Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / ENCODER QUESTIONS

« on: June 01, 2011, 02:25:20 PM »

I have a question about encoders. I was thinking about adding linear encoders to my machine but after checking around i think that they are out of my budget range.
I am not sure about adding encoders to my motors, that would tell mach or me if the motors have missed a step but haow does Mach interact with that info? iIn short what is the advanttage of using encoders with Mach,
Does it force the motor to go to the designated coordinate? does it intergrate with backlash comp? or does it simply identify an error.
I read through the Mach manual and did not come away with a clear picture (in my fuzzy brain Thanks, Cork

2

General Mach Discussion / G31 does nothing???????

« on: May 30, 2011, 04:25:18 PM »

I have a spindle probe and I would like to use it but so far I am just waisting time......I tried the digitizing wizzard and that works o.k but I want to probe x,y, and z for zero. I have tried the g31 command many different ways and i get no axis movement. I was using mach3r43-038 development version because i have a smooth stepper and they recomend it. in that version I was getting an error code "move command not recognized". I switched over to the lockdown version and now i get no movement and no error code. everything else seems to work good and my probe does go active on a touch, I quadruple checked that. any help is greatly appreciated.

3

General Mach Discussion / Spindle probe and edge finding

« on: May 29, 2011, 04:58:34 PM »

Hi once again Gentlemen, and thank you for you valuable help in the past. I have just set up a spindle probe and have played around with the digitizing wizzard. the thing seems to work fine. I would like to get set up so that I can use it for X,Y,Z, edge finding. I was assuming that this function was built into Mach but have had no luck finding it.
Of course I am after the cleanest and easyest way possible, If you could please steer me in the rite direction it would be much appreciated.

4

SmoothStepper USB / spindle gone wild part 2

« on: May 09, 2011, 11:30:16 PM »

I have a KL2200 spindle motor on my zx45 mill. I had it running very nicely on a C10 Bob using PWM thru my parallel port. Then I decided to upgrade to Smooth stepper and a C32 BOB. This motor does not run well on 0-10 analog voltage so I have been frustrating with trying to get PWM to work. Arturo at CNC4PC has been very helpful and feels that I should have no problem getting this to work.
The problem has been that when I give a command M03 S500 the spindle runs to full rpm. That is the only command I have issued to it until tonite.
after going over everything again for the umpteenth time and just about ready to quit i typed in the command M03 S1500, the spindle went to 1700 RPM  (It is driven 2 to 1 motor 400 to 6000 spindle 200 to 3000) after I finished scratching my head I typed s2000 and watched the RPM fall to 1100
so I typed in s2500 and the RPM fell to 550??
I am totally confused now, I upgraded to the newest development version of Mach3 and v17bd for the SS plugin have quadruple checked my conections both to the DC motor controller and BoB.
Any help is greatly appreciated and needed. Thanks. Cork.

5

SmoothStepper USB / spindles gone wild!!!!!

« on: May 05, 2011, 11:58:31 PM »

Hi there!, I have a zx45 with keling steppers and drivers and a 2200 watt keling spindle motor. I was running the previous version of mach 3 with a signal amplifier and a c10 BOB. the machine ran good and I had spindle control within 3 rpm. I have had the spindle motor for 8 months now and have been very happy with it. Then I decided to do some upgrades.....................  
I purchased a c32 BOB and a smooth stepper. I read the smooth stepper site and they recommended that I use the newest development version of Mach3 so I downloaded and installed that and the ss 17bd plug-in.
In my original set up I ran my spindle with PWM and as I stated it ran good, very good!! I tried to set up ss with PWM and the motor comes on and goes to full RPM (a little sluggish) M05 will not stop the spindle. If I hit the reset in mach the spindle will stop then run backwards. if i hit the E Stop the spindle will stop.
I have the motor tuning set at 1 step per velocity at 1 and acceleration at max, although I have made many changes to these settings.
I have changed PWM in the smooth stepper pull down from 235 hz up to 2000. It seems to make no difference. In the mach spindle setup I have spindle in sync checked and spindle averaging. NO  closed loop.
I have changed to different output pins with no change and have double checked to make sure the dir pin is not in the wrong spot.
I did add a 12 volt power supply and ran the thing off of the analog voltage function from the c32 BOB. my motor control also will support analog voltage as a secondary method of control. It was very difficult to calibrate and after I got it done I ran a program. The motor was very sluggish and Mach did not keep it any closer than 70 rpm from target also the motor would bog 250 rpm on plunges at 3 ipm. It never ran that poorly before.
I need some help. I am sure that I am overlooking something and am at my wits end. Thanks in advance, Cork