Topics

1

SmoothStepper USB / How to use closed loop spindle rpm with SS

« on: October 20, 2010, 05:37:12 PM »

Hi guys,

I've got my spindle operating in PWM output mode from mach3 with SS, and I have an opto-interrupter reading from a single gap wheel for rpm feedback to mach3. I can control rpm from within mach3 and I see a readout show up. Currently I'm trying to setup closed loop operation but I'm unable to make it do anything (it's just ingoring any settings in the section). Any suggestions where I can try to look? or does the SS not support closed loop right now?

Thanks

2

SmoothStepper USB / SmoothStepper died

« on: October 08, 2010, 12:30:35 PM »

Hey guys, I recently got my smoothstepper setup and I love this thing, it made my cnc machine so much better. I could now get faster rapids and it just seems to be smoother overall. However in the process of building an enclosure for all of my electronics I somehow killed my smoothstepper it seems, here's what happens.

I'm powering the SS with USB +5 and Mach 3 won't communicate with it, the red and blue lights stay lit. I get an error that a timeout has occurred and then after a few messages it tells me that there was an error communicating with the CryptoMemory. I've tried computers thinking it might be a driver issue but same result on all of them. I noticed something interesting though, after a couple minutes of being powered up a chip next to port2 gets warm. I check around the port for any debris that might be shorting it but there's nothing there.

The only thing I can think of that could have burnt out the board is that when I first had it wired up inside my cabinet I was supplying +5v from an external power supply, I measured its output at 5.26v, coming from an ATX computer power supply. And had it grounded to the chassis of the cabinet (the grounding jumper enabled).

Thing I can't figure out is that the input voltage was good, and I measured for any stray potential between the floating ground (coming from power supply) and the ground of the case and there wasn't any.

Thanks for any advice here, I'm just trying to figure out what NOT to do when I get the next SS.