Hi,
irrespective of whether it is easy or desirable to have a manual speed control it should be possible to get your combination going simply
and cheaply. It is well worthwhile doing so just to learn about your system.
Unfortunately I don't have a UC100, I use an ESS, but hopefully some of the same ideas will work.
On page 3 of the HDBB manual it states that Output #3 is hooked to screw terminals 36 and 37. Pin 36 is low pass filtered and is highly suitable as PWM output.
On page 4 of the same manual it says that Output #3 is pin #1 in the 36 pin centronics connector and in Appendix A pin #1 in the centronics is the same pin#1
in the DB25 or IEC26 pin connector. If pin #1 of the LPT is toggled on and off then screw terminal 36 will be the lowpass filtered result.
You now need to setup Mach4 to produce spindle PWM on pin #1 port #1.
On Configure/Mach/Output Signals scan down the list until you find Output #3. Check the enable mark, select UC100 from the drop down list in the Device column
and select Port1 Pin1 from the drop down list in the Output Name column.
On Configure/Plugins/UC100/Spindle Settings chose Pin1 from the drop down list for the Spindle PWM setting. Suggest the frequency be set to 1kHz until youre
comfortable enuf to experiment with it.
If (that's a BIG IF) I'm correct now you can control your spindle speed by toggling Output #3 on and off in Mach4. I'm going to have to take a spell while I figure
out how to get Output #3 to be PWM from the S*********x in Gcode.
Craig
Craig! That explanation helped a ton! There was one small difference. I have the HDBB2 instead of the HDBB. SO I traced your logic and applied it to what I had.
Here is the setup i ended up with.
Output #3 is connected to terminal 30 on the HDBB2.
From there Out3 is connected to pin 30 on the centronics which is pin 14 on the DB25
in Configure/uc100/spindle setting: I set it to pin 14 and through some trial and error 3 khz seem to make it happy
in Configure/Mach4/output signals: I set output #3 to UC100 and Port1pin14
Now when I toggle #3 the spindle speed is set.
BUT: here is the kicker. damn thing didn't change.. or does it..
On the main screen: I thought the bottom right corner spindle box was the spindle control. link of example
http://www.themakersguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mach4.2_Main_screen.png. mine doesn't say "current speed" it is just an input box. for ********* and giggles I bumped the SRO to 150 and it changed speed. It wasn't until I went to the diagnostics pages and played with those values that I was able to get the spindle to go from 60hz to 400 hz on the VFD
So there we have it. With a little guidance and a happy accident i have spindle speed.
Thanks a bunch man!
-Nabil