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Messages - awander

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51
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I will do more tests to see if things change with "Charge Pump ON in Estop" enabled.

OK, I can't easily test this. The way my controller box is set up, the charge pump signal directly enables the BOB(built-in detector circuit), and also closes a contact on the external CNC4PC C4 Charge Pump Sensor. When closed, this contact, along with the 2 hardwired Estop switches, will allow 5VDC into the ESTOP pin on the BOB.

I have separate momentary pushbutton switches which allow me to get out of the "bootstrap loop" of having the Charge Pump off while the Estop input is low, but needing the Charge Pump signal in order to get the Estop to go high.

Checking "Charge Pump Active during Estop" just means the machine cycles in and out of a reset condition.



So what I really want to know, is why does pressing the onscreen RESET buttom before I press my hardwired reset pushbutton let the SS continue to function, while if I just press the hardware reset button(applying 5VDC to the Estop input on the BOB), the SS will stop communication?

52
Jeff:

That's a good point-but I think you may be missing the points I am trying to make.

I am not "relying on" the Charge pump signal as a safety device. The Charge Pump Sensor contacts are wired in series with the (2) physical E-stop switches on my machone. If any of the contacts drops out, then the machine is essentially shut down, by removingthe enables from the Geckos and the BOB's, as well as switching the AC power to the stepper supply, and the spindle drive. I'm not sure how I would be "more safe" to have the charge Pump signal stay on during an E-stop.

and of course, the problem behavior that I reported is NOT occurring on the actual Estop/limit event. It is occurring when I RESET the controller box, without first pressing the on-screen Mach3 RESET button.

I will do more tests to see if things change with "Charge Pump ON in Estop" enabled.

53
Hmm-so Phil says you don;t need the charge pump with the SS. But the charge pump cuts off more than the pulses to the motors. The way I have it wired is it will cut all power to the spindles, and generally stop everything, if the charge pump drops out. This way, if the path from Mach-to the SS-thru my BOB, to the C4 Charge Pump board is not right, everything stops.

If I enable the "charge pump on in Estop", that means I will no longer have that safety built in-I will instead rely on Mach controlling the outputs for an estop, or the SS stopping everything if there is a problem or loss of communication with Mach. It dozen;t seem near as good to me. What am I missing?

54
Hmm-is there a way to have Mach3 maintain the Charge Pump and the enable signals when a limit switch is triggered? It seems that in my installation, the limit being hit sends Mach into an ESTOP condition. And that is no matter what I have hooked up to what else.

55
I'm not being clear.

My limit switches are NOT  part of the Estop chain.

However, my limit switches. which feed directly into the PC thru the BOB, DO affect the Estop chain in the following manner:

When a limit switch is opened, Mach shuts down the charge pump, and the enable outputs. The absence of these signals from Mach causes the Estop loop to open and keep the system in Estop, as well as shutting off the AC supplies, etc.

56
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Wow, my head hurt just trying to follow all of that logic.

Think how mine felt when i was writing it... :)

Quote
Is there a reason you must remove servo power when a limit is hit?
No, not directly, but it is a function of the actual estop circuitry. i have a loop which passes through my 2 estop switches, and through the Charge Pump detector, and that loop also cuts off the power to the steppers and the spindle.

I don;t think that the turning off of the power supplies is doing this. If i press the Estop (physical) button, nearly the same sequence of events happens. Certainly all the same things are shut down. But in that case, i can just reset the physical Estop button, and press my physical reset button, and get Mach running fine again.

If the sequence is initiated by a limit switch, the power supplies and all are shut down, and the SS keeps communicating UNTIL I press the physical reset button. At that time, no switching of any relays occurs(because Mach never sends out the CP), but the SS then loses communications.

Thanks,

57
Hi Jeff:

My limit switch inputs themselves go directly to the BOB, and thence to Mach3. When a limit is triggered, though, the Estop condition in Mach turns off 2 enables, which control the AC power relays to the Spindle DC controller, and to to my HVDC supply. Mach controls the BOB, the BOB controls a small 5VDC 1A relay, and the small relay controls a (relatively) large 24VDC relay. All relay coils have 1N4003 suppression diodes installed across them.


When I trigger the limit, and then remove the triggering voltage, Mach resets. This drops the enables and turns off the AC power to the HVDC and the Spindle DC controller.This drops out my charge pump, which causes the C4 board to open the "enable" ckt. The enable ckt drops out another small 5VDC relay, which removes the enable signals from the Geckos, and from the BOBs, as well as supplying voltage to the BOB ESTOP pin, and thence to Mach. This disables all of the other BOB outputs.

At this point, Mach will be in RESET mode, and the LEDs on the SS are still the same as when it is running: Green steady, Red blinking, Blue steady.

When I press my hardware reset button, an enable signal is applied to the BOBs, and also to Pin 10(estop) which resets Mach. This turns on the charge pump, which means I can take my finger off the button(my hardware reset button is in parallel with the C4 Charge Pump Sensor contacts). If I have gotten into RESET mode by pressing an estop button, or by pressing the RESET button on the screen, then at this point, Mach resets smoothly, but if i have gotten here by triggering the limit input, then as soon as I press the hardware reset button, the SS Red LED drops out, and Mach locks up.

...AND while I was testing and writing this up, I think I have found a way around it!! It seems that if I click on the screen RESET button before I press the hardware reset button, the SS will NOT lock up. I am not sure why this would be?????

58

I am setting up a new controller box using a smoothstepper(using plug V0150gx2). The box contains:
-(4) Geckodrive G201
-(1) Geckodrive G203V
-(1) 53VDC power supply(homemade: transformer, bridge, filter cap)
-(1) 12VDC power supply(wall wart)
-(1) 24VDC power supply(wall wart)
-(1) 5VDC power suppply(wall wart)
-(1) CNC4PC C4 Rev6.2Charge Pump Sense board
-(1) Homann Designs ModIO V1.1
-(1) Homann Designs MA-02 pendant BOB V1.0
-(2) Homann Designs MB-02 BOB V5
-(1) Homann Designs Digispeed V2.0
-(1) Minarik DC Speed Controller
-(2) custom 5-relay boards
-(6) high-current relays(AC power, and spindle DC power)

The box is wired up and hooked to a PC with a fresh install of Mach3(Version R3.042.037)
The PC is  a Dell Dimension 2400 with:
-2.4GHZ Celeron
-512MB RAM
-using PCI graphics adapter
-nothing installed except Mach andModBus reader

I have not yet hooked the controller up to my machine, it is on the workbench, with only the PC and the Homann MP-01 pendant hooked up.

Test go well until I get to the point where I want to simulate a limit switch. When I do so, the limit switch is seen by Mach, as indicated by the status display, and then after anywhere from 1 to 5 seconds, the SS locks up(red LED stops blinking, and Mach reports lost communication, or locks up also.

I have the SS filtering options set at 1,000, except for limits which is set at 10,000.

I also tried with the modbus disabled, and also with the HV stepper supply and the DC spindle motor controller off.

Same results.

Anybody else having this type of behavior with a smooth stepper? I am not sure how high I can go on the input filtering.

Andy Wander

59
Yeah, that was waht I came up with, too-the bitmaps need to be in a Bitmaps directory under ther Quick Threads directory in Turnaddons.

Scott, any chance you will give us an optioon of using a sharp threading tool and calculating the different minor diameter(for an external thread)? I don't know about you, but tryiung to grind those little tiny flats on the tool si  not for me.

Andy Wander

60
General Mach Discussion / Re: limit switch... noise?
« on: February 15, 2006, 10:43:30 AM »
Matt:

As it happens, i just installed limit switches on my X axis. While I was debugging it, I connected the switches to the parallel port with a piece of unshielded cable, and clip leads at the switches. I had to set my debounce to 10,000 for the machine to stop tripping randomly.

Once I figured out the wiring, i replaced it with shielded 22 gauge cable, and the problems went away. i think I have the debounce down to 300 now, and i may try to see how low I can reliably go.

So if your limit switch wiring is not shielded, you may need to change it out to shielded wiring. If you do, make sure you ground the shields to the parallel port ground.

Andy Wander

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