Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Slave misbehavior

« on: April 05, 2021, 11:28:52 AM »

First off, functional information on the machine.
ESS Smoothstepper
C11G for controls
DMM Servos and drivers
2 motors driving y axis gantry, single motor running x axis and another running z.

So here's the issue, I need more inputs so I got a C25S board. I changed the port the C11G was plugged into from port1 of the ESS board to port3. I then changed the pinout and all details in Mach4 to reflect the change of port.
Here's where it gets a bit odd, the slave motor on the y axis starts moving just a brief pace behind the master when moving the y axis, bad enough that it faults out the drivers on occasion.

I've set things back as they were and reloaded my backup from before I made any changes. All back to normal now.
Any ideas on what to look at that I may have missed?

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Planned expansion board

« on: March 26, 2021, 08:07:03 AM »

I'm aiming to simplify the I/O setup for the machine, anyone see any issues with my planned I/O board? Pneumatics are all run off 24v switches and the board can only output 5v, hence the relays.

Does anyone see any mistakes or issues?

3

Mach4 General Discussion / NAMUR Sensors, how to wire?

« on: March 18, 2021, 08:20:43 AM »

I'm working on bringing a fairly large panel router back in line after a bad retrofit. All the limits on the machine and the spindle RPM sensor are NAMUR sensors, meaning they change amps rather than volts and I've got 2 sensors per axis, so 7 NAMUR sensors total.
So it's great I figured that out, but I'm a bit clueless on some basic electrical principals, but I can make analog circuits just fine.
How can I get the amplitude change to register in Mach4? If you have a basic circuit diagram you can point to, I'll puzzle the thing out, but I'm a bit at a loss right now.

Controller is ESS Smoothstepper via C11G and C25S breakout boards.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Colombo Spindle help

« on: March 12, 2021, 05:45:19 PM »

So I'm trying to figure out how to get an accurate RPM reading on our Colombo spindle. I'm walking into a job that was left 1/2 done and I admit I'm not an expert, I'm just the guy that it falls to make it work.
Firstly, the spindle is brand spankin new, old one burnt out as the guys that did the 'retrofit' didn't know that the air wasn't cooling the spindle, so at least I know that the spindle is good and the sensors are in working condition.
Now here's my problem, the sensor is listed as a NAMUR, which a quick google told me is an inductive pickup sensor.
The spindle should be sending 2 pulses per rotation, so I set it up to send 5v to the sensor and the return to lucky 13 on the input and told Mach 4 control and ESS that is the spindle RPM sensor pin.
Well, it's getting........something?
Speed reading is bouncing all over the place at rest and has no real relation to actual spindle speed (checked by running spindle directly from VFD at lowest speed and watching readout).
So what am I missing? Sensor power range is listed as 5-30vdc, but later notes in the manual state +24vcc for all the sensor power needs. Does this mean I'm going to have to puzzle out a step down or some other means for the system to read the sensor?

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Losing Z reference with G Code generated from Fusion360

« on: August 24, 2020, 01:10:12 PM »

We recently got the panel router here at the shop running and it's working great for making things flat, but any time I've produced any g-code from Fusion360 it loses its Z reference.
Sheetcam generates g-code that does not cause such issues.

I'll admit that I'm a bit out of my depth on this side of things, would anyone have any ideas about why the machine would be losing its Z ref?