Messages

141

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers No Work!

« on: January 18, 2013, 08:49:02 PM »

This may be waaaay off base but after weeks of my own trial and errors trying to get Mach to move my motors, I discovered this which I found no previous forum or manual information on: The power supply to the driver card (in my case at least) must come from the PC. Otherwise, the step and direction logic (again in my case) doesn't work.

For clarity, I was converting an old Microkinetics SuperDrive setup that runs a Torchmate plasma cutting machine I built ten plus years ago. The SuperDrive case contains a 32v power supply plus a 5v power source which did go to the two Microkinetics DM4050 stepper driver cards as well as a dedicated 8bit ISA card in my antique PC. Took me a long time to figure out that the motion controller cards needed to see 5v from the PC in order to see the change in voltages on the step and direction pins from the parallel port. As soon as I changed where the driver board got its + 5v, the stepper motors came alive and I fell in love with the Mach 3 system.

You can use a separate 5V power supply as long as the 0V for the separate supply connects to the PC 0V accessable on the pins 18-25 of the PC parallel port.

Cheers,

Peter

142

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers No Work!

« on: January 18, 2013, 08:47:00 PM »

Hi Peter
How is the weather down your way? Still stinking hot here!
I have no motor activity whatsoever, Locking, movement, not even  a little heat or a hum. I don't understand it. I don't think its your board but until I substitute  I can not be sure. OTPO has a spare board the same, I might go and borrow his for a test session.
I read through the manual again and changed all the jumpers to 0v, I will attach a pic to make sure  I'm on the right track, still nothing changing the settings in Mach, does not work either. Can not see me having 3 Bad Gecko's or can I?
I Disconnected the disable wire first up, unless it needs to be connected? My G204's all 6 of them run happy without it.
Many Thanks
Katoh

Hi Katoh,


If you supply the drives with 48V and have the disable not connected, and the motors do not lock, then my guess is that you have blown the fuse in the G203V

I don't think there is anything else it can be.

With power applied to the drives, the motors must lock if the drive is not disabled. In the drive there is a replaceable fuse. It looks like a green resistor.

Check it with a multimeter to see it is not blown.

Cheers,

Peter

143

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers No Work!

« on: January 18, 2013, 06:30:37 AM »

Many thanks for your help Hood, If I don't get anywhere with Peter, Ill have to just start replacing pieces, one by one. I know the steppers work as one of their brothers is on my router, the other two are new and where tested for a short while on a mill. Either the now the Geckos's or the Bob.
Now true Story just now my three children just bought down to me a little Gecko they caught in there bedroom, must of found its a way in somehow, I just released it outside. Could this be an OMEN!
Thanks Again
Katoh

Oh Dear!
Where is brain? I blame it on the extreme heat here at the moment 42degC today and its 9.30 pm and its still 39degC.
I went and quickly changed the settings and low and behold nothing, still no twinkle in those motors.
Maybe Peter can put some light on this with the jumper settings.
Strange even if the motors are getting a bit juice you would know but these are just stone cold dead.
Cheers
Katoh

Do the motors "lock" when power is applied? If not the drive is not enabled.

What are you doing with the G203V disable line. It need to be disconnected or at 0V for the drive to be enabled.

Cheers,

Peter

144

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers No Work!

« on: January 18, 2013, 06:25:28 AM »

Thanks So much Hood, You have helped me out more than I can count.
I tried a few other things changing the cables still nothing.here is my xml.

Hi Peter
Glad you have chimed in also. You are correct the top board is the inputs only and works well, the bottom board only controls the DC03 and the Geckos, I have tried the jumpers in all different configurations but still can not get movement. I am leaning toward a gecko problem maybe.
Where should I have the jumpers set to on the bottom board? I followed your PDF diagrams on your website. But if you remember back I had a bit of trouble getting the DC03 to work, but we nutted that one out.
Many thanks
Katoh

First thing is that you absolutely need to have the common jumper set to 0V.

What is happening with the leds on the MB-02 board when you jog at a rapid rate or run a program. Do the leds for the DIR lines turn on or off with changes in direction.
Do the leds for the step lines glow as the jogging is executed?

This will indicate if the signals are reaching the Geckos

Cheers,

Peter

145

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers No Work!

« on: January 18, 2013, 04:02:32 AM »

H Katohi,

Looking at  the image the MB-02V6 at the top right is set up as;

Outputs 2-9"                    Pullups 5V
Outputs 1,14,16,17:         Pullups 5V
Inputs 10,11,12,13,15:     Pullups 5V

Common terminal voltage: 0V              <---------
Enable source:                 Enable Chip
D2-D9 direction:               Inputs



Looking at  the image the MB-02V6 at the bottom is set up as;

Outputs 2-9"                    Pullups 5V <----------
Outputs 1,14,16,17:         Pullups 5V
Inputs 10,11,12,13,15:     Pullups 0V

Common terminal voltage: 5V
Enable source:                 Enable Chip
D2-D9 direction:               Output



So, I'm assuming that the bottom bob is driving the G203Vs? If so the common is set to 5V. This is incorrect, you need to set it to 0V as the G203Vs use positive logic. Also the outputs pullups need to be 0V as well for the same reason.


Cheers,

Peter

146

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle calibration

« on: January 16, 2013, 06:46:26 PM »

Hi,

Yes, Hood is correct. Delete  linearity.dat

Then, don't play with the spindle calibration again.

A few notes on setting up a Mach2 PWM controlled spindle.

If using the parallel port you don't need to set a speed or acceleration in the spindle axis tuning tab. If you are using a Smooth Stepper, you Do need to set up an acceleration value.

Controlling a spindle via a 0-10V signal is an Open Loop control. Putting aside Mach3 closed loop function that has some problems,  there is no feedback loop to to ensure that the speed you are asking for is actually being obtained by the motor. The

The control voltage is generated as a ratio of the speed set by the S over the maximum speed set for the Mach3 pulley being used.

So, if you are using Pulley 1 and have set its maximum speed to 5000 rpm, then when you set the speed in Mach3 to 1000 rpm , 2 volts is generated as
1000rpm/5000rpm * 10V = 2V

or a 1/5 of the maximum speed.

Now,the speed of  most spindles is fairly linear with respect to the control voltage. More so for VFD controlled spindles as they have their own feedback loop.

A DC spindle is very linear in the 10% to 90% speed range. Below 10% the spindle needs to overcome the drive chain friction and so the actual speed will usually be lower than asked for.

Above 90%, the spindle speed saturates and again is usually lower than asked for. So, the response is 'S' shaped. The important thing to note is that it is linear in the spindle working range. After all, if you want the spindle to go flat out it doesn't matter that it is off by 5%. But, if you want the spindle speed to be 1000 rpm it is important to be as close to that as possible.

You use the Max Pulley speed setting to calibrate the spindle. This is how I do it;

1. Initially let the spindle warm up for 10 minutes running at around 50%
2. Initially set the Max pulley speed to 1000rpm
3. In Mach3 set the speed to 1000rpm and measure the actual speed. (say 3145rpm)
4. Enter 3145  into the Max speed pulley setting
5. Set the speed to around 50%, say 1500rpm and measure the actual speed. It will probably be low.
6. If the actual speed is low, increase the  Max speed pulley setting and repeat steps 5 & 6 until the actual speed matches.

Basically, you want to adjust the Max pulley speed to that the actual speed matches the set speed in the area that you do most of the work on you lathe. I can usually get the actual speed within a few rpm of what I set.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Peter.
 

147

Modbus / Re: Hitachi X200

« on: January 08, 2013, 01:06:17 AM »

Hi,

Once you set up the Modbus transactions on Modbus setup page, you need to write a brain to transfer data between Mach3 and the X200.

Have a look at this document I wrote.

http://www.homanndesigns.com/pdfs/Using_Modbus_with_Mach3.pdf

It shows how to communicate with a ModIO with Mach3. The technique will be the same for the X200, but the X200 registers will be different as will the Mach3 variables.

You need the brain to get the Mach3 speed and with a formula convert it to a frequency if the X200 wants the speed as a frequency.

You then need to the Mach3 led which indicates when the spindle is on or off and have the brain use this to set the necessary bits in the X200.

Cheers,

Peter.

148

General Mach Discussion / Re: Yes - Another TB6560 Motors Not Running Thread...

« on: December 19, 2012, 11:45:47 PM »

Hi,

I don't know the specifics of this board but it sounds like the board has an enable pin on the DB25 to the PC.

When Mach3 is not running, the enable pin is pulled high by the boards or parallel port pull-ups, enable the drives, locking the motors.

When mach3 runs this line is being pulled to 0 V by Mach3 , disabling the drives, unlocking the motors.

You need to look at the spec sheet for your TB6560  CNC board and make sure that Mach3 is configured to drives the pins correctly for you TB6560  board.

Have a look at this manual on how to configure Mach3.

http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf

And this one is also useful.
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_1.84.pdf

Cheers,

Peter

149

Modbus / Re: Homann Modio config error

« on: December 10, 2012, 02:59:11 AM »

Mike,

Section 6.3 of the ModIO manual depicts the ModIO register addresses. To use both MPGs you need to be concerned with registers,
1150 - MPG1 Count
1155 - MPG2 Count
1156 - MPG Tick counter

In the Mogbus serial plugin configuration page, you need to set up a Modbus transaction that reads these 3 registers. The most efficient way to do this is to read 7 contiguous holding registers starting at register 1150. Read theses at a 25mS period  rate.


Then in the Brain you need to;
1. get register 1150 (ENCODER1) and assign it to the Mach3 MPG1 count
2. get register 1155 (ENCODER2) and assign it to the Mach3 MPG2 count
3. get register 1156 (TICKCTR) and assign it to the Mach3 Tick count

In the brain, since you are reading 7 registers starting at address 1150, assuming you are using config 0 in the plugin
address 1150 is accessed as MOD:0-P:0
address 1155 is accessed as MOD:0-P:5
address 1156 is accessed as MOD:0-P:6

If this is not clear, look at the videos on setting up the Modbus serial plugin configs.

Also read through the article I wrote on using the ModIO with Brains and the serial Modbus plugin.
http://www.homanndesigns.com/pdfs/Using_Modbus_with_Mach3.pdf

The Brain needs to set;
address 1150 (MOD:0-P:0) to Mach3 Control variable 'MPG1 Count'
address 1155 (MOD:0-P:5) to Mach3 Control variable 'MPG2 Count'
address 1156 (MOD:0-P:6) to Mach3 Control variable 'MPG TickCount'

With it setup you should be able to see the MPG1&2 counts on the Mach3 diagnostic page change as you rorate the MPGs.

Also you need to use the Mach3 jog tab (accessed by pushing the tab key) to assign MPG1 to the X-axis and MPG2 to the Z-Axis, or visa versa.

Cheers,

Peter

150

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Software Came With CNC Kit

« on: December 07, 2012, 11:34:30 PM »

Hi Zig,

The Mach3 you have is probably the software only.  The software is freely down loadable from the Mach3 support site. In order to remove the limitation of Mach3 only processing 500 lines of G-code, you need to purchase a licence file.

The disk you have may the Mach3 program only, or it may also include the licence file if it was bundled with the kit.

Yes, Suppliers such as myself can sell Mach3 licence files.

http://www.homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7

Cheers,

Peter