Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: Novice to Mach3, may be asking too much??

« on: July 02, 2016, 04:46:22 PM »

I know I had issues with my KFlop being slow on pull out when running Mach 3, however I rarely cut threads on my CNC lathe, so never really looked into it. The problem I had was Mach used the feed per rev value when it switched back to mm per min, instead of using the set G1/G0 feedrate value, until it reached the end of the pul lout when the correct federate got applied.

I do know however there are a couple guys on the Dynomotion Yahoo group running Mach3 still, and they've never mentioned the slow pull out problem, but one has a problem with a seemingly mystery ~1 second pause in motion after the pull out move. I just had a quick search, and using G32 seems to avoid any pull out problems.

52

General Mach Discussion / Re: Table crashed now motor runs full speed. What to troubleshoot next?

« on: June 28, 2016, 04:05:47 PM »

Unfortunately Galil systems aren't that common, and from the quick scan of the old product info page, it could be set up a few different ways.

You need to break things down into sections that you can troubleshoot.
I'd be looking at the following areas.

Encoders.
Are they working?
Do you have a scope so you can check they are producing the correct signal?
Is that signal getting back to where it needs to (i.e. the Drive or Controller)?

Drives.
How are they controlled? Step/dir or 0-10V?
If analogue, a quick check is to get a low voltage source (1.5V battery is ideal for a basic test) with a 1k resistor connected in series, and with the drive analogue input wires disconnected and the driver powered/enabled, connect the battery/resistor across the analogue input terminals. The motor should spin reasonably slowly. Then try connecting the battery/resistor the opposite way, and make sure the motor turns at a similar speed in the opposite direction.

53

General Mach Discussion / Re: DRO'S

« on: June 27, 2016, 04:40:11 PM »

If you are using the parallel port, then you'll need to revert to Windows 7 (32bit).

If you're using an external motion controller, then you'll need to check you have a signed driver suitable for Windows 10.

54

General Mach Discussion / Re: Table crashed now motor runs full speed. What to troubleshoot next?

« on: June 27, 2016, 04:37:21 PM »

Are you sure the DRO is getting feedback from the encoder?
Unless the DROs have been specifically setup to use encoder inputs, they only show the commanded position.

What you're describing sounds like a typical encoder fault. The drive commands a move, but doesn't see one, so gradually keeps increasing the output leading to the motor running away. One way to test, would be to disconnect the motor from the machine, enable the drive, and try turning the motor shaft by hand.
 If the drive/encoder is working correctly, then the shaft should be locked in placed, and spring back into position once you release it. If it doesn't return, or it starts moving as soon as you enable the drive, then there is a problem with the drive/encoder/wiring.

55

CS-Lab / Re: Sanyo Denki Spindle Motor/ Drive

« on: June 26, 2016, 02:11:06 PM »

I've done a bit searching and reading, and you are correct about synchronous motors.
This article from Novak (big remote control motor/driver supplier) explains what the sensoring is used for pretty well - http://teamnovak.com/tech_info/view_article/24
Obviously it's aimed at small high RPM motors.

However a search of inverterdrive.com, and some of the Closed Loop Vector drives can handle synchronous motors. I only checked the first couple pages, but the Teco A510's, Invertec Optidrives P2's, and WEG CFWxx's all specifically mention being suitable for permanent magnet synchronous motors.

56

CS-Lab / Re: Sanyo Denki Spindle Motor/ Drive

« on: June 26, 2016, 06:28:42 AM »

It depends on the motor, but given the wiring is pretty basic, with the encoder details separate, I'd doubt this motor relies on sensors to run.

The best place I can think of asking, would be over on the Spindle/VFD board on CNCzone - http://www.cnczone.com/forums/spindles-vfd/

57

CS-Lab / Re: Sanyo Denki Spindle Motor/ Drive

« on: June 26, 2016, 05:58:57 AM »

Brushless servos are basically AC induction motors, with their drives being more advanced VFDs.

Looking at the wiring, I'd say you should be able to drive your existing spindle motor using a VFD.
US, VS, WS will be the main power wires, SFAN will be the cooling fan power (you'd need to work out what voltage it needs), SPOH will most likely be a switch that breaks the circuit when the spindle overheats. The other connector will be the spindle encoder.

I'd be inclined to try a cheap VFD, and see if you can get the spindle to run. Even an undersized VFD should be able to spin up the motor to see if it will run, before spending money on a more suitable VFD.

58

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 FRO issue?

« on: June 18, 2016, 05:07:51 PM »

What motion controller are you using?

59

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 m1076.m1s problem

« on: June 18, 2016, 05:05:56 PM »

Where did you get the M1076 macro?
I've just checked my Mach3 install, and can't find it.

Also, what motion controller are you using? Parallel port or external motion controller?

60

General Mach Discussion / Re: Side mount tool changer controlled by Mach3? Has anybody done it?

« on: June 17, 2016, 11:08:28 AM »

The problem with doing this in Mach 3, is how do you track the tools, and how do you store the information when things get shut down.
Easiest option I think would be to use a PLC with battery backed memory that keeps track of the tools and slots, and Mach simply requests the required tool from the PLC.

If you were to use something Cam/Geneva driven where you only need to trigger the positioning to move one position, you could use a Macro pump to stage the next tool by using a custom M code, however you'd then be reliant on Mach to handle the tool/slots, which I can't think of any easy way to do. I know Mach can write to output files, but I'm not sure if it can read them?

Mach 4 should be able to handle this. I know there was a discussion about Mach 4 and pre-staging tools, where you can have a script run when a T********* block is read, but the change doesn't physically happen until an M6 is requested. However I've not played with Mach4 for a while, so not sure if it has slot functionality available for the tool table.

I know with my lathe running KMotionCNC, the tool table has columns for Slot and Tool IDs. When I request a tool number, the Slot ID for that tool number is sent to the KFlop for carrying out the tool change. There is also the functionality to change the tool properties from the KFlop, so a random tool changer is possible, but I've never seen anybody implement one yet.