Messages

191

General Mach Discussion / No Hotkey for estop in Turn

« on: September 13, 2008, 09:36:38 AM »

I can't seem to find the hot key for estop in turn. It's not the same as mill.

Thanks
Derek

192

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 13, 2008, 09:15:26 PM »

Hi Arturo
PM sent.

Derek,

I am sorry you are having this problem.  You never contacted me with inquiry about this.

What is the part number of the sensor you are using?  I believe it could have an open collector connection, so it requires a pull-up resistor to work with the inputs of the C11.  Are you using a pull-up resistor?

If the sensor has +5vdc output, then the value of the pull-up should be something around 100 to 150 ohms.

Please let me know how it goes.

Arturo Duncan
http://cnc4pc.com

193

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 13, 2008, 03:47:11 PM »

I just ordered a Campbell combo breakout board. I'll install it and see if I get better results. I'll post whatever results (hopefully positive) when I get it hooked up. I needed to replace this board for a while now. I know others have been extremely happy with CNC4PC cards and maybe mines just a lemon but this thing has given me problems one way or another for a while now. I just didn't want to spend the bucks for a new card.

I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks again Derek 

Sounds like it might be right, obviously the slower you tap the more consistent you can do it, as you go faster its more erratic. Can you try connecting your index up directly to the port and spinning the spindle by powering it so its revolving at a consistent speed?
Hood

194

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 13, 2008, 03:41:42 PM »

Hi Simon
Actually I'm running the C11 which is a single port.
Derek

[

Out of curiosity have you tried removing the Rutex motherboard? You said that you have this on Port 2 and are using a CNC4PC C23 card on port 1. The C23 card is designed to use both LPT1 and LPT2, I wonder if it is confused because it isn't connected to a second port?

195

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 13, 2008, 03:01:22 PM »

Hi Hood
I just checked it again. If I tap slowly it holds about 150 rpm. As i pickup speed it increases to the 350 range. After that it starts jumping around going from 700 to 200 up to 1000.

Derek

196

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 13, 2008, 02:21:38 PM »

Thanks for all the suggestions

I unchecked the active high just for fun and the only thing that did was convince my CNC4PC board to finally take a dump. This thing has given me nothing but problems since the day I bought it. I'm moving on to something else. Probably a Campbell combo.
Here's what I tried and if this is crap feel free to let me know. I unhooked the parallel cable from the CNC4Pc board. I connected a wire to pin 15 my current pin choice. If I touch the wire to the ground the LED index light goes on or off depending how I have Mach set. If I tap the wire against the ground at a slow rate the led flickers fine. As soon as I pick up the pace the led either stays lit or doesn't light depending on whether it's active high or low. I tried index debounce settings from 0 to 1000 and it didn't change a bit.

Derek

197

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 11, 2008, 05:27:53 PM »

Thanks for the help guys.
I agree with both suggestions as being debounce or noise. Is it possible that Mach is not accepting the changes in the index debounce field? Like it's stuck or something.
The cable isn't shielded and at this stage it's completely outside the cabinet.
I have a scope but I'm embarrassed to say I'm not exactly comfortable using it. Ive tried to use it a few times but have never been confident that the settings on the scope were correct and my grounding techniques were proper so I didn't trust the data. I guess it's time for me to go to oscope school !!  I'll order in a couple of those grabbers as well. They look to be fairly handy. I know that the fact that it worked before has nothing to do with noise issues. I've been down that road many times.

Thanks
Derek

198

General Mach Discussion / Lathe spindle index quit working

« on: May 11, 2008, 12:04:58 PM »

I posted this over on the Yahoo group but unfortunately I still can't get it to work
Here's my original post at Yahoo:

Hi
All of the sudden my index quit working. The true DRO would give a
reading and then go to 0 give a reading go to 0. I went to the
diagnostic page and the index LED will flash if you turn the spindle
by hand but as soon as you give it some RPM it stops reading and
flashes occasionally. I'm using the Omron reflective sensor and the
led on the sensor flashes in conjunction to the reflector. I have two
parallel ports and I tried different pin inputs on both ports. I put a
drill in the chuck and spun the spindle free of the VFD and got the
same results.
I have a CNC4PC breakout board on port 1 which was the original port.
And a Rutex motherboard on port 2.

This is really stumping me.

Thanks
Derek

Here's what I've tried since then
Replaced the sensor with a new spare
tried different spindle debounce settings
Tried a new cord to the Omron sensor.
Went from timing to index.

Again the spindle was working fine.
One thing that is constant is the red led on the omron sensor flashes in conjunction with the reflective strip and the led on the CNC4PC board flashes in conjunction with the sensor.
The index led on mach flashes when I turn the spindle slowly by hand but a soon as it gets some speed it stops reading accurately and starts flashing intermittently.

Thanks
Derek

199

General Mach Discussion / Question on OD Arc 3 In turn wizards

« on: October 02, 2007, 06:56:17 AM »

How does the wizard work without knowing the profile or dimensions of the cutting tool?
Thanks
Derek

200

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hurco SM1 Mach Retro Machinist without any electronic knowledge .

« on: April 04, 2007, 08:05:29 PM »

I had basically the opposite experiance with the geckos. Had a set of 340's on a router and could never get it to stop faulting. I made every conceivable suggested modification and just couldn't get it straightened out. Spent the better part of 2 years suffering with it.  Then I converted a knee mill with a crusader system over to mach and decided on using the Rutex 0-10v step drives. I was immediately impressed. I bought the drives, a relay board, a mother board and a chassis and wired it up in an afternoon. Used the rutex software to tune the drives with no real problem. The only problems were my lack of understanding how this stuff works.  I then bought 3 990 drives for the router and it has yet to screw up. I run it almost every day and have never had any problems. I just did a lathe conversion with the new 2020 drives. I had some drive issues that might have been caused by the servo but Tom at rutex made it right. The tuning software is great. you make all of the adjustments with the software and then flash the drive. This in itself is worth  using Rutex.
Now for the bad news. There always seems to be a availability problem and there still isn't a relay board that's compatible with the new drives. The 2020 drives aren't as  robust as they should be. If I was going to do another machine tomorrow I would probably buy one of the new Larken viper drives hook it to a machine and beat it. If I liked the outcome I would buy 3 more ( 1 spare)  and hope for the best.

Good luck
Derek