Messages

1451

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 and 5 Axis CNC

« on: May 27, 2020, 07:58:24 PM »

Hi,

Was just wondering if there was a MB3 equivalent breakout board?

to my knowledge no. The C25 ($30.00) has two ports but it has no opto-isolators or differential outputs etc.
You are effectively required to add a handful of electronic components to make the C25 truly useful
whereas all of that development work and circuitry is included with the MB3. As I posted earlier
the MB3 is the 'lowest risk' solution.

The price difference between the C25 and MB3 is $150, less than half the cost of just one servo....penny pinching
on a breakout board seems ill advised.

Craig

1452

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 and 5 Axis CNC

« on: May 27, 2020, 12:16:21 AM »

Hi,

when you say that"Arguably the Ethernet SmoothStepper (Warp9 TD) is the most complete (step/direction) Mach4 ready motion controller"

By this i refer to the realtime supports. For instance it has realtime THC by support of the TMC controller. The PoKeys does not do that, neither
(to my knowledge) does the PoKeys offer realtime laser rastering/vectoring. The ESS offers realtime PID control of the spindle (via PWM) which
assists with lathe threading where the spindle is marginal or lacks inertia.

If you are not doing laser operations, single point lathe threading or require high bandwidth THC control then the extras that the ESS have are of
no advantage.

One feature that the PoKeys has that the ESS does not is analogue inputs.

Warp9TD are in the process of designing a new motion controller and I have been assured that analogue inputs will be supported in the new
design.

Craig

1453

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to enable M6 script

« on: May 25, 2020, 11:01:41 PM »

Hi,
Mach4 converts all uppercase to lowercase. In most circumstances Windows is not case sensitive however there are situations
where that is not the case....and they can be real hard faults to track.

When Mach was searching it was searching for 'm6....' and it did not find 'M6....'.

The recommendation is to render all Gcode and filenames as lowercase.....it prevents faults.

Craig

1454

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to enable M6 script

« on: May 25, 2020, 06:19:57 PM »

Hi,
how did you name your macro?

It should be named 'm6.msc' and note that lowercase is important.

When a macro is called Mach in the first instance searches the macros folder of the current profile, if it does not find it there it searches further
up the directory tree until it finds the default m6 macro built into Mach.

I think Mach is ignoring your macro because its not named correctly.

Craig

1455

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Steps per unit output will not change axis Movement

« on: May 23, 2020, 05:36:50 AM »

Hi,
it sounds to me that you don't have the servo/encoder/drive loop working correctly.

Do you have some means of testing the step/direction response other than using Mach and your BOB?

For instance do you have a siganl generator that would allow you to pulse the step input of each drive?

Craig

1456

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 4 - MB3 Breakoutboard and DYN2 servo motor driver connection

« on: May 22, 2020, 06:49:50 PM »

Hi,
I see also that you are thinking about using DYN2 drives, they are a little cheaper but remeber you
have to provide a 70VDC (approx) power supply to each.

If you paid an extra $50 (approx) you'd get DYN4's and matching 200V servos. the DYN4's get hooked
direct to 230VAC, no DC power supply required..

Are you sure that trying to save a few dollars on the initial purchase will save money overall?

Craig

1457

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 4 - MB3 Breakoutboard and DYN2 servo motor driver connection

« on: May 22, 2020, 05:55:19 PM »

Hi,
this post should be on the Mach4 General Discussion board, no doubt Tweakie will shift it.

I see you have had a look at DMM servos and drives? Good choice.

I am most familiar with Delta servos and drives but they are very similar, biologists have a term for it...
'convergent evolution'.

The MB3 breakout board has provided high speed differential outputs intended for use as step/direction
outputs. You will use two differential MB3 outputs for each DYN2 drive, that is four wires arranged as two twisted
pairs.

Each drive will need an enable input. I see that the DYN2 accepts 5V as single ended inputs whereas Delta drives
accept 24V. Small detail. Its common to have one single ended output of the MB3 signal an enable to as many DYN2's
you have.

Each DYN2 will have at least one Alarm output. You could have all three alarm ouputs connected to one input of the
MB3. If one servo faulted Mach would know but it would not know which servo it was. It is not unreasonable therefore
to have each DYN2 alarm output connected to a dedicated MB3 input.

In the case of my Delta's I have programmed two Alarm outputs from each drive. I have a Following Error alarm
from each drive on its own breakout board input, and then I have all the other fault conditions like over-current, over-voltage,
over-heat etc to the second alarm output, and one breakout board input monitors all three drives.

There again referring to my Delta drives I have a Reset input to each drive, one breakout board output feeds all three
drive Reset inputs. Not sure how the DYN2's handle resets. It maybe you have to pull the Enable line low for a period of time
and then re-assert the Enable.

It may be that you want to monitor the drive/servo combination, maybe the load on the servo. Delta drives and I imagine
DYN2's will allow you to monitor at least one analogue variable and possibly more than one digital variable. Each
monitoring function will require another wire.

You can see that you end up with quite a few wires going to each drive.

Concentrate on the basics to start with:

1) Step/direction....be they single ended or differential
2) Enable
3) Alarm......or possibly more than one alarm
4) Reset..... depending on how your DYN2 handles it.

Craig

1458

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 and 5 Axis CNC

« on: May 22, 2020, 02:56:09 PM »

Hi,
if your in Canada then you should look at DMM servos.

It is a Canadian brand manufactured in China. They have a good reputation and supporting home grown
manufacturers is highly worthwhile......especially in the COVID recovery times.

Craig

1459

Mach3 under Vista / Re: mach3 demo with windows7 64 bit system cant get stepper motor to work

« on: May 21, 2020, 06:41:42 PM »

Hi,
because you have a 64bit OS you will require an external motion controller like an Ethernet SmoothStepper or a UC300.

If you want to use Machs parallel port (no extra hardware required) then you MUST use a 32bit OS Windows7 or  earlier.

Craig

1460

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 and 5 Axis CNC

« on: May 21, 2020, 03:15:32 PM »

Hi,
if you use Delta servos at my recommendation then you don't need power supplies for the servo drives, they
are 230VAC input.

The Delta servo drive has a 24V output, limited to only 500mA, which is intended for use with signalling between
the breakout board and the drive.

If you use a simple breakout board like a C25 then you will need a 5V power supply for the breakout board and the ESS.
A C25 (or even sipmler C10's) will require some extra circuitry in the form of a level translator transistor/mosfet.
The advantage of the simpler boards is that you have the greatest flexibility but comes at the expense of you having
to provide the little bits of circiutry required.

If you use a more sophisticated MB3 from CNCRoom, then one independant 24VDC power supply will power both the
breakout board and the breakout board will break down 24V to 5V for the ESS.

The MB3 has differential outputs, about 12 of them, especially for high signalling rate to servo drives
which are perfect for you. No extra circuitry required. The MB3 has gained a good reputation beacause it has been well
thought out so that a user requires very little or no electronic skills to achieve a workable solution. That comes at the
expense of flexibility. None the less the MB3 has gained a good following.

If you want to represent to your professor that the 'lowest risk' solution is an MB3. If you need to save pennies then
the C25 is perfectly workable but requires some electronic skill from you.

Craig