Messages

141

General Mach Discussion / Re: Smooth Stepper questions

« on: October 01, 2013, 08:48:24 AM »

Jim, let's back up and think about this situation in more familiar terms. Lets say you want to make a phone call, what do you do? You pick up your phone and you dial the other persons number. If your calling someone in the same area code you don't even need to type in the area code, just the phone number.

Computer networking is similar the IP address is like a phone number, every Ethernet device has its own phone number (IP Address). If you want to talk to another Ethernet device in the same area code (sub net) you don't need to type the area code in. In the context of the SmoothStepper you set up your PC with a fixed (static) IP address that is in the same subnet (area code) as the SmoothStepper. The SmoothStepper board comes preprogrammed with the IP address of 10.9.9.9 so you want to set your PC up with a static IP address that is in the same subnet (area code) so 10.9.9.1 is a good choice.

When you are changing the network adapter settings on your PC you want to set the IP address to 10.9.9.1, the SmoothStepper is already programmed so just leave it alone. When you start up Mach3 you have to tell Mach the IP address (phone number) of the SmoothStepper board which is 10.9.9.9.

If you have an older computer you may need a cross over cable. Any computer made in the last five years or so most likely has 'Gigabit' network adapter which will do an 'auto change over' so a special cross over cable is not needed.

142

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't MACH3 execute faster??? Please help

« on: September 30, 2013, 06:35:05 PM »

I agree with Peter. Your movements are exceedingly small, so Mach is trying to accel/decal for each of these really tiny line segments. You need to tune your machine for maximum acceleration, not maximum velocity. Also take a look at the CV functionality in Mach3 as well as the look ahead setting. CV lets Mach blend all those tiny movements and eliminate all of the accel/decal problems, look ahead tells Mach how many lines of good to look ahead to plan its trajectory.

143

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can't MACH3 execute faster??? Please help

« on: September 30, 2013, 02:39:57 PM »

If your running the same GCode, with the same feed rates then the machine will go the same speed it did before. Your GCode asks Mach3 how fast to drive the Machine.

144

General Mach Discussion / Re: Smooth Stepper questions

« on: September 30, 2013, 09:58:52 AM »

I connected to one of my CNC machines.   Even though the smooth stepper appears to working it does not move any part of the machine.

The Smooth Stepper has 3 DB 25 connecting ports.    Seems like I need to tell the computer which one I'm using.
Jim

You have to tell Mach3 that you want to use the SmoothStepper AND you have to tell Mach3 which Ports&Pins things are on. Take a look at page 9 here: http://www.soigeneris.com/Document/Warp9/Installing_and_Configuring_the_Ethernet_SmoothStepper.pdf

145

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mike Beck vs Xylotex

« on: September 18, 2013, 09:36:30 AM »

The G540 has four separate driver modules that plug into an optically isolated motherboard. The Xylotex has everything on one (bare) PCB, if one driver is faulty you throw the whole thing away.

The G540 has a maximum input voltage of 50V compared to the 24V of the Xylotex.

The G540 includes two high current outputs that can drive relays, four isolated inputs, charge pump circuit; Xyloex has none of these features.

The G40 uses step morphing, at low RPMs you get all the smoothness of 10x micro-stepping, as the RPMs increase it morphs to full steps so you get full power from your motor; Xylotex does not do this.

The G540 is very hard to kill...

Not to sound like a fan-boy but you will spend more money building something equivalent to the G540, I suspect that is why they have sold tens of thousands of them.

146

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Anyone got a clue if the "Pulley Ratio" is working with the ESS???

« on: September 14, 2013, 08:47:40 AM »

Well the manufacturer of the BOB 'should' know what settings to use. They have to design the PWM-> Analog circuitry with a certain PWM base frequency in mind. The Duty cycle should have a linear relationship with the output voltage. If the manufacturer of the BOB can't tell you the settings to use it makes me wonder...

147

General Mach Discussion / Re: need help with smoothstepper setup for mach3

« on: September 03, 2013, 08:33:06 PM »

Look in the lower right hand corner of the Mach3 screen. Mach will display the name of the profile you are using there, what is the name of the profile you are using?

148

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Windows 7 32bit and Mach 3

« on: September 01, 2013, 11:45:27 AM »

If you want to use a 64bit computer than you must use an external motion controller as the parallel port driver will not work. Take a look at: http://www.soigeneris.com/motion_control_and_i_o_boards-list.aspx (my website).

149

SmoothStepper USB / Re: More dual axis homing issues

« on: August 20, 2013, 09:46:17 AM »

Take a look at the bottom link in the Soigeneris section here: http://www.soigeneris.com/documentation-content.aspx (Mechanical Home / Limit Switch Guide). This is an application note covering some testing I did on different mechanical switches and how contact bounce, etc. can cause you problems.

150

SmoothStepper USB / Re: More dual axis homing issues

« on: August 20, 2013, 08:54:55 AM »

The 'problem' is that mechanical switches don't switch cleanly. You get bouncing of the contacts and a small area of travel where a bit of wiggling can make/brake the contact. Since the SmoothStepper and other external motion controllers can read there inputs much faster than the parallel port they will 'see' this issue more frequently. To combat this issue you first need to make sure that when your switches re triggered that they are fully triggered, i.e. not just barely triggered. Then you need to make sure that the machine travels fullyonto and off of the switch. Since this 'over-travel' distance can't be set in mach3 we have to fake it. Go into the SmoothStepper configuration and set the noire filtering for the home switches to a high value, like 5000. This will give you a little more travel onto and off of the switch and typically solves the problem.