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Messages - natefoerg

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SmoothStepper USB / Re: USB SS. Trying to use the SS port 3 input pins. Cannot fig out...

« on: March 18, 2013, 06:03:19 PM »

Interesting... are the SS port 3 pins already "hot" by default?

Would I put in port 3 pin 1 into mach3's ports and pins tab (for the feature I select, say...X+Limit) ?

SmoothStepper USB / Re: USB SS. Trying to use the SS port 3 input pins. Cannot fig out...

« on: March 18, 2013, 04:39:36 PM »

I am thinking about removing the BOB, due to it being only 1 port.

I could then attach to my USB SS the CNC4pc C25 board to have full pin access to ports 1 and 2.

I will loose opto isolation though... I could nto find a board that just does opto isolation, although, I thought for sure that one would exist.

SmoothStepper USB / USB SS. Trying to use the SS port 3 input pins. Cannot fig out...

« on: March 18, 2013, 04:35:24 PM »

I have a USB SS. I have been using it for several years. I have a BOB that only is setup for 1 port. I have run out of inputs, and would like to add six more.

So, I find that the SS has a header called Port 3, which (from everything I have read) appears to let these port 3 pins be used as inputs...great right? well, if I can figure out how to configure that in SS config and Mach 3, It would be excellent.

I have the port 3 in the SS config. They are checked, and set to 5V input. This appears correct.
I have gone into mach 3 setup/ports/pins and tried setting an an X limit to port 3 pin 1. I then hooked up a switch to the +5V on the SS. It appears I may not have more than 1.1VDC on the 5V pin.

I also tried using an external (not from the SS) 5VDC for the input voltage for port 3 pin 1. This gave me 5VDC when applied, but when not applied, I still had 4VDC on port 3 pin 1. Odd, because when I ran the same 5VDC through the switch (that I am using for testing) i got a clean 5vdc and 0vdc. depending upon wether the switch was activated or not (as it should be)

I dont get how I would configure Mach3 ports/pins/inputs to use SS port 3 pins 1-6?

Additionally- the mach 3 inputs page appears to only allow me to use pins 10-13 and 15 as inputs. I assume that if I have port 2 enabled in port setup/axis selection I should be able to use pins 2-9 as inputs...however the imputs page seems to say this is not allowed, as onlt 10-13 and 15 can be used as inputs...

So...does mach 3 really only let me use ports 1 & 2 and on each I can only have 5 inputs (pins 10-13 and 15)??

I am using mach 3 version 3.043.022
And SS
plugin beta2 0.015ogx
FpGA 37
driver version 2.08.36

I also

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Lathe setting up tools and offsets. hair already gone...teeth next...

« on: December 14, 2012, 12:03:13 PM »

Update-

I now have the limit switches installed/wired and working.

When I "set home X" the machine goes to home in X, steps back off the switch and records the position that is entered in the "home off" box. Same for Z. This is much of what I have wanted to accomplish!

Now I need to figure out how to record the offsets for each tool in the gang bar.

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Lathe setting up tools and offsets. hair already gone...teeth next...

« on: December 13, 2012, 01:46:10 PM »

Excellent info Overloaded!

I can home at 100% on this machine because the max IPM is 30. The machine has a 5:1 ratio by design. I believe they wanted high res and decent speed with the original servos.

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Lathe setting up tools and offsets. hair already gone...teeth next...

« on: December 13, 2012, 12:05:38 PM »

Ok! I made a bit more progress.

First- G28 does not stop on a home switch for me. it just kept going...

But, I now have Mach3 homing the Z and X (manually) by pressing "set home Z" and "set home X"

This works, but I would have thought "home Z" and "Home X" would have been the correct commands....

Anyway, is their a way to go in and change the rate at which the machine travels to home Z and Home X? My machine only has max 30IPM, and it appears that when using "set home Z" and "set home X" that it only wants to travel at .29IPM! painfully slow! Sure I can jog over to a better spot and start from there, but I would rather just hit the buttons and have it travel over at 10IPM.

Does it make sense that I maight write a macro that I can assign the "home all" button to, that will home X at 10IPM and then home Z at 10IPM? Also, could this macro be written to then assign a number to the home locations IE: Z 4.00 and X 16.00?

Mabie this is what the G28 "home location coordinates" are for? or mabie not, I have not been able to use G28 sucessfully. It seems that when I do G28, that it just goes to the numbers I have put into the "home location coordinates" boxes, and does not stop at the actuation of the switches and then re write the home locations to be the numbers in the "home location coodinates" box, like I thought it would have.

So many questions...

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 Lathe setting up tools and offsets. hair already gone...teeth next...

« on: December 12, 2012, 11:30:57 PM »

A bit of progress. I found that g28 will send the machine to Z home (+14.000) and then X home (+4.000) Seems odd that Z homes first. Seems it should home X first for clearance and then Z. Is there a way to change this?

Also- I thought that I should be able to just press the "home all" button and it would home itself. Cant seem to figure that out...

Note, although switches and wiring are done, and I know they are functional. I am not runnning these tests on the machine. I am trying to figure out homing out of the shop (in the basment) because its bedtime here and I am just running mach on a laptop...

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