Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / mach3 Gear DC motor control.

« on: December 30, 2009, 09:59:02 AM »

hello all,
Iam working on a small hobby robotic arm.
where aim using 3 steppers and 2 small dc gear motors.
in these DC motors,one for rotation and other for closing the gripper.as i don't need much accuracy,i will run these DC motors based on time(using g04).
so how do we do it using mach3.i can assign 2 outputs for each motors,to interchange the polarities for CW and CCW motion.
so to enable these outputs,do i need to work on macros.
over all i need to control 4 outputs using M-Codes.

Regards

2

General Mach Discussion / Motor tuning and Limits in series

« on: September 21, 2008, 02:22:10 AM »

Hello all,
I have some general doubts in mach config and motor tuning.
Regarding the motor tuning,on what factor one shld decide the velocity and acceleration settings.
Steps per unit can be calculated my considering the steps of motor(full or half) and ball screw pitch.but how abt vel and acceleration.
iam driving my motor(at half stepping) at 12v @1A with 1mm pitch lead screw.(motor is rated at 5V@1A)

and i already asked below question at CNCzone.but didn't get any reply.so iam just posting it here.

i agree using the limits as home switches(as mach is capable of doing that)
but what abt wiring the limits in series(which i found most of the users doing).
say iam jogging towards X+ and touched that side limit.now iam supposed to jog towards X-(using limit override function).here how the mach know which side iam jogging.as the limits are in over ride condition and we wired them in series mach dosen't know which side is to jog and which side to stop.
i tried this on my machine.the axis touched the X+ limit,so i clicked limit override and again jogged toward X+ and it crossed the limit.
so how safe it is.(am i doing something wrong here)
i was planning for another parallelport,so that i can assign separate input for each limit switch.imean for X+ and X-
so wiring the limits in series,how fool proof it is

Regards

3

General Mach Discussion / noise filter

« on: August 16, 2008, 01:12:01 PM »

hello all,
iam a very happy user of mach3.
i like the way it works and the easiness of configuring it.
but i always faced problem with the noise generated by VFD used for spindle control.i tried noise filter but no luck.
recently i found a circuit on internet which claims,that it will work efficiently with mach in filtering noise.
pls have a look and let me abt the possibilities.

4

SmoothStepper USB / Required some information

« on: August 15, 2008, 06:56:56 AM »

yesterday i mailed a letter to smooth stepper support.but didn't get any reply till now.may be they are on vacation.so iam posting the same here.i need little help here guys
thanks in advance.

Hello,
First of all,thanks for the smooth stepper.

There are some points i would like to clear before going to buy smooth stepper.
1.the current smooth stepper is a beta version.so later by updating
the only firmware make it stable?imean what if some hardware changes
comes in to the picture.as iam planning to sell the machines made by
smooth stepper,i can't run around changing the hardware settings.i
want the system completely fool proof.
2.i red in the manual,that the smooth stepper shld be placed in an
static free environment.that means does it uses some micro controller
to run the inside logic.why iam curious abt this is,even a small
amount of static energy will wipe out the micro controller.so how can
i handle such situations.
3.there are 2 ports in the smooth stepper.can you tell me which one of
these are inputs and outputs and which one is pwm for spindle control?
and your manual said its upto the user to choose either way.imean
24outsputs and 16 inputs vice-versa.upon configuration.how to do this.
4.i'll be using AC servo system(along with noise filter)to run my
axes.which takes step and direction as inputs.it worked on normal
parallel port.can i expect same from smooth stepper.

Below picture is the plan that iam going to use the SS along with my
AC servo system.

please help me to clarify above doubts.
can you send the shipment cost and details,so
that i can place my order as soon as possible.and is it possible to
manually pick the SS(i need to know where your located).i have some
friends in US and UK

i'll be waiting for your reply
thanks and regards

5

General Mach Discussion / more inputs possible?

« on: August 13, 2008, 12:26:25 PM »

hello all,
this is my first post here.
first of all thanks art for providing such amazing software.

i have some dumd doubts to clarify.pls don't mind
so in our normal lpt ports we have
pin 2-9                  -- inputs
pin 1,14,16,17       -- inputs
pin 10,11,12,13,15 -- outputs

we have the above setting as all those pins are  in unidirectional config.but what abt the port with bi-directional pins.we can config them as required right(pins 2-9).is this really possible.will mach recognize it?

and what abt using parallel port expander and extenders.

http://www.geocities.com/dsaproject/computers/lpt_extender_expander.html#LPT_EXPANDER
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/par/pportexp/pportexp.asc
http://www.beyondlogic.org/spp/parallel.htm

little help here guys.
thanks and regards