Messages

401

Modbus / Re: modio and MPG question

« on: February 02, 2009, 07:47:03 PM »

Hi,

In Hi Res mode the ModIO counts every transition, so there are 4 per click. Have you tuned the MPG under the config tab?

In Multistep mode Mach remembers how many clicks you have moved and will mode the axis to the distance represented by the number of clicks.

Cheers,

Peter.

402

Modbus / Re: modio and MPG question

« on: February 02, 2009, 07:27:23 PM »

Hi Adam,

I have a feeling that single step mode does not work in Mach3. You need to use MultiStep.

Best to check with Brian.

Cheers,

Peter.

403

General Mach Discussion / Re: DigiSpeed-SD and CW CCW control

« on: February 01, 2009, 10:31:58 PM »

Peter, that worked.  It may have been necessary because I have a PMDX-122 board set up for Gecko drives with the common set at 5V.  Changing JP1 and inverting my relay output signals enables the DigiSpeed to power up with the relays off.

Thanks again.

Vince

Hi Vince you should also change the sense of the spindle step output as well. I guess it is not absolutely necessary as the step line is fed to a monostable.

Cheers,

Peter.

404

General Mach Discussion / Re: DigiSpeed-SD and CW CCW control

« on: February 01, 2009, 10:01:11 PM »

So, Change JP1, and swap the active state of the Spindle Step output and the 2 outputs for the spindle CW and CCW outputs and you may find that fixes the problem.
Cheers,
Peter.

Peter, that worked.  It may have been necessary because I have a PMDX-122 board set up for Gecko drives with the common set at 5V.  Changing JP1 and inverting my relay output signals enables the DigiSpeed to power up with the relays off.

Thanks again.

Vince

Hi Vince,

I'm glad it worked for you.

The reason that the jumper is there is to solve exactly the problem that you have experienced. It allows you to configure the DC-06 DigiSpeed inputs to match the breakout board outputs' polarity.

Cheers,

Peter.

405

General Mach Discussion / Re: DigiSpeed-SD and CW CCW control

« on: February 01, 2009, 05:09:57 AM »

An interesting item: When I first power up my lathe, both relays on the DigiSpeed board energize.  That means that my VFD is getting both a FWD and REV signal.  When the computer comes up and Mach is running, the PMDX-122 board enable the output signals and both relays on the DigiSpeed de-energize.  The VFD does not seem to mind the mixed direction signals as long as no speed is commanded at the same time.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Vince

Vince,

I'm not intimately familiar with the breakout board you are using but the DC-06 DigiSpeed-SD has a  feature that may help.

There is a jumper (JP1)  EDGE to select whether you want to use active hi or active lo inputs. My guess is that you should change the position of JP1 along with swapping  the active signal state in the Mach3 setup.


When the breakout board is powered up without Mach3 running it is setting the output lines to the DigiSpeed-SD to the level that turns on the relays. When Mach3 turns on it then swaps the state of the output lines turning off the Relays.

So, Change JP1, and swap the active state of the Spindle Step output and the 2 outputs for the spindle CW and CCW outputs and you may find that fixes the problem.

Cheers,


Peter.

406

Modbus / Re: Uncomannded motion with Homann pendant!! Please HELP!!

« on: January 31, 2009, 09:37:42 PM »

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your help I'll let you know if it crops up again.

I have a thought for your Pendant/ModIO system.. I own a Milltronics 4 axis mill and one of the best features on it is HandWheel Mode (HDW). Just before hitting cycle button, you can select HDW and the program only moves while the handwheel is being turned. Turn it faster and it will move upto the programed feedrate, turn it slower, and it can creep along. Stop turing and the program stops moving the machine. I use it all the time for test running programs. It's better than single stepping since the program can be held during the middle of a move.

You certainly have the hardware in place, just would seem to be some (or a lot of) programming....Thoughts?

Chuck

Hi Chiuck,

I understand what you are asking and can see how it woyuld be usefull. To implement it though it would need to be done by Brian at ArtSoft as it would use th MPG velocity as the feedrate.

Actually, I think that the MPG velocity is already in a accessable DRO, so a macro pump or brain could be written to set the feedrate from the MPG velocity.

Cheers,


Peter.

407

General Mach Discussion / Re: DigiSpeed-SD and CW CCW control

« on: January 31, 2009, 01:31:35 AM »

Hi Vince,

The CW and CCW outputs on the spindle tab are enable signals for the spindle when it turns on. On some VFDs you have a separate input to enable  the spindle for CW direction and another for CCW direction. You cannot use the spindle  dir line to do this.

What I usually do in your case is use the spindle dir line to control one relay on the DC-06 for spindle direction control.

The other relay on the DC-06 is controlled by the CW and CCW outputs on the spindle tab. Set the output number for the CQW and CCW control to the same output number. Then use pin for this output to control the 2nd relay on the DC-06. This 2nd relay now becomes an enable relay for the spindle  as it turns on when a spindle command CW or CCW is issued.


I hope this is clear.

Cheers,


Peter.

408

Modbus / Re: Uncomannded motion with Homann pendant!! Please HELP!!

« on: January 31, 2009, 01:23:29 AM »

Hi Peter,

When I can in this morning the oscillations were still occuring as I left the power on overnight. This morning I cycled the power to the ModIO board and the oscialltion stopped. I used the lathe for about 3 hours today with the pendant with no problems. IThis afternoon, I was able to get mbReader working, the mpg counter is stable, counts up and down based on direction. The timer is rolling over at about 64000. Everything else seems normal. I guess all I can do is wait for the problem to crop up again then run mbReader to see what's going on.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

I'm not sure what could cause that. It may be that there is a problem with the MPG wheel that is causing the oscillations.

THe fact that thetimer Tick counts up and rolls over tells me that you have the latest sofware in the pendant. If it occurs again see if you can capture it on mbReader.

Cheers,


Peter.

409

Modbus / Re: Uncomannded motion with Homann pendant!! Please HELP!!

« on: January 30, 2009, 09:20:56 AM »

Hi Chuck,

Sorry, I missed the bit about mbReader. You are getting timeout errors.  In mbReader is the slave address set to 27? And what comms settings do you have, 57600 or 115200?

Cheers,


Peter.

410

Modbus / Re: Uncomannded motion with Homann pendant!! Please HELP!!

« on: January 30, 2009, 09:17:42 AM »

Hi Chuck,

In the jumper block, the postion of the 4 rinht hand jumpers is identical. The difference is in the TXE and RXE jumpers. On the V1 board that you have each of those jumpers is oriented horizontally and is a 3 pin jumper.

On your board you place the jumper in the 2-3 position to enable the respective RS485 driver. You place it in the 1-2 position (toward the centre of the board) to disable it.

In version 2 those 2 jumpers are 2 pin and vertically oriented, and need to be inserted to   disable the driver.

When delivered, your board would have had these 2 jumpers in the enable position. You don't need to change them unless you want to use the pendant in an existing 485 netword and don't want to use the Rs232 connector on the board.


That said, I don't think the jumpers won't be the cause of your problem.

I presume that it has been working up to now? If, so have you canged the Mach3 version?

Also, can you download and install the latest version of the plugin 09A


To determine if it is an issue with Mach3, can you go to the ModIO Yahoo group and in the files area there is a directory labelled mbReader.
 It contains a test program that will verify what data the pendant is sending. Download all the files in the directory , install the program, run it and load the MP-01.mbs file.

The registers I'm interested in are the MPG Count value (Is it stable) and ist it incrementing/decrementing correctly.

 Also can you tell me what the tick counter is doing. Is it counting up and rolling over or sitting around a particular value.


I'm off to get some sleep now. I'll check your findings in the morning.


Cheers,


Peter.