Messages

651

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smoothstepper loses communication when limit is triggered

« on: February 22, 2010, 10:37:44 AM »

Wow, my head hurt just trying to follow all of that logic. Is there a reason you must remove servo power when a limit is hit? Depending on a signal to make it from the SS through you BOB, through Mach, back through you BOB, etc is adding a huge amount of complication and no additional security (as you have way to many pieces of electronics in the loop.) You would be as well off just letting Mach handle the limit and cease driving the axis (bring them to a controlled stop). If you must remove power from them then you should do so directly by having the limits drop out the mains supply to the drives power supply. In a similar vein IF all your your BOB outputs should be 'off' when a limit or E-Stop occurs you can't depend on a BOB to take care of this, you should be removing drive power to those things.

Turning power supplies on/off can cause a lot of electrical noise which can throw many things for a loop. If your relays are in close proximity to your BOB and SS that could be causing a problem. I'll be releasing a device to reduce this arc noise in a few weeks.

652

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smoothstepper loses communication when limit is triggered

« on: February 21, 2010, 10:02:06 AM »

How are your limits wired up? Do they do anything except send a signal to Mach? In other words are you turning off power to anything when you have a limit tripped. What is the status of the LEDs on the SmoothStepper when you see this problem?

653

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smoothstepper and USOVO UNI 1500

« on: February 17, 2010, 09:33:12 PM »

Glad you got it figured out...

654

General Mach Discussion / Re: USB and Mach

« on: February 17, 2010, 06:53:25 PM »

It will work with either steppers or servos drives that take step/direction input signals. It will NOT drive an analog servo amp.

655

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smoothstepper and USOVO UNI 1500

« on: February 17, 2010, 09:32:09 AM »

Did you tell Mach to use the SmoothStepper as the motion control device? If not Mach is still sending the pulses out of the parallel port. Open up Mach and go to 'Function CFG->Rest Device Sel...', click that menu option and then close down Mach and restart it. When you restart it will ask you to Choose a Motion Control device; select the SmoothStepper.

656

General Mach Discussion / Re: parallel cable

« on: February 16, 2010, 10:35:19 PM »

If you want to use a laptop your best bet is the SmoothStepper: http://soigeneris.com/Warp9.aspx . The power saving features built into the laptop will want to change the processor speed which will mess up Mach's driver.

657

General Mach Discussion / Re: losing probe signals with USB game controller?

« on: February 03, 2010, 01:45:43 PM »

I would not depend on a current return path through the collet/toolholder, bearings, spindle housing, etc, etc. It will never be reliable unless it was specifically designed for the task. It takes bearings with conductive grease among other things to get it to work every time. The other potential issue is that your using the machine frame, which is likely (earth)grounded, for a DC current path; using an (earth)ground as a current conduction path is just asking for trouble from ground loops.

I clip one wire to the bit and one to the stock or touch plate and have never had it miss.

658

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fine Saw dust

« on: January 29, 2010, 01:02:32 PM »

The first step is to keep the sawdust out of the air! Use a good dust collection system with a 3.5 micron or smaller filter. The fine dust that is accumulating in your control is also very bad for your lungs. I put off buying a DC for years and finally went and spent the $350 or so bucks and it has been one of the best investments I have ever made.

659

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010

« on: January 29, 2010, 10:42:12 AM »

Having put a lot of SmoothSteppers out in the field, on a variety of machine types, I do have the benefit on drawing from how all of those people are using their machines. I can say that the majority of those folks don't find things that they can't do on their machine because of the SmoothStepper but I know their are many folks that are waiting on one item or another to be added. As I clearly stated in my first comments there is room for improvement. If your arguing about the 95%/5% comment then take it up with Art, those are his words and they are pretty close to being accurate I think. Mach has tens of thousands of users with many thousands of different types of CNC machines and computers. Finding the right formula that works for 99.9% of all the combinations of machines, PCs, drivers, etc is not an easy task. Just in the last six weeks or so there have been several new versions of the parallel port driver released as Art was trying to find the right formula for timing that worked on the widest variety of PCs. Even after all of these years working on the driver he is finding room for improvement and fixing bugs. I just don't expect any external motion control board to be different in the development cycle than Mach or the parallel port driver itself.

660

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing Steps????

« on: January 29, 2010, 05:42:46 AM »

How are you 'removing backlash'? Sounds to me like you have a problem with your testing proceedure.