Messages

1261

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Re: Very Cool LED/Button Combo

« on: March 04, 2009, 01:16:14 PM »

Ooopsie!  I didn't include the bitmaps, etc.  The attached should do it.

Regards,
Ray L.

1262

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Very Cool LED/Button Combo

« on: March 04, 2009, 12:40:04 PM »

Perhaps this has been done, but I haven't seen it....  You can make a very cool combo button LED by doing the following

1) I'm most of you know this part, but....  Create a graphic file containing two side-by-side images of the same size.  When this graphic is assigned to an LED, the left-hand image will be displayed when the LED is off, and the right-hand image will be displayed when the LED is on.  If the LED is configured to blink, the display will toggle between the two images.

2) Create an LED using the above graphic, and overlay that with a graphic button, with the image file assigned to a transparent .png file with no color data - i.e. - a blank, but transparent, image.  You now have a button that can have two completely different graphics depending on whether the corresponding variable is on or off.

The attached simple screen demonstrates this.  The left-most button changes color when the corresponding variable is set.  The middle button blinks in a different color when the corresponding variable is set.  The right-most is a photo I took of one of the dashboard toggle switches on my '64 Jaguar E-Type.

Regards,
Ray L.

1263

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need advice on which breakout board is needed?

« on: March 03, 2009, 03:32:17 PM »

I asked that exact question on another forum (awaiting reponses) and am drafting an email to Gecko right now, it's easy enough to remove a few more turns from the transformer if needed...

What does an energy dump circuit look like?

There are a number of ways of doing it, basically providing somewhere other than the power supply capacitor for that energy to go - typically a large power resistor.  There's an app-note on the Gecko website giving one example:

http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/returnedenergydump.pdf

Regards,
Ray L.

1264

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need advice on which breakout board is needed?

« on: March 03, 2009, 02:47:30 PM »

Well I received my smooth Stepper board and my three Gecko drives (320's).  I've gutted my old controls off the machine and rewound the existing transformer to give me 77 VDC to power the Gecko's.  Just ordered a Sound Logic encoder interface board from Rogersmachine.net to work along with my smooth stepper.  I believe these two should handle everything I need right now.

 

Well I received my smooth Stepper board and my three Gecko drives (320's).  I've gutted my old controls off the machine and rewound the existing transformer to give me 77 VDC to power the Gecko's.  Just ordered a Sound Logic encoder interface board from Rogersmachine.net to work along with my smooth stepper.  I believe these two should handle everything I need right now.

 

I wonder if 77V isn't a bit aggressive?  If you don't have a good energy dump system, that could shoot up on sudden decel, and cook a Gecko.  You might want to check that with Mariss at Gecko, before you let the smoke out.

Regards,
Ray L.

1265

General Mach Discussion / Re: Geckos Faulting

« on: March 03, 2009, 11:17:08 AM »

we are running geckodrive servo 6320 on a plasma cutter. I don't think we have ever run 6 continuous yet, but as for overheating not sure how to check that other than put my hand on them and none have ever been hot. the problem has mostly been with the "y" axis. We will be running through a pattern then in the exact same spot every time the gecko will fault. It doesn't stop it just re-zoroes at that point and continues cutting the part.

Thanks for the info

Faulting on a G320 is the result of either over-current, or excessive following error. 

Do you know how the current limit is set?  If it is set low, it could be your machine has gotten tighter over time, so the motors have to work harder, hence draw more current.  You could try turning the current limit up higher, and see if the problem goes away.

If the fault is due to following error, that suggests the Gain/Damping tuning on the Geckos is incorrect, and should be re-done.  The fact that the fault occurs at the same point in the program every time strongly suggests this is the problem.

Regards,
Ray L.

1266

General Mach Discussion / Re: Geckos Faulting

« on: March 02, 2009, 07:34:11 PM »

Would help a lot if we knew *what* Geckos.  Steppers or servos?  G201?  G203?  G540?  G320?  G340?  Other?

Regards,
Ray L.

1267

General Mach Discussion / Re: M5 question

« on: March 02, 2009, 12:08:07 PM »

FWIW - I've always found the "clock" to be unpredictable.  It seems to start, stop and reset on it's own, and will even give different results for identical runs of the same program.

I've just learned to ignore it.

Regards,
Ray L.

1268

General Mach Discussion / Re: Transformer question

« on: March 01, 2009, 10:21:52 PM »

RC,

I get different results:

Using the 380V terminals as inputs, the output is: 220 * (115 / 380) = 66.6V @ 3.0A
Using the 380V terminals as inputs, the output is: 220 * (115 / 460) = 55.0V @3.6A

Keep in mind, those are RMS voltages, so using this in a DC supply will give you around 94V or 78V.

Regards,
Ray L.

1269

General Mach Discussion / Re: Parallel port Switch?

« on: March 01, 2009, 03:45:23 PM »

Dave,

Not a reason in the world it shouldn't work....

Regards,
Ray L.

1270

General Mach Discussion / Re: PCI Motion control card

« on: February 28, 2009, 08:12:24 PM »

Mach works with a regular PC parallel port, or a SmoothStepper.  I don't know that is supports any PCI motion control cards....

Regards,
Ray L.