Messages

241

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: January 01, 2015, 05:34:23 AM »

Its always the way Steve, well thats if you are making things to sell that is :-D

Appropriate season . . . you know the 12 days of Christmas song?;

6 BT30 spindles, 5 Tail Stock II, 4 Pneumatic actuators, 3 InTurn™ Ultra's, 2 ATC's and a Partridge in a pear treeeeeeeeee!

All I have is the stinking tree . . and it's dead.

The Partridge?

. . . . . tastes like chicken    

Just finished a new VDI turret for my lathe but its mine, all mine 
Hood

I visualize Vincent price wringing his hands and laughing maniacally.   

However, I can not visualize what it is that you built.

What does VDI mean?

Did you do a thread or video?

Oh yeah and HAPPY NEW YEAR  . . . To ALL

242

General Mach Discussion / Re: Please help W/ Mitsubishi MR-J2S and MACH 3 "PLEASE"

« on: January 01, 2015, 05:17:13 AM »

You are correct I connected enable (SON) outside the CSMIO for now (for testing) and assumed the DAC would have 0V when EMG signal is enabled. I'll fix the SON wiring.
If the EMG=off, SON=on, no active NC code, then servo should be actively locked in position by controller and have 0V on analog output. Correct?

Coincidentally, I just sent an E-mail on this topic to one of my customers. Here is a snip from that e-mail that should be helpful:

These drives can be used in a large variety of applications and thus have a large amount of capabilities. No one application will use all of them. The [ "L" ] signals you mentioned might be used for a conveyor or similar application. Not applicable to your use, but the drive is 'watching' them so they need to be 'tied off'. You can tie off signals in the wiring and you will see one jumper in the example diagrams I supplied. The drive will NOT come on-line if the EMG (EMERGEMNCY i.e. E-stop) is active. Like the travel signals you have discovered, the EMG (this is E-stop IN to stop the drive) is not needed with MACH, but you still have to kill the signal by grounding it or the drive will be in perpetual E-stop. Look for the jumper in the connector on the wiring diagram. Now you know what it is for. 

In MACH, the drives inform MACH of a problem and MACH then stops all of the drives. i.e. centralized system E-stop. I recommend that you use MACH for this purpose

243

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper.

« on: December 29, 2014, 08:57:50 AM »

Also wjem switching from MAch4 back to Mach3, make sure that the process has not hung up while quitting. If it does, you will receive an odd error message about the boot loader having a wrong checksum. Once you force the hung process to quit, then it's back to loading correctly. there are still input pins not working as expected. I would not call thus plugin an beta. more like an alpha.

Thanks! This may be the issue I was remembering reading about.

How do you kill a process on the ESS?

For now, I am not concerned about the condition of the plug-in, so long as the Ethernet part is working so that I can test compatibility. I may use the board under MACH3 to control the Z axis of a surface grinder, just to get some 'face time' with the product, but that would be the only practical use at this point. 

ESS has enjoyed good reviews from its inception from people who's opinions I trust, so I have no hesitation to assign it to a task under Mach3, except that if the surface grinder has work to do when I get time to work on the development on Mach4, I would then need another ESS to plug into my development machine.

244

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper.

« on: December 29, 2014, 08:47:59 AM »

Interesting comments. I will throw a bit more detail in here in case anyone else is or has headed down the same path and may have some tips or ideas to share.

Two or more devices on Ethernet is essentially a network. The ESS is (I am presuming) a popular motion controller for MACH, so the port of my 4th axis motor controller to Ethernet must be compatible. That makes three Ethernet devices in the 'network', hence a switch.

Modern computers can bridge internally so all you need is a second NIC to avoid the switch, and that is the only configuration where I would consider having any other Ethernet traffic for the PC to process. However, I am hoping the ESS address is configurable. My controller is somewhat similar to ESS in that it communicates with MACH thru a software interface to exchange data, but the step/dir signals are generated in dedicated on-board hardware. Fortunately, my controller does not have to deal with positioning, so there is no buffer, and in MACH4 the scan thru Ethernet Modbus is pretty quick . .  to say the least.

In the sandbox will go the Motion controller's buffer, GB Ethernet speed, my controller hitting the Ethernet Modbus at less than 100hz with tiny packets. It won't take long to know if these kids are going to play nice together. Pappabear has the bit packing figured out, if I recall correctly, (I am not following this stuff closely) and as usual, has generously shared that information, so I can study that if needed and significantly reduce the volume of data passed to the controller.  

The last snafu on my end was that the controller's processor stores params in non volatile memory and the new DUE board has none, but I have that problem solved so all of the puzzle pieces are in place. I have purchased MACH4 and I want the ESS and hopefully also the PDMX (426, I think it is) both in house before I start porting over to MACH4. The PDMX thread has gone quiet and Kflop does not seem to have any priority assigned to MACH4 so I may start with just the ESS when my schedule allows.

Jeff, thanks for the quick response and answers.

I will be purchasing from you and I recommend you as the preferred ESS source. Price is not an issue as your expertise and willingness to share it is beyond any reasonable expectation for a product at this price point . . . . .  in my opinion. It is also encouraging that the developer is participating in the forum as well.





  

245

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Ethernet Smooth Stepper.

« on: December 29, 2014, 01:47:37 AM »

This is great news to stumble over.

Can anyone confirm that the beta plugin works with Windows XP (pro 32 bit) and also Win7 (pro 64 bit)

Also, can ESS run thru an Ethernet switch i.e. on a live network either with Mach3 or Mach4?

There was an incompatibility mentioned where using the Mach4 plug-in prevented subsequent use with Mach3. Has this been fixed?



 

246

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: December 29, 2014, 01:25:43 AM »

Hello Hood.

Thanks for the update. That is quite some detective work you accomplished to dig up all of the info on your spindle.

Using balls as a 'latching' mechanism is clever indeed. I see where the precision would be needed in order to stay within the very narrow dimensional range where the mechanism would work.

I have made a half dozen or so spindles now and the die spring is working well. What does not seem to be working is keeping a spindle for my own use. So far I have been unable to accomplish that . . . 

247

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Success! Mini Machining Center under Mach3 control - Video link

« on: December 08, 2014, 06:33:17 AM »

. . . I really appreciate your help with my questions.

Your questions have become component specific and I am not inclined to spec a machine for you over a forum, however, I will answer conceptual questions that are useful to the majority or people reading the thread. For example, unless you need to weld, 1018 is a poor choice of material for a low powered machine. You will fare much better with a 'free machining' steel like 12L14. That is my advice. You can answer 'why is it better' yourself by doing some research on materials.
 
Gecko makes fine products, but for a 4th axis that spins, you will want a drive that has  enable/disable capabilities and as far as I know, Gecko does not. For DC servos, I recommend Copley AccelNet drives. These can be purchased used for about what a new Gecko would cost.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Copley-Controls-Accelnet-ACP-090-36-Servo-Drive-CNC-High-Current-with-Warranty-/261684304231?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ced999967

Here again, this is my advice, but do not ask me to spec the exact drive you need. Visit the Copley site. Learn about the drives. Do your homework.

Instead of endorsing a specific motor, I will tell you that Torque is a static measurement that does not define available power. 'Power' (Horse Power for example) is work done over time.  Without the time component, torque is a useless number unless you are tightening bolts.  The formula for calculating horsepower is easy to find.

CNC cookbook has a speed and feed calculator that will tell you how much power you need to make pretty much any cut in any material.

Yes, you will need a brake. There is no way your servo motor will be able to hold the spindle still for machining operations with a 3:1 reduction. However, you can use a simple band brake like I use in the Tail Stock II. A design goal for the Tail Stock is  to make the machine as compact as possible so a big rotor is not an option. The band brake is intended as a 'damper' an not a powerful precision spindle lock, but it will do a good job for light duty general-precision work.

248

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Success! Mini Machining Center under Mach3 control - Video link

« on: December 06, 2014, 07:43:44 AM »

Al of the 4th axis that I have made use sealed beep groove ball bearings. Ball bearings can be side loaded and that is part of the spec. Early on I spoke to the SKF application engineers and they have no problem with pre=loading the deep grove balls provided the side loading spec is not exceeded. Because the spindle is hollow, it is very large in diameter and therefor takes a very large bearing. In fact, far larger than would be needed even in seriously abusing these machines. These big bearings have such high side loading numbers, that angular contact bearings are not needed in this application.

You can pre load a dual row AC bearing also, but doing so would result in only utilizing one of the rows. The side loading spec would be unaffected, but I would half the radial load spec. in that arrangement.

Good catch on the line boring!. The rear bearing is retained by three large socket caps with hardened washers. I later replaced this with an internal snap ring in the bearing bore. I have acquired a surface grinder and that changes the process considerably. It would take too long to explain here, but I am currently doing a video series on the new InTurn™ ULTRA model and, by request, focusing more on the design aspects than the machining of parts. There is a lot of information on bearings and the seals associated with AC or tapered rollers. The top-of-the-line ULTRA-T model features Tapered rollers which require 4 separate shaft seals.

The video series begins with a slide show and progresses to live narration video (again by popular demand) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdU2VD3UdVw

249

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Success! Mini Machining Center under Mach3 control - Video link

« on: December 03, 2014, 01:26:51 PM »

Do you have the part number for your sealed AC 45mm ID Bearings?  I read through the thread but didnt see it. All I can find is non-sealed versions.

If your question is directed at me (the OP), I don't understand what you are asking exactly, and you did not specify the application you have for the bearings.

You are probably not going to find sealed AC bearings, nor sealed tapered rollers. There are DUAL row AC bearings that are sealed. These are typically 5000 series although the numbering system has changed a couple of times.

250

General Mach Discussion / Re: Please help W/ Mitsubishi MR-J2S and MACH 3 "PLEASE"

« on: November 18, 2014, 08:11:31 AM »

The two wire connector on the Z Axis is for a brake.  The brake operates on 24VDC.  There is no polarity for the two wires (can be wired: +,-   or -,+).  There are a few parameters relating to the brake.  Also, Mitsubishi suggests using a separate 24VDC power supply for the brake only.  I suspect the brake circuit causes noise.  The brake uses less than 1 amp if I remember correctly.

The brake does not cause noise. The problem is that any coil creates a big spike when it is shut off. You will note in the Mitsu manual they show a diode in the output wiring. This is to dissipate the spike, however, when directly connected to the output, this is like playing with a white tiger on stage . . . usually everything goes well. 

I recommend a separate power supply for ANY device that has a coil. I use a separate 24V power supply for the brakes, contactors and solenoid operated valves, for example. One of my products includes a solenoid (coil) operated pneumatic valve. I make a special relay that has the diodes mentioned above, but still use a separate PS for the valves. The relay is solid state and isolates the 24V from the 5V CNC side. (relay is not for sale separately).

This may have been posted earlier, but it bears repeating. My advice is to run the outputs thru an opto to isolate the Mitsu (or other industrial drive) from anything that can hurt it.

The most important thing to remember about the drive outputs is that they are not current limited so grounding an output (which is 'ON') without running thru resistance will instantly fry the output. In order to make it impossible for customers to fry outputs on these very expensive drives, I made a custom interface board that contains a 400 ohm power resistor and optos. This is also not available for sale separately, but you don't need a fancy board to make up the simple circuit.

Just run the output thru a 400ohm power resistor to an opto or SSR and back to the Mitsu signal ground. Then  use the other side of the opto or relay to switch power to the device you want to control. The 400 ohm resistor will keep the current below the spec max, and the SSR or opto will isolate the drive electronics. You can still add a diode to the coil side of the circuit to keep from frying the SSR or opto.

Last tip; do not use mechanical relays. They make lots of noise.