Messages

211

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mori SL1 Retrofit Control Advice

« on: December 20, 2016, 11:12:32 PM »

If I'm going with new servos, does it really matter which motion controller I go with? There are so many options. I would like to use the old servos, but I'm leery of using them because I'd have to figure out how to wire them and figure out how to use the index pulse.

212

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rewiring should I use a motion controller or stay with BOB?

« on: December 20, 2016, 01:51:22 AM »

thanks. Just built a new computer for it, it has PP onboard. I'll be alright for a while.

213

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rewiring should I use a motion controller or stay with BOB?

« on: December 19, 2016, 01:40:01 PM »

LOL yeah.

214

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rewiring should I use a motion controller or stay with BOB?

« on: December 18, 2016, 10:22:06 PM »

Ok thanks. Thought so, but when reading posts about motion controllers people talk about smoothness and the like. I've never really had a problem. I mean I've messed up plenty, but never do to the machine.

215

General Mach Discussion / Rewiring should I use a motion controller or stay with BOB?

« on: December 18, 2016, 07:44:28 PM »

So I'm rewiring my bridgeport mill as I'm moving the controller and tidying it up. It's been working flawlessly for more than a decade on a C10 Breakout board. Is there any reason to go with a motion controller, maybe such as POKEYS57CNCDB25 or UC100 USB MOTION CONTROLLER? Thought I'd ask as I have everything ripped apart.

216

General Mach Discussion / Re: Accurate Homing and the Boards that can do that, What is everyone else doing?

« on: December 14, 2016, 12:12:27 PM »

All good ideas. Thanks.

217

General Mach Discussion / Re: Accurate Homing and the Boards that can do that, What is everyone else doing?

« on: December 13, 2016, 03:39:32 PM »

Cool. Good to know. I'll take a look at the cs-labs stuff.

I received a response from DMM, very easy to let the servo driver do an index pulse for homing.

Here's what they said:

The servo drive has full encoder output, including the index Z pulse which outputs once per revolution.  But for precise homing, you can use the drive's ABS_H input, which will move the motor to zero absolute position within 1 revolution.

So our usual homing procedure is as follows:

- install a proximity switch near your home position for rough homing
- starting from anywhere one the travel, move the axis back towards the prox switch
- when the prox switch is triggered, turn ON the ABS_H, the motor will move to absolute zero position each time to complete precise homing

I think all motion controllers can support this functionality.  You just need to program the homing procedure into the g-code to read the proximity switch input, then output the ABS_H output to the drive.


So my question is, How do i implement this in mach, obviously I don't want to do this in G-Code. I just want to do it when I start the machine up for the day.

Also if I'm using the homing index within the servo drive then I guess I can use any motion controller I want or BOB??

218

General Mach Discussion / Accurate Homing and the Boards that can do that, What is everyone else doing?

« on: December 13, 2016, 01:07:58 PM »

So I've read the other threads about homing and such. I don't think for my application limit switches will work, unless the built in ones are exceptional.

I'm retrofitting a Mori Seiki SL1 CNC Lathe. What is everyone else doing to home their machines accurately? I used to, on my old Mach 3 lathe, take cuts and measure and go from there, but I'm retrofitting a real cnc lathe and want to use the new hardware to make it work as it should. Which to me means index pulse homing.

At first I was going to use the Pokeys 57E, but after all my research I found out it can't do index pulse homing. I'm probably going to go with DMM 1.8Kw servos and they might be able to do that internally. I've a got an email into them asking that.

As far as boards that can do index pulse homing I'm not sure which direction to go if the DMM can't do it internally.

Here's a list I've compiled of motion controllers that seem to be full functioning.

Galil
Mesa
Rogers Machine Sound Logic Encoder Interface
Dynamotion (kflop)
Smoothstepper, I think.
Vital Systems
CS Lab

219

PoKeys / Re: Help me decide which Pokeys Please

« on: December 11, 2016, 12:10:24 AM »

Ok, I don't know what I'm doing, so go slow. I don't have the servos yet or the pokeys so I'm not sure how any of it works yet.

I've attached a manual for the servos I'm thinking of using, do you think these will work?

Also you mention after it backs off and how many pulses. I was of the understanding that it did't just back off, but rather it backs off to a specific point on the encoder so it's super accurate every time.

220

PoKeys / Re: Help me decide which Pokeys Please

« on: December 10, 2016, 01:47:30 AM »

lol, no problem. Thanks for the help,