Messages

81

General Mach Discussion / Re: Assigning a port/pin to "torch up/torch down"

« on: January 06, 2009, 05:44:37 PM »

I have an air solenoid. Solenoid normally open, torch is up. With voltage, closed and torch down. So all i need is a voltage to drop the tip when a cut starts.

82

General Mach Discussion / Assigning a port/pin to "torch up/torch down"

« on: January 06, 2009, 05:30:23 PM »

I would like to use a digital output to control my preliminary torch height control. Im using an air cylinder to control my torch height and cant find any information on how i would assign a port/pin to that function. I can assign "coolant on/off" to that function and just add it to my G code, but im hoping theres a better way. Any help is appreciated.

83

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 06:29:52 PM »

TotallyRC, i owe you.

I was going to check the board and go home, but had to go check out my wiring before i left. My "master" (me being the apprentice) wire the analog signal backwards.

The big "chug" was the motion controller trying to hold position and actually accelerating away from it. I didnt have time to tune any PID to any level of accuracy, but generally anything over P 3 was noisy. The motion with P: 3 and D: 75 was ok, but ill have to come back in a couple weeks and tune it up for real. I guess in my application the gain scaling isnt a factor.

Appreciate your help.

84

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 06:10:28 PM »

I don't come to the mach3 forum all the time, but I will check back everday as time allows to see if I can help out.

If your uncle scrapped his and it is still around, I will take it for the cost of shipping it to me.

I am looking to buy another one of these to run my lathe as I really like it and it is very versatile with lots of I/O.

Mike

Sounds good, ill actually be out of the office til the 6th of Jan, my uncles factory is in Taicang, China. I could ask him what he's doing with it.

85

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 06:09:05 PM »

I had it at 1 before, but when i changed the config last i put it back to zero.

Im still having the same problem as before. When i try to arm the PID with the suggested PID numbers, the axis jumps a few thousand counts and stops before i've even input a motion, then i get the ERR led on the motion controller itself. I tried running P: 1 D:25 with no scale factor and the PID arms without the bump but when i try to run motion, it start accellerating slowly then the PID disarms. The "follow error" indicator is very hard to use because if you are infact having a follow error, it seems like everything shuts down and its difficult to conclude that it was infact a follow error. The software seems to lack the feedback needed to tune.

I have a funtionong sytem using the dspmc box, maybe I can help you get it set up. Once you get the hang of it the axis works is a great way to set the pid and to fine tune your drives.

I will try to answer your questions so far.


1.When you arm the pid and the axis goes 3000 steps and then faults out sounds like your encoder is wired backwards into the dspmc, or the motor polarity is wrong. When the pid is armed, the motor should lock into the current position, or possibly bounce between encoder counts, generating a hum or growl.

2. Arming pid. If you arm the pid and the actual vs commanded encoder counts are off by more than the following error, it will fault, which then resets the actual to the commanded, so when you arm the pid again, it turns on.

3.You will have to get the pid to arm and be stable before the execute will function.

4. Yes, the scale function keeps the number of zero's to something resonable as some people have trouble gett a number with 8 or 9 zero's typed correctly.

I have a couple of questions for you.

1.What are the make and model of the servo amps?

Baldor Flex+DriveII w/ 1.13Kw servo's

2.Do the encoders feed back into just the dspmc or do they go into the servo amp as well?

The motors have resolvers, the drive has a simulated encoder feed. The resolvers feed into the driver, the encoder signal then feeds to the motion control.

3.What are the encoder counts?

16384 counts per rev

4.Are the encoders differential or single ended with converter board?

 5.Did you use the enable circuit?

Right now i have the drives enables straight off my power supply.

 When it is up and running, I would love to see a video of it going 2600ipm


If you have any other questions, just let me know.


Mike

I appreciate your response, my intention wasnt to cut at 2600 ipm, but on light gauge material it should hum along pretty good. The Y axis is capable of that speed, the bridge is likely going to be around 1000ipm.

86

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 02:00:01 PM »

I had it at 1 before, but when i changed the config last i put it back to zero.

Im still having the same problem as before. When i try to arm the PID with the suggested PID numbers, the axis jumps a few thousand counts and stops before i've even input a motion, then i get the ERR led on the motion controller itself. I tried running P: 1 D:25 with no scale factor and the PID arms without the bump but when i try to run motion, it start accellerating slowly then the PID disarms. The "follow error" indicator is very hard to use because if you are infact having a follow error, it seems like everything shuts down and its difficult to conclude that it was infact a follow error. The software seems to lack the feedback needed to tune.

87

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 01:20:26 PM »

Heres a screenshot. Theres no mention of "input index" in the manual, but i assume is just for naming an axis.

24576 is the encoder counts per inch etc, axis is capable of 2600 ipm motion.

88

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 12:46:35 PM »

I've read through the manual about 4 times now. The new manual does not contain any new information in the PID tuning section.

There is no real process for determining PID values. Im not sure why a scale factor is required either, seems to confuse the process needlessly.  I could try numbers all day long and not get anywhere, the baldor drives for example have an auto tune function which determine PI values with relative accuracy.

89

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Welcome to the dspMC/IP board

« on: December 23, 2008, 11:27:13 AM »

Leaving the window open is fine, however, im running a 17" monitor, and its not possible to get a full view of both windows, also, when you use the graph it pretty well blocks everything. The version posted above looks more more user friendly. It looks similar to the Baldor Workbench i used to tune my drives, much nicer to tune with IMO.

90

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Tuning dspMC with Axis Works.

« on: December 23, 2008, 11:25:27 AM »

I downloaded the version listed at the sale point on the vital website, i would assume its the latest version.

What kind of settings are you looking for?