confusion. Setting up Mach the axis configuration refers to motor0 onwards. Your system refers to motor1 onwards. You have to keep remembering this difference when setting things up. I am sure that tidying up your documentation  etc would be very helpful.

When we finished yesterday  (just in time to get to the pub for dinner) my son and I  had the x and z axes working. Unfortunately  one of the y axis drivers malfunctioned so we couldn't finish,  but at least see the light at the end of the tunnel    

2

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: October 02, 2015, 05:23:48 AM »

I am not sure that I explained correctly what I want to achieve. I want home and limit-  to be the minimum position and limit+ to be the maximum  position using just the idc connector. The first bit is straightforward the problem I see is with the limit+ inputs. I would have to re-purpose another set of inputs on the idc connector. Say motor5 home as the x limit+ , motor6 home as y limit+, motor7 home as z limit+.  By doing this I won't need to use the screw terminals on the side of the board. My question is if this is possible by reconfiguration of the inputs or would it require reprogramming the boards hardware?

Thanks
Alan

3

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: October 01, 2015, 04:37:40 PM »

Hi again,
Regarding the limit switches the penny just dropped !!  I have only been using the ribbon cable connected to the idc socket on the board so just using home and axis- inputs. The axis+ inputs in the screw terminals on the side were not connected at all  .
I appreciate that you want to support up to 3 inputs on 8 motors but all I want is to use the X,Y,Z and A axes (although I am thinking of having a setup that allows me to swap between a spindle and  a 3D print head so would need another motor for the filament drive) is there a way of configuring the board so that I can use home axis- and axis+ inputs for X,Y,Z and A just through the ribbon cable and not use the screw terminals on the side at all. It would be much cleaner for me and would cut down the spaghetti wiring. I have built a small circuit board with a idc connector and terminals for home axis+ and axis- . Using this board would allow me just to have a single idc ribbon connecting the 57CNC board to my limit switches and make a much neater layout.

Thanks

Alan

4

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: September 30, 2015, 04:12:26 AM »

OK I am confused here and obviously misunderstand what is going on  . My machine has two microswitches on each of the x,y,z axes representing the limit of travel along each axis, which are connected and trigger correctly (I thought) when pressed. (the two outer indicators on each axis in the pokeys diagnostics display turn green when the switches are triggered.)  I thought that this was all I needed and that these were the limit+ and limit- . How does this third input the one in the middle you point out is triggered relate to those?  Do I have to tie together the home and limit- switches?

Thanks for your patience
Alan.

5

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: September 29, 2015, 12:45:24 PM »

I have the mach4 build 2703 and latest plugin running on windows 10 home edition. Have attached screenshots for configuration and pendant. Do not know what the middle buttons being green in config means. Have connected my E-Stop across pins 4 and 6 of pendant and disabled all other pendant functionality. Would also appreciate confirmation of wiring for M335 controllers. (I previously had them wired and working under linux-cnc but decided to switch to mach4. Wiring given for M425 as mentioned earlier was different that that I originally used so now very unsure.

Thanks Alan

6

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: September 27, 2015, 01:26:00 PM »

Saga still continues. I checked the limit switch wring and found a broken connection to axis2. So fixed that and tried again. Still no joy go message

2015-09-27 18:20:46.382 - Signal id 1120, (Machine Enabled), changed from LOW to HIGH.
2015-09-27 18:20:46.383 - API: mcCntlEnable(true) called.
2015-09-27 18:20:46.383 - API: mcCntlEnable(true) E-Stop is asserted!  Aborting.

Do not know what is connected to signal 1120 any ideas anyone?

7

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: September 27, 2015, 10:19:36 AM »

getting nowhere real fast so wondered if it was the way I had wired up the motors. My motor drivers are M335 looking through the posts all I found was this thread http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,23164.msg162535.html#msg162535 for M425. So I tried rewiring the motor drivers as +5v to Ena+ Dir+ and Pulse+ and then Pokeys connectors pin1 /AxEnable to M425 ENA-  pin3(dir) to M335 DIR- and pin5(step) to M335 PUL-.  Still no joy see attached log. Help required please. By the way little disappointed with the documentation. No mention in the setup or pulse engine docs about the default output values for step and dir is it active high or low or what !! Strongly suggest that future documentation contains examples of connecting steppers and relating that to the setup.

Alan

8

PoKeys / Re: Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: September 27, 2015, 07:51:08 AM »

Ok, so I plugged a ribbon cable into the pendant connector and connected pins 4 and 6 across it. That did not make any difference still getting an E stop condition. Still waiting for some help here and getting quite frustrated.

Alan

9

PoKeys / Help with E-stop switch is not properly configured

« on: September 25, 2015, 04:44:52 PM »

Hi
I keep getting the ‘E-stop condition!’  message when I enable the system. Reading the plugin setup document I understand this means that the E-stop switch is not properly configured. Now I have not yet added an E-Stop switch I have one but not yet wired up mainly because I do not know how to connect it. I can see the little red socket that is the dedicated  E-stop connector  but do not know where to buy a plug to fit (in the uk ) what type of input it is  nor how to wire it up there is no diagram in the  57CNC document. I see that there is also  two E-Stop pins on the pendant connector can I just connect the Estop button  between theses two ?  I see they are 3.3v not 5v so am reluctant to just try. I had decided to get a pendant just not yet. Is there a way to run without an E-Stop ? Can I disable anything could not find any data in the documentation but I may have missed it. Can anyone please offer some advice.

Alan

I have attached the log mach4 log file

10

PoKeys / Two questions about 57CNC board with mach 4

« on: September 11, 2015, 10:53:08 AM »

Hi,

I am nearly at the point of trying out my cnc router just got to finish wiring up the 57CNC and connect to mach4. So dounloaded and installed mach4 v2 build 2686 and thought that I would add the plugin before I bought the licence. Add in configure plugins is looking for a .m4plugw file and all I can see from the pokeys  downloads  are .m4py files. Can I just rename them or have I missed something?

Question 2 is how do I connect and configure  the card to run two motors along my gantry x axis. Do I run the X output to two drivers or is there a way to configure another motor in tandem with the x (besides the standard Y and Z ) I am in the process of building a rotary table and want to use the A for that.

Thanks

Alan