Messages

201

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Ethernet SmoothStepper first test

« on: January 19, 2012, 07:11:23 AM »

I jumped on here to ask about ESS swapaxis, so I have that answer, thanks!

Does anyone know if the ESS can co-exist with TCP modbus?   (I will take time later to read this entire thread, but for now I would much appreciate an answer to this if anyone knows).

Yes,

It works fine with Modbus TCP/IP devices. I've tested it with my ModIP prototypes.

Cheers,

Peter

202

General Mach Discussion / Homann Designs 2011-2012 Festive Break.

« on: December 22, 2011, 08:26:50 AM »

Hi all,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support during 2011. We will be closed from the 23rd December until the 13th January 2012. Any orders place during this period will be processed once we return on the 16th January. I will still be monitoring emails for anything urgent and may get time to process a few orders.

I'll be taking the family camping to Port Fairy, on the South West coast of Victoria. I call it camping but we seem to take more and more each year.
http://g.co/maps/v6e7g

I plan to spend a bit of time honing my slope soaring skills.
http://youtu.be/TyoPo8gef54

I'm hoping that I'll get a few of my new designs into production early in the new year. The first should be the new line of Modbus products;

ModIP     - Ethernet based Modbus unit (Should go well with the Ethernet Smooth Stepper)
ModIO+    - All the features of the ModIP but serial based comms
ModBrick  - Expansion Modules for the ModIP and ModIO+
MiniMod   - Small dedicated ModIO unit
MicroMod  - Even small dedicated ModIO unit


The other goal is to get my new G540 Based controller released.  I've been selling the G540 based Controller Parts kit very successfully for a year or two now. The number of downloads of the schematic is phenomenal.
http://www.homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=27
http://www.homanndesigns.com/pdfs/EN010_V8.pdf

I continuously get asked to build up controllers, "ready to go"  so I need to set up a production assembly process and offer it as a complete system.

I wish you all a great festive season and look forward to supporting you in 2012.

Cheers,

Peter.

203

Modbus / Re: Modbus Peter homann

« on: December 20, 2011, 03:40:16 PM »

Hi Tony,

Yes it does. It work well with one ModIO. The problem is when tryiing to configure the 2nd one.

Cheers,

Peter.

204

Modbus / Re: multiple serial modbus slaves

« on: December 20, 2011, 03:29:52 PM »

Hi Ian,

Good to hear you have has success.

BTW, Which THC is it? Do you have a link?

Cheers,

Peter

205

Modbus / Re: multiple serial modbus slaves

« on: December 20, 2011, 06:31:05 AM »

Ian,

Ok. Just remember that when you access a  register in the cfg# buffer from brains, the first register in the buffer is item 0, the 2nd is item 1, etc. You do not use the Modbus register number, say 1150, but the offset into the Buffer. So if the cfg# is set up to read 10modbus  registers, starting at register 115. So, to access register 1154 in brains it is item 4 in the buffers.

Cheers,


Peter.

206

Modbus / Re: multiple serial modbus slaves

« on: December 20, 2011, 05:37:05 AM »

Hi Ian,

With Brains you use the Modbus CFG# entries in Modbus setup tab.

This interface is actually a general purpose Modbus plugin itself that provides the Modbus data accessible by Brains. So you set up all the Modbus interaction you require in this Modbus setup tab.  Each row, has;

Cfg#	Buffer Number
Comment	Just a Comment
Port Address	Serial port number. Must match the port used
Slave	Modbus Slave address
refresh	Rate at which request is made
Addess	Address of first Modbus register
No. Regs	The number of registers to read/write
Direction	Read/Write and the data regiter type

Each row sets up a Modbus transaction. Once set up these transactions will occur automatically forever. This is transferring to/from these buffers and the devices.

The slave ID is how you control which modbus device is being communicating with. So if you have 2 devices then they will have different slave addresses.

Does that clear it up?

Cheer,


Peter.

207

Modbus / Re: multiple serial modbus slaves

« on: December 19, 2011, 08:19:12 PM »

Hi Ian,

I'm a bit late on this one.

Mach3 can handle multiple Modbus devices from a single serial port. To do this you need to have a RS232 to Rs485 converter as multiple devices will need to be on a RS485 bus.

The ModIO I developed has an inbuilt RS232 to RS485 converter. This way you don't need an additional piece of hardware.
http://www.homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=4

If you look at the following engineering note, it shows how to set up multiple ModIOs on a RS485 4 wire bus. You could also use other Modbus devices such as VFDs, PLC etc.
http://www.homanndesigns.com/pdfs/EN007-MC01R1.pdf


I have a plugin that was not written by me that allowed for multiple ModIOs to be set up. Unfortunately, something in Mach3 has changed that has broken the plugin when setting up more than one ModIO.

That said, it is not necessary to use the plugin, as Mach3 has its "Brains" that allow you to communicate with the ModIOs.

Have a look at the following article I wrote on using Mach3 with Modbus. It should explain quite a bit.

http://www.homanndesigns.com/pdfs/Using%20Modbus%20with%20Mach3.pdf

Other than that, ask questions.

Cheers,

Peter.

208

Modbus / Re: ModIO plugin

« on: December 19, 2011, 04:58:27 PM »

Hi Tony,

Not sure why you cannot create an account. You can download it from;

www.homanndesigns.com/downloads/ModIO.dll

Cheers,

Peter

209

Modbus / Re: Need help with modIO and digispeedXL

« on: December 16, 2011, 05:55:26 PM »

Hi Seth,

I posted a reply, with a link to an engineering note on the ModIO Yahoo group.

Let me know how you go.

Cheers,

Peter

210

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Ethernet SmoothStepper first test

« on: November 27, 2011, 04:08:38 PM »

I left my ESS inside my computer box where the USB SS lived. No problem finding 5v in there!!

I'm redesigning the back panel of my shortly to be released "ready to run" enclosure. The current configuration for the USS (USB SmoothStepper) uses a USB panel mount extension lead.

The new design will have the ESS and USS mount againt the back panel so that the LED indicators are accessible and visible. I will hopefully have that done this week.

Attached is an image of the current back panel.

I'm also designing a stand-alone enclosure for the ESS to provide any easy way of upgrading from a parallel
 to Smooth Stepper without having to modify existing Controller  enclosures.


Cheers,

Peter.