Hello Guest it is March 19, 2024, 02:29:04 AM

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - dfurlano

Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 »
52
General Mach Discussion / Re: Opto switches behaving badly
« on: January 20, 2010, 10:35:41 PM »
I don't have limit switches I have never reached end of travel for the work I do.  After thinking about it I don't see why a high debounce would effect the homing switches.  I did the above calculation incorrect.  If I use a value of 100 the manual says to calculate in milliseconds the debounce you divide the value by the speed you are running at in my case 25000 hz

100/25000 = .004 or 4 milliseconds and at 10 IPM that is .0006 movement.  I have seen reports that suggest 1000 or even 2000 for debounce.  Since the routine is to back off the switch after it triggers I think it would be fairly accurate even with a high debounce but I guess the only way to know is to actually test different values.   I did see a report that showed the higher the input voltage the more accurate the positioning using an optical switch.

Dan

53
General Mach Discussion / Re: Opto switches behaving badly
« on: January 20, 2010, 11:10:01 AM »
At 10 inches per minute the z can move 0.005" in 30 milliseconds.  The homing seems to be very consistent when I measure for absolute positioning.  My homing switches are no that close to the end of travel.  I have about .3" before I hit the end.

54
General Mach Discussion / Re: Opto switches behaving badly
« on: January 20, 2010, 09:39:44 AM »
Currently I have the debounce at 30 for the Z axis.   It seems to work at 25 but I thought I would just be sure with 30.  I will find out if it changes once I hook up the other three switches and then I can decide what if anything else I should do to reduce the debounce. 

It sounds like there are 3 options to reducing the debounce;

1) Add a BOB of some type.
2) Somehow better isolating to reduce noise (grounding, shielding)
3) Increasing the opto to 12v for better noise immunity

Any other suggestions?

Dan

55
General Mach Discussion / Re: Opto switches behaving badly
« on: January 19, 2010, 05:01:48 PM »
I put a value of 100 in for both inputs and after some short testing the Z seems to work very well.  I will do more later but it looks to have solved the problem.

Thanks to everyone who responded, very much appreciated.

Dan

56
General Mach Discussion / Re: Opto switches behaving badly
« on: January 19, 2010, 08:20:11 AM »
Guys thanks for the replys.  One very important point I forgot to tell you.  I have a Gecko G540 and after I searched the forum I decided to go directly into the printer port with the output signal from the Opto switches.  I am using 10,11,12,13 on the second parallel port. 

The LED staying on after homing is not consistent.  If the LED is on I get a message that a limit switch is active.  If I jog off the switch the LED does go off.

I will also check the debounce (I did not set it)  but for some reason I thought that was only for mechanical switches.  I will try this tonight when I get home.

Thanks

Dan

57
General Mach Discussion / Opto switches behaving badly
« on: January 18, 2010, 09:54:04 PM »
Dear Friends (can you tell I need help?)

I wanted to add homing switches to my mini mill.  After looking around I decided on purchasing these Opto Endstops switches; http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/OptoEndstop_2_1 from searching the forums this switch seemed like a reasonable choice, a standard 5v source and easy to assemble.

So I assembled the switch and mounted it as shown on the Z axis.  Of course I did a bench test and every thing seemed ok.  Here is a photo of the Z opto endstop;

http://www.dfurlano.com/optoz.jpg

I created a small cover and taped it over the switch (in white) used a cat5 cable and I then connected the switch to a 5v power connector from inside my PC.  I checked the voltage and I was getting 5v in and 4.2v out of the switch.  When I move the Z up the LED lights and the voltage goes to zero and I thought I was ready to go.

After some consideration I thought I would buy a second parallel port for my PC after searching the forum I found that people had successfully used the SIIG Cyberpro board so I purchased a new one from Newegg and installed it in my PC.  I set the address for the SIIG and it again seemed to function properly.  

I then mounted all four homing switches and bench tested them. All seemed to work.  Then my luck ran out.  When I began testing I found first that some LED's were remaining lit after homing.  I read that the procedure is to hit the switch and then back off so it does not stay triggered.  Well I was getting all confused about what was going on so I started over with just the Z being connected.  But it is clear something is wrong not only does the LED remain lit but most times the homing stops short of actually triggering the switch.  I checked the voltage and clearly when I am off the switch I read 4.2v and when I am on I read zero.  Not sure if 4.2v is not good enough and that is why it is randomly stopping (seems odd that it would work then not work) or do I have another problem?

I somehow need to trouble shoot what is going on.  I tried to find a printer port monitor but the only one I can find have preset addresses to monitor the ports and my second port is not one of the presets.  

I am lost on what I should try and do and I was hoping that someone could give me a suggestion or offer any advice on how to figure this out.

As always thanks in advance for your help.

Dan

58
General Mach Discussion / Re: NSK, Gecko, Mach3 questions (answered)
« on: November 28, 2009, 10:09:17 PM »
I got the controller working with Mach3.  It wasn't all that hard but I did need to add a 24vdc power supply to get the start/stop functional.

I attached a modified G540 sketch if anyone is interested.

Dan

59
General Mach Discussion / Re: NSK, Gecko, Mach3 questions
« on: October 28, 2009, 03:24:21 PM »
Most likely the motherboard is an older rev on the Gecko.  You need to talk to the tech guys at Gecko to see about a replacement.

60
General Mach Discussion / Web Cam not working
« on: September 27, 2009, 08:49:26 PM »
I can use the camera outside of Mach but when I try and use the video plugin it says it cannot start the camera.  Also there is only the Windows driver available in the dialog box and not the specific webcam driver.

Thing is it used to work but I had to rebuild my system and now it doesn't.  I tried reinstalling drivers and taking any thing off the system that I thought would have a conflict.  I searched the forums but did not find anyone else having a problem which just means I must be doing something stupid.

Windows XP SP3, Mach3 3.041, Micro Innovations IC425 webcam.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dan

Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 »