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1

Modbus / Homann Mod-IO and Digispeed XL on Hitachi SJ-200 VFD

« on: May 14, 2007, 11:21:14 PM »

Hi All,

I have a Digispeed-XL connected to a Mod-IO board and a Hitachi SJ200-22 VFD running on Mach3 V2.065. I installed a DPST switch to toggle the Digispeed between Manual and Auto, and have a 5K pot on J4 for manual speed adjustment. In manual mode I'm able to control the VFD just fine. Pretty cool actually.
 
However, when in Auto mode, I am unable to get the Digispeed to work as desired. Turning on the Spindle causes the Zero Speed relay to change and the Control Voltage indicator LED to change (bright red--never varies execpt to turn off) while the Mode LED changes from Solid Red to Fast Blink Red. I'm unable to cause the Lazy double red blink (the condition for Digispeed Enabled but PWM set to zero RPM) unless I disconnect the PWM signal from the cable connecting Mod-IO to Digispeed. Zero RPM on spindle still causes a fast blink. On the possibility that the PWM signal was flipped (Hi for zero and vice-versa), I have set the RPM to 8000, but that did not change anything either. I've also played with the jumper on JP13 but saw no difference (power off on each change so Mod-IO and Disgispeed reset). The jumper remains off the board at thsi time (as I'm unable to determine which position causes what).
 
Here are my settings on Mod-IO:
Dout2 -- not connected to Digispeed as direction not needed for now.
Dout3 -- Configured to Output #1 As Port = 0, Pin = 3, Active Low
Dout4 -- Ports & Pins, Motor/Spindle set in Motor Outputs, Port = 0 , step (PWM) Pin = 4, Active Low
 
In Mach3 the following settings are in place:
In Ports & Pins, Spindle Setup tab/Relay Disable Spindle Relays box is unchecked, and Output is # 1 in both CW & CCW.
Motor Control Use Spindle Motor Output and PWM are both Checked, PWMBase Freq = 50, Min = 0%.
I have tried Modbus Spindle - Use Step/Dir as well both Checked and Unchecked. Currently Unchecked (unclear on the correct setting as I have seen both used in documentation)
 
I have another issue that may be related: The VFD has a nominal 10V 10mA reference voltage "H" (actually 10.57V) that I have running into P1 on J5 on the Disgispeed, P3 is connected to "L" on VFD and P2 is the control voltage "O" going to the VFD. I played with this a bit to find this connection configuration (my initial setting had it working opposite of desired). What is happening is that the Reference "H" 10 Volts is being pulled down to 1 volt (exactly) when in Auto mode, but in manual mode it works fine (Voltage stays at nominal 10V). Intuitively it would seem that the 10mA is insufficient, but that is just a guess on my part.
 
My questions are:
Why won't my PWM signal allow a zero-speed?
Why is my VFD Ref voltage is being pulled down???
 
Sorry for the lack a brevity? I was thinking that more info may help.
 
Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks for your time and attention!!
 
David

2

Modbus / Mod-IO communication problem

« on: March 28, 2007, 02:08:37 PM »

Hi All,

I have a Homann V4.1 Mod-IO board that I have swapped with an existing (V2.2) board in my pendant (dead DOUT1), but am having some trouble getting the communication link to work properly.

I get a flashing left green light (input to Mod-IO) but am not getting any flashing activity on the left red LED (output). Indeed, I am reading info from Mach on the LCD, but can get no activity out of the Mod-IO card to Mach. I have the ID set to 6, 57,600, 8-1-n. All settings on computer and Mod-IO look to be in sync. Sometimes I get a flashing red light (right side near selector switch) but other times it is off, but still no output from the unit.

When I open the Modbus Status & Control dialog, input and output slave address is set to 6, start reg is 1150 and 1040 respectively, and MODIO Modbus card checked, click on CONFIG button I get “No Connection to Homann Board”. No matter what I do I can’t get this to show a connection. I don’t recall having any such difficulty with the initial unit.

Any ideas that might propel me over this patch of dead-water??

Thanks a bunch for any input!!

David

3

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Key-click noise... Can it be turned off?

« on: January 30, 2007, 04:56:12 PM »

Hi,

The subject line says it: Is there a way to turn off the key-click noise in the wizards???

Thanks!!

4

General Mach Discussion / GoTo Z fails if hit 2nd time

« on: December 03, 2006, 04:39:33 PM »

Hi All,

Working through some tuning and cutting issues that have been lingering for a while, and have one that I'm shaking my head at. It's probably due to ignorance on my part.

When I fire up the machine, Ref All Home (all axis go to machine zero just fine), then select my appropriate offset (say G56) and then hit GoTo Z, the machine rapids to the correct location determined by G56 (Say X6.0, Y2.0, -Z8.5). Cool.

Now, if I do a cycle start or simply jog X or Y away from G56 and hit GoTo Z, the machine does just that. However, if I do not Cycle Start or jog an axis, and Hit GoTo Z, the machine begins the GoTo Z process by going to Machine Z0, but once it arrives, it simply stops there (hitting the limit switch) and the Z DRO keeps counting to Zero where upon the machine stops totally (triggering a Reset I think). The X and Y never budge toward their G56 zeds.

I know how to avoid this by not hitting GoTo Z twice, but this can't be right. Anyone have any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Or do I possibly have the machine setup incorrectly? It certainly seems to operate as desired in other respects.

Thanks for your thoughts!!

David

5

General Mach Discussion / Confusion on Jog Mode / MPG / Shuttle Mode

« on: November 04, 2006, 04:50:03 PM »

Hi All,

I have been working on a pendant with MPG using ModIO. I have been successful in moving the three axis with the MPG through the ModIO driven by the Macropump I've been working on (Modeled after the sample code in the Mach Customization Wiki).

The problem is that I have now gotten myself in a position that I cannot get the MPG mode to come one WITHOUT having the Shuttle Mode to be on. An no matter what I do, I am also unable to toggle through the MPG Axis.

My understanding is that the Shuttle mode is used to step through G-code at a speed of your choosing by rotating the MPG -- Very Cool!! Trouble is, I want to move the table, and to do that I need (I think) to have the Shuttle Mode in the Off position and the MPG in the ON position. When I toggle Jog Mode, all I do is move between Cont and Step. And the only way I can get the MPG in the ON position is by toggling the Shuttle mode which puts me back where I don;t want to be.

I must be missing something very simple as I could find nothing on this in any of my searches. What am I missing?

Thanks a bunch for any help on this!!

David

6

General Mach Discussion / Error Triggered -- Art Code 1 & 9991

« on: November 04, 2006, 03:44:05 PM »

Hi All,

I've been working with Mach3 2.00x (currently 2.007) building a pendant and working with my macropump.

Recently, Mach3 has been throwing a lot of exceptions at startup with the first window showing Error Triggered -- Art Code; 1, Attempt Recovery?, and then 9991 in a new but similar dialog with the same yes/no buttons. This has been happening on both the CNC machine and my do-all workstation (which has no macropump.m1s, nor is the Mach3 driver loaded)

After click OK or Cancel I then get an OS error dialog titled Mach4 CNC Application error (Tell Microsoft about this problem yada yada). I then click to see what the error report contans and I get the AppName: Mach3.exe, ModName: msxml3.dll. When I close the dialog, Mach immediately closes.

Indeed, I am unable to successfully open Mach3 on the workstation as I write this after many attempts. But on the CNC machine, I can usually get Mach3 to open after one or two Art Code 1 & 9991 failures. It do not see any repeatable pattern on the CNC machine. The only way I have been able to solve this problem on the workstation is reinstalling Mach3 into a fresh c:\Mach3 folder.

Any ideas on what this could be?

Thanks,

David

7

General Mach Discussion / X-Axis stutters when moving X &Y with Cursor-keys

« on: April 16, 2006, 03:24:24 PM »

Hi All,

I have a behavior (on my machine, not me... at least none I WANT help with) that I need a bit of help with.  Running an Industiral Hobbies Servo conversion kit with Gecko 320s, PMDX breakout boards (2) on a 3GHz ASUS P4 with addon Parallel port cards (2).

Individually, the X & Y-axix moves just fine from the cursor-keys. And when I press two of the keys for (X,Y) +,+; +,-; -,+ all moves are smooth and clean. But when I try to move X-,Y-,  the Y moves fine, but the X-axis stutters. The screw will turn 10-15 degrees, stop, try to move again, stop, etc. Move the X-axis alone or with the Y in any of the other three combinations and it moves fine.

I am just getting the system to the point of testing, and have not tried running any G-code.

Anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks,,

David

8

General Mach Discussion / Recycled 866 Dual-Proc P3 server not up to running Mach???

« on: November 29, 2005, 08:52:55 PM »

Hello All,

I am gearing up a dedicated machine for Mach3. It is an HP Netserver 800 I retired a few weeks ago. It has a pair of 866MHz P3s and 392 MB of RAM. I have done a fresh load on a clean drive of Windows Server 2003 standard. It has the APCI multiproc driver loaded, network adapter hard coded to 100FullDuplex, and no antivirus or other non-MS services running. It lopes along at 1-2% CPU utilization, 78 MB committed & 17 processes.

The driver appears to be loaded correctly in Hardware. When I run DriverTest.exe I get a 16,268-16,278 Pulse/sec rate in 25KHz mode, or right at 2/3 the expected 24,400-24,600 pulse rate--rather interesting... The CPU speed shows correctly at 866. APIC timing constant is 50.

Further, if I run the driver test a second time the machine hangs at "Taking Control in 1 sec". This is repeatable. Is that normal??

The question of importance here is:

Am I being foolish for screwing around with this old dual-proc machine for Mach service?
If I'm not being foolish, does anyone have any recommendations on how to solve the problem. Say the word and I'll build a new machine for Mach.

Thanks for your time and attention!!

David