Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1 of the axes is homing, the other 2 don't...cannot find a solution

« on: April 04, 2013, 05:17:17 PM »

well, some times things can be so much easier if you look into the right place before looking into rocket science or even considering the conspiracy theory

it turned out that the maintenance guy just wired the wrong pins - Y to 13 and A to 12, instead of the opposite. But because the switches on Y and A are activated almost in the same time, I could not figure out this.
And only when doing a 2% homing speed in order to avoid gantry bending I could see what happen - A motor started to move ++ without the A switch to activate.... But because Y switch activated, A started to reverse. Same time, A switch never activated so the Y motor kept on moving -- , sending my gantry.

And because the maintenance guy was so confident nothing is wrong with the switches as they were working in Diagnostics tab, it took me more than a full day to get to this conclusion.

Lesson learnt.

Marius

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1 of the axes is homing, the other 2 don't...cannot find a solution

« on: April 04, 2013, 06:52:27 AM »

it is 67...at least this is how it shows. This is how I bought from a local company.

attached is the xml file.

3

General Mach Discussion / 1 of the axes is homing, the other 2 don't...cannot find a solution

« on: April 03, 2013, 05:47:38 PM »

Hi all


I changed these days the old magnetic switches (unreliable due to temperature changes) with inductive switches. All fine, they seem to work until I try doing the RelAllHome. The X works fine, while Y and A (A slave to Y) do not work in the homing sequence.

In the Diagnostics tab I can see all the 3 switches when they are activated/deactivated.

I tried to make the separate homing from the Diagnostics tab. X again works fine, while when doing it for Y or A, the gantry does not stop when the switch gets activated, but continues until either I stop it or hits the physical limit.

All the switches are identical. Also the settings are similar for the X, Y and A (in Ports and Pins> Input Signals), except that A is slave to Y.
I tried with and without the A-- and Y--  being activated. Same thing. When Y-- is active, I can get the Limit Switch triggered message, and the gantry stops. but in the homing sequence, the switch is activated but Y keeps on moving.
I tried also to unslave A, thinking that it might be smth there. I tried again to home just Y, but again the same result.

When i use the original RefAllHome script, both Y and A approach limits, but when Y hits the limit it continues the same direction, while A moves the opposite direction - but none actually stops as they are supposed to do.

I would be happy to be able to do even just the separate homing, but i cannot get that one work neither. It is very frustrating as I can get very accurate activation of X limit within 0.01mm range, and this performance could improve a lot the quality of the parts I cut.

Any suggestion is more then welcome.

thanks
Marius

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing Slaved axis

« on: April 03, 2013, 09:26:25 AM »

I have the same configuration as Mikeee, with A slave to Y.
I tried to modify the Ref All Home button,and made the following:

DoButon (22) ' s ref for X, at least behaves like this
RefCombination( 10) ' this is supposed to home Y and A

but the behaviour iswrong agan.... Y remains in position while A goes back and bends the gantry.

Do i do anythoing wrong here?

thanks
Marius

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: homming with Ethernet SS problem

« on: December 25, 2012, 01:58:02 AM »

are these better?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/90-250V-Inductive-Proximity-Sensor-Detection-Switch-/160646476557?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item256746b30d

or same thing?

Marius

6

General Mach Discussion / homming with Ethernet SS problem

« on: December 23, 2012, 03:22:42 PM »

Hi all


I have a very strange problem with homing my axis. I have 4 axis, A slave to Y, all 4 axes with magnetic home switches (reed).

Before installing the ESS, it happen a few times that when homing the gantry came all the way to hit the switches and ruin my square. Didn't know what it was.

Figured out that is safer to use a physical stop - and good I did, as once every 20 homings the gantry tries to hit the limits, but no more chances now!!!. Now it just hits the bolt I put - over and over again, until I stop the router. But I saw that there are 2 situations when the gantry doesn't stop in the magnetic limits: (i) mach3 says limit switch triggered, and (ii) other when mach3 says nothing. But in both cases the Y and A readings in mach3 stop, so mach does not send any more impulses - or at least this is what I imply.

Still, that should be fine unless other issues gives me a very hard time: repetability of the homing is bad. I mean 0.3mm. I measure a distance between gantry and the fixed table, and get random variations.
I saw it indeed more since I installed the ESS. If I do holes in the table, when restarting the mach3 and the router, do homing and redo the holes, no more repetability.
To be mentioned that if I do NOT make a homing, I can run the router for an hour and get very good repetability - 0.02mm or so.

I read that magnetic switches are very accurate. Cannot figure out where the problems comes from. Any idea?

Marius

7

SmoothStepper USB / Re: ESS and encoders

« on: December 16, 2012, 03:41:14 PM »

Hi komatis


glat to hear that you solved the issues with the SS...btw is an USB SS or ESS?

I work at 6,500mm/min, so it is quite fast...this is the speed of the actual machining of the materials. acc at 400. I need these speed otherwise the time to machine my pieces will take forever.

I'm not sure I got the idea with the glass scale DRO. How much would this cost? - actually i never saw one. I am asking because the the encoders would cost 40usd*4 plus 50usd the c53 board, so below 300usd with shipping and taxes to Europe included. With this option I should get also the actual stop of the router in case I am loosing a certain number of steps.
Or do I miss smth? (except steps )

cheers
Marius

8

SmoothStepper USB / ESS and encoders

« on: December 12, 2012, 11:50:11 AM »

My first post here, so

Hi to everyone

I just bought a ESS that I plan to install as my steppers were missing some steps. I started by trying to figure out all the sources of the problem. Some of them were in the probably too low voltage and too high speed, some others probably comming from mach3.

What I am trying to achieve is to have a sort of closed loop with the current setup. I am looking into adding such encoders
http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?products_id=363
to my steppers and wire them in the ESS. The purpose is NOT to correct the trajectory but to stop the router feed in case the missed steps are beyond the limit I set.

An alternative are the hybrid steppers with closed loop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMZdCcLQc4M
but costs more - a lot more

anyone managed to do smth like this?
I saw this board as well
http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?products_id=483
that might work with my 4 axes.

thanks
Marius