Messages

111

General Mach Discussion / Re: Another lost steps post...

« on: May 24, 2010, 05:42:12 PM »

Sorry Hood, what do you mean?

112

General Mach Discussion / Another lost steps post...

« on: May 24, 2010, 05:05:13 PM »

After all the other niggling problems that I have encountered I now have a machine that is coupled and working with Mach3 and has a MPG controller. Great.
So, this weekend I thought I would do some axis tests to ensure that my programmed movements equated to the physical movements. Not great!
First of all my native and operating units are metric.
Using my Imperial (inch) DTI I positioned it on the X axis and moved the table left and right using MDI mode. The distance I moved was 12.7mm (1/2") to both keep the movement within the range of the DTI and to allow the DTI needle to fall on the same point of the scale.
Unfortunatley every time I moved from 0 to 12.7mm I was showing around 0.004" (0.1mm) short.
I have tried moving the table by hand and there is no play as witnessed by no movement of the DTI needle.
I have adjusted the axis acceleration down to single figures (5mm/s^2), have the velocity around 500mm/min, step and dir pulse as 5us but still i'm losing.
Tonight I double checked all the mechnicals and found 5mm pitch ballscrew (RM1605-UF), 2.5:1 timing belt drive (12x30T) and 400step/rev motors so I would expect that my steps per mm box is correct at 200.
I can solve the problem by 'tuning' the steps per mm to some spurious figure like 201.838 but that can't be correct as it has obviously been built to a round number and it should be 200, shouldn't it??

  Sweep

113

General Mach Discussion / Re: Initial setup - spindle PWM ok, axis PWM not ??

« on: May 05, 2010, 06:44:12 PM »

Hi Hood,

My x axis has packed in so it is pointless messing with it until I get it sorted, plus i'm off to Amsterdam for the weekend :-)
As far as the xml is concerned, where do i find that?

...Sweep

114

General Mach Discussion / Re: Digiplan SD2

« on: May 05, 2010, 06:39:21 PM »

Thanks for the offer Martin but I think I have found a set which should be arriving next week.

...Sweep

115

General Mach Discussion / Digiplan SD2

« on: May 04, 2010, 03:23:42 AM »

Probably due to old age (the sd2, not me!) my X axis drive has decided to give up the ghost. As such I am in desperate need of a spare.
If you are on with a Mach3/Gecko upgrade, or just have spares on stock please get in touch.

Thanks ...Sweep

Bradford
West Yorkshire
England

116

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle drive problems.

« on: May 04, 2010, 03:09:55 AM »

Are you all sorted out with the Lynx08, Jim.
I have a Denford Triac modified for Mach3 and control the spindle speed from the PC. Did you cure the slow spindle rpm creep when you had turned the rpm down to zero?

...Sweep

117

General Mach Discussion / Re: Initial setup - spindle PWM ok, axis PWM not ??

« on: May 03, 2010, 05:00:27 PM »

Dan,

Machine in full operational mode. Spindle connected in PWM mode via 0-10v analogue converter and works fine.
Bigger problems since my last post in that my stepper drives are popping fuses. I think this is down to their age as they were built in 1988 as this has happedned before. Even so not getting any step pulses from PC.

Thanks for your comments Dan but I will have to concentrate in gettin the stepper drives back working first.

...Sweep

118

General Mach Discussion / Re: Initial setup - spindle PWM ok, axis PWM not ??

« on: May 03, 2010, 07:12:25 AM »

Hi Dan,

Yes, ports and pins seem to be ok as that is where I swapped the assigned pin from spindle to X axis.
Using the MDI screen, say, S2000 will give a nice square wave as I have assigned max speed as 4000rpm in the 'pulleys' section. When I swap the assigned pin to Xstep nothing happens. I have jogged using the pull-out screen (tab button), using the arrow keys, and MDI with, say, X100 and/or G00 X100 but nothing. The coordinate display changes as if the motor is running but there is no output to the scope.

I am going downstairs to fire up the machine again so will get some pics posted.

thanks ...Sweep

119

General Mach Discussion / Initial setup - spindle PWM ok, axis PWM not ??

« on: May 03, 2010, 04:09:30 AM »

Hi all,

I have just started connecting up my axis stepper motors and (pwm controlled) spindle motor to the PC. To make sure everthing worked ok I decided to do one at once.
Configuring pin1 to spindle the oscilloscope shows a nice square wave pattern which changes as I shift motor rpm and the spindle does vary in speed. If I reconfigure the same pin1 to Xstep nothing happens? Having left the oscilloscope probe still attached the trace is just dead.
Changing from pin1 to,say, pin4 has the same effect; spindle works, Xstep doesn't?
Besides that, when looking at the diagnostics screen the matrix of 'LEDs' that show the state of the pins always have the middle four illuminated no matter what I do. Considering I have no inputs or outputs connected, besides the one which I am testing, how can this be?
I have rebooted the computer at least twice but this didn't cure the drives problem. I even reloaded an older version of Mach which didn't solve it either, but the LEDs weren't lit.
I guess, therefore, that the board in the PC must be ok as I wouldn't get a spindle PWM if the board was damaged, so I suppose it must be a set-up or configuration issue.

Please help 

...Sweep

...Sweep

120

General Mach Discussion / Re: Pins 2 & 3 dont work.

« on: May 02, 2010, 11:24:27 AM »

Hi all,

It's been a while since I was on here as I only seem to come on when I have problems. Thanks in advance 

I have got a similar problem that is driving me nuts so thought I would tag it to this post due to the similarity.

I have just started connecting up my axis stepper motors and (pwm controlled) spindle motor to the PC. To make sure everthing worked ok I decided to do one at once.
Configuring pin1 to spindle the oscilloscope shows a nice square wave pattern which changes as I shift motor rpm. If I reconfigure the same pin1 to Xstep nothing happens?
Changing from pin1 to pin4 has the same effect; spindle works, Xstep doesn't?
Besides that, when looking at the diagnostics screen the matrix of 'LEDs' that show the state of the pins always have the middle four illuminated no matter what I do. Considering I have no inputs or outputs connected, besides the one which I am testing, how can this be?

...Sweep