Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: Position confirmation or tracking

« on: November 24, 2014, 08:01:08 AM »

I have the Combo Board.

Does the Rogers board handle full control, or is it a supplemental board for encoder inputs only?  Can it be used as the BOB for now and then add an encoder or two in the future?

In the event of lost steps, does Mach resolve the loss and then catch up?  

42

General Mach Discussion / Re: Position confirmation or tracking

« on: November 24, 2014, 01:19:12 AM »

Thanks,

Are you able to find a manual there?  I have not and I cannot get it emailed either.  For about a year I simply get a 404 error.  Other than that the BOB works well, but we still don't know positively what all of the I/Os are for.  I am a risk taker but I don't want to fry a happy and functioning board.

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: Position confirmation or tracking

« on: November 24, 2014, 12:58:01 AM »

Thanks BR,

Wow, I have a Sound Logic BOB installed in another project.  The BOB is great, however, I am using a $25.00 Brand-X because the supplier of the Sound board has not been able to produce the documentation for the BOB.  Thanks for the insight and new source.

44

General Mach Discussion / Re: Position confirmation or tracking

« on: November 24, 2014, 12:46:44 AM »

Thanks.

Your dial approach seems reasonable in concept.  However, we don't always return to zero to begin a new movement.  A linear scale in place of your dial would do the job and allow monitoring throughout the full range.  The project is a fence for a gang-ripsaw.  The critical position is a rip value set form the work offset.  Thus if the scale DRO and Mach DRO match, life is good.

So far the project works well.  But as tuned as one can be, a forklift will still stall the old stepper.  If it is off by a mile, it will be noticed.  The feed rate of the saw, in Mach terms, is 1,800 IPM.  It is the 0.062" bump that would go unnoticed and rack up the dollars.

        

45

General Mach Discussion / Position confirmation or tracking

« on: November 23, 2014, 01:38:27 PM »

I have been successful with Mach and stepper drives.  However, I have a new application where missed steps could go unnoticed and thus have costly results.  The movement is a simple linear X plus and minus. Is there any way to monitor or confirm or alarm position via Mach?  Perhaps an encoder???  I see there is a stepper drive that will alarm missed steps, but it is a bit pricey for just that.

What about a servo system?  If I can make a stepper go, will I have the skill for a servo system?

Can stepper and servo drives by mixed within Mach?        

46

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need cadcam software

« on: November 23, 2014, 01:22:47 PM »

BobCad has sales from time to time.  If you like the product, consider haggling.  They have always been reasonable with me. 

47

General Mach Discussion / Re: Move to machine Zero

« on: November 12, 2014, 09:50:28 PM »

Thanks,

I am trying to stay away from jog and it is not currently available.  However, a bump of the jog would not be a disaster.  An operator would tend to let it go when it gets noisy.  It is the several inch continuous movement in positive that could make for a bad day.  A negative movement would just move away from the board.

I see your jpg and agree it's perfect.  I assume input is ports and pins, input signals, "Input #1"

The laser marker and fence will be foot operated.  The safety makes certain that a lazy foot doesn't cause a problem.  An unintentional movement would likely not cause machine damage, however, it could possibly trigger a kickback that would not be appreciated.

Thanks again!

PS: You may not remember helping with our initial router project, but thanks to your help and others it is running perfectly.     

   

48

General Mach Discussion / Re: Move to machine Zero

« on: November 12, 2014, 08:01:10 PM »

Thanks,

I think we are okay at a rapid stop. It is low geared traveling at 30 inches.  That is about 1/2 of what I believe to be a safe speed considering the weight. The only time it would rapid stop is if someone really messed up.  I will install a hold gate also.  The likely condition would be an attempt to move the fence from rest while a board was feeding thus there would be no motion to stop.

If I understand your solution correctly, the axes movement would simply not occur if the safety switch was tripped and the system would automatically be restored/ready when the switch was released or at rest???         

49

General Mach Discussion / Re: Move to machine Zero

« on: November 12, 2014, 06:39:57 PM »

The G53 did the trick.  It allows the light weight axis to haul the mail under normal conditions and still maintain the slow speed for the heavy axis.  Thank again! 

50

General Mach Discussion / Re: Move to machine Zero

« on: November 12, 2014, 06:32:21 PM »

Thanks Hood, it's good to hear from you.

We are getting by.  But, we have a new problem.  While moving the fence someone stuffed a board.  That is not good, so we must set a disabling condition.  I assume that it would be a limit switch.  Any suggestion on how to switch the result of an E-Stop without the need to re-set when the switch closes.  A re-set would be okay if just for the mistake, however, each board sent properly would need to trip the switch.

Thus we need a limit switch/gate that halts any possible movement when open and simply resumes normal operations when closed.