Messages

1191

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can two 36v power supplies be used in series to get 72v?

« on: May 05, 2009, 04:21:20 AM »

Well. my replacements for the rest of the chips in the 36v supply will arrive today. If that fixes it, fine , otherwise, it goes in the trash.

The annoying thin about the Keling is that they make this claim:

A:  Stepper Motor Driver Power Supply Specifications:

1: High Efficiency, Low Temperature, Small Size.
2: Over Load and Short Circuit Protection.
3: Over Voltage Protection.
4: Input: 120VAC or 220V

I was abusing it, no doubt about that, but I expected the worst to happen would be a trip or blown fuse.

If one was to buy the $60 Keling unit and immediately install a pair of transistors @ $32 and the other chips at about $9, you now have a $101 power supply and you are out the time to swap chips and have obviously voided any warranty. I think I would sooner shop around for the best price on a Mean Well or equiv.




I understand that unregulated means the voltage drops, but it seems incredible to me that a 20A power supply (that claims huge overload capacity) can start with 72V and drop so far with a max draw of 29A that it cannot keep a 4V stepper going.

The PS has dual rectifiers. Does that mean 10A per rectifier, or will either supply the total 20A? Can the rectifier limit current?
 

40A max draw on this NEMA34 servo seems like a formidable hit.  Imagining 3 or 4 of these pulling juice at the same time is kinda scary 

1192

General Mach Discussion / Re: Xbox 360 controller plugin won't load . error says defective also says Mach4.

« on: May 05, 2009, 03:37:09 AM »

Thanks Rich.

Still no joy.

I'm out of ideas to try. Realoaded Mach, tried different versions, uninstalled anti virus.

The error says 'Mach 4'. Could that be a clue?

1193

General Mach Discussion / Re: Xbox 360 controller plugin won't load . error says defective also says Mach4.

« on: May 04, 2009, 11:59:12 AM »

Version now says 2.2.0.0

Same result . . will not load

1194

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z stalling issues.

« on: May 04, 2009, 07:21:13 AM »

A thread not long ago was titled something like "Mach does not honor accelleration [in blah blah situation]"

I'm going to throw out some very sketchy info here, but it is all I know at this point. I just tripped over this yesterday and have not had a chance to look up the thread on it, but since the beahvior you describe is exactly what I was getting, there may be a connection.

I'm still looking into this, but basically, it seems that under certain conditions, which I think *may* be related to CV being active or not, Mach will not honor the accell setting and instantly moves a stepper from zero to commanded speed.

The result of this was immediate stalling of my servo motor whenever the stepper slammed into motion.

As in your case, lowering the axis speed setting to stupidly low levels cured the probem, but I found a change in the program also remedied the issue, indicating it is likely a Mach bug.

In my case I had the A axis rotating fast (servo motor) and the X axis (stepper) stationary. At a point, I began the X and A moving together and WHAM. Very obviously the accell setting on the stepper was ingored by Mach.

Changing the program to eliminate the initial A only rotation completely eliminated the problem. The command G1 X.5 A1800 that was causing the stalling was unchanged. I simply had eliminated the immediately preceeding G1 A360

 

Things you might look for:

Is there an extremely sudden movement (or attempt at same) from the attempted motion causing the stall.

Turn off CV and see if there is any effect.

If you can edit the G-code, you might try adding another axis move to the Z move.

-or-

If the Z move is G0, change it to G1.


I'll try to post back as I learn more about this bug.

1195

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can two 36v power supplies be used in series to get 72v?

« on: May 04, 2009, 06:40:14 AM »

While I have the guru's attention, here is another power supply question:

My new 72V unregulated dual rectifier 20A toriodal tranformer power supply is claimed to have significant overload capability, but it does not seem to perform that way.

I have 3 steppers limited by their Gecko drives at @3A each and a servo at 7A continuous that can pull as much as 40A, but the Gecko drive limits it to 20A max.

If the servo starts too quickly the stepper will stall and vice versa, so I'm not getting the overload capacity I thought I would have.

Which component do I upgrade to increase the overload capacity?

1196

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can two 36v power supplies be used in series to get 72v?

« on: May 04, 2009, 06:31:10 AM »

Jeff:

I'll pass along what info I have collected on this issue that may be helpfull to you.

The 36V 8.8A PS sells for $60 on Keling. The equivalent Mean Well is $140 from electronics suppliers.

The transitors that cooked are FUJI  2SC3320  sell for under $5 each - cannot find specs

Replacement per NTE cross ref is  NTE2311      sell for over $16 each from the same supplier.

The significant spec on the NTE2311 is 15 amp. (data sheet avail from NTE if you need more specs)

With a $22 delta in just that one component of a $60 product, it is easy to speculate how Keling keeps the cost down.

These are the pair of high speed switching transistors on the back edge of the board, heat sinked to the case.

Question: Which transistors are in the Mean Well?


I am replacing the rectifier, voltage regulator and silicon diode with equivalent parts . .  just 'cause.

Hope this info is useful.


NoSmoking:

Schematic?

1197

General Mach Discussion / Re: Xbox 360 controller plugin won't load . error says defective also says Mach4.

« on: May 04, 2009, 06:06:50 AM »

Thanks for the replies Rich,

Controller is installed and working in windows per device manager.

I got rid of all plug-in .dll except xbox in plug-in directory. Only one xbox dll on the whole system. It is in the c:\Mach3\PlugIns directory. 

It is identified by explorer as
COMPANY: Lee Davis
VERSION: 2.1.0.0
SIZE 540kb


As I said, I had the wireless version working, so I suspect a newer version of the plugin has been posted and I don't still have an earlier verison to try.

Since the error box says Mach 4, and the version is 2.x, I have to wonder if Lee updated the plugin for a future Mach4 and inadvertantly posted that version of the plugin perhaps?

Would you mind posting the actual .dll (or the m3p) you are using so that I can try that?

1198

General Mach Discussion / Re: Xbox 360 controller plugin won't load . error says defective also says Mach4.

« on: May 03, 2009, 04:50:51 AM »

Genuine Microsoft controller.


The problem is that Mach refuses to load the plug-in and gives a message that the plug in is corrupted. Got the same message if the controller was plugged in or not.

1199

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can two 36v power supplies be used in series to get 72v?

« on: May 02, 2009, 11:31:24 AM »

Couple updates:

New transistors did fix the 36v switching supply. People considering these supplies from Keling should know that although they are listed as 'overload protected' the fuse blows only after the transitors have fried and shorted out.

My new 72V unregulated supply is in and working. Like getting new motors!  Amazing difference.  The little mill now shakes the whole friggin table it is sitting on!


As to the schematic to interface photointerruptors for use as limit switches, it turns out that CNC4PC makes a pre-wired optical interruptor setup with 6 sensors and a little contoller board all set up and ready to hook into the breakout. This is the hot setup. No muss no fuss, already figured out and built. Just needing to be installed on the mill. Here is the scoop:



Steve,

No, there is no simple way of connecting the sensors in series or parallel.  Maybe you might want to consider the C16: http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=183, which does what you are trying to do.

Arturo Duncan

http://cnc4pc.com

http://cnc4pc.com/live_help.htm


From: Steve Simpson [mailto:steve@thecubestudio.com]
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 4:01 AM
To: Arturo Duncan
Subject: Enquiry from CNC4PC

I have one of your indexers on my spindle as a tach. I just bougth another to use as a limit switch.

Mach3 can use one pin and a daisy chain of limit switches.

Quesiton: is it possible to daisy chain 3 NTE3100 interruptors to your indexer board for use as limit switches?

1200

General Mach Discussion / Xbox 360 controller plugin won't load . error says defective also says Mach4.

« on: May 02, 2009, 11:20:52 AM »

I had this working a while back with a wireless controller. I really like the implimentaion, but the wireless was interfering with the machine control. (Same with wireless network).

Finally I bought a wired controller and now Mach will not load the plugin. Latest plugin download and tried .20, .27 and the latest .43.00 also.

Getting error message that plugin is defective and the error box says Mach4.