Messages

1721

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3, Delta ASDA-B2, ESS. 12 straight hours working on this. could use assist..

« on: February 05, 2020, 12:31:56 AM »

Hi,
I wouldn't give up just yet.

I would us a battery, say 9V to drive a little current through the photodiode via a milliampmeter to see whether the photo diode is intact.
I may be possible to replace them if they are faulty.

1722

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3, Delta ASDA-B2, ESS. 12 straight hours working on this. could use assist..

« on: February 04, 2020, 10:24:11 PM »

Hi,

I would like to try and use the existing single ended output 5vdc+ from my C25 board.

Wrong answer, use the 0-5V signal to turn on the base of a signal transistor which in turns the drive input opto on and off.

What should I set my Mach3 Kernel Speed to? I have successfully used 25,000Hz and 45,000Hz

Immaterial, Machs kernel speed is to do with the parallel port and the ESS obviates the parallel port altogether. If you like the 'kernel'
speed with the ESS is 4MHz, that is the ultimate pulse speed of the ESS, a mere 160 times faster! Warp9 recommend leaving the kernel speed at 25kHz,
not that it should make any difference.

In the ESS main config page of the plugin, I can set the ESS controller frequency

I use Mach4 and the ESS Mach4 plugin is somewhat different however I think you are refering to the rate at which the ESS talks to Mach and is irrelevant
to driving servos. If the ESS was driving steppers before it will drive servos with virtually no alteration at all.

Will download the manual and have a closer look. Generally you use the built-in 24V supply within the drive to energise the input step/direction circuitry.
The choice of pins concerns the inclusion/exclusion of the series resistor within the drive. If you attempt to switch 24V (or even 5V) direct through the drive
input photodiode WITHOUT a series resistor somewhere in the circuit will blow the photodiode.

From BOB, pin 2 (mach3 step pin) running to PULSE pin 43.
From BOB, pin 3 (mach3 Direction pin) running to SIGN pin 39.
From BOB Ground pin running to /PULSE pin 41.
From BOB Ground pin running to /SIGN pin 37.

I think you may have miswired it. The output of the BoB (pin 2 or 3) is 5V, correct? You hooked that to the photodiode input (pin 39 or 43) without a series resistor,
and the other side of the photodiode (pins 37 or 41) to 0V. Thus the photodiode has to withstand the full 5V output of your BoB, you may have damaged it already.

When my drives turned up they had a sticker on the outside warning about the correct and alternate incorrect way to wire them....did you look at it, even save it?

Draw a circuit diagram of what you have done and post it. DO NOT HOOK ANY PHOTODIODE UP WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF A CURRENT LIMIT RESISTOR OR YOU WILL
DESTROY THE PHOTODIODE.

Craig

1723

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3, Delta ASDA-B2, ESS. 12 straight hours working on this. could use assist..

« on: February 04, 2020, 05:11:35 PM »

Hi,

I have a delta ASDA-B2 drive with a matched 750W servo motor. Encoder believed to be 17bit, biut not enumerated on the motor so I really am not sure. I do not have the delta tuning software, acc keypad or connector cable to use the software tuning.

To my knowledge ALL B2 series have the 17bit (nom) or 160,000cpr encoder, thats what make them B2 series.

I have been able to get the ASDA-B2 to respond (correctly) to step and direction (Sign and Pulse according to Delta manual) however, the motor (despite tuning everything I could find in drive and mach and SS configurations, to no avail. I am only able to get the motor running at about 4rpm. No matter what I do I cannot seem to get the servo to run at a reasonable (usable) speed.

Almost certainly because you have the wrong electronic gearing parameters set.

I did check to make sure that my BOB is outputting a full 5vdc+ to the delta drive. I understand that the Delta drive wants Differential signals for Sign and Pulse. Mach does not do this, and this may be my issue. I have ordered Differential Line Driver from CNC4PC, hopefully will have them by the end of the week.

If you set the electronic gearing parameters such that you dont require excessively high signalling rate to the drive, say less than 200kHz, then you DON'T NEED
differential signalling, single ended will be fine. The drive is expecting 24V signalling. I have a transistor between my BoB and the Step and Direction inputs of the drive.

I determined that I could have 1um linear resolution with my servos electronically geared to 5000 cpr. To acheive that I set the numerator to 1 and the
denominator to 32.

P1-44 = 1
P1-45 =32

160,000 x 1/32 = 5000.

What happens, in effect, is that  one pulse from my BoB causes the servo to rotate 32 of its native (160,000 count) encoder counts. If I pulse the drive 5000 times
the servo will advance 160,000 counts of its encoder, or one revolution. Easy.

Note that if I want my servo to do 3000rpm in my machine, that is 50 revs/sec then I would need to signal the drive 50 x 5000 =250,000 or 250kHz.
That is very much the top limit for single ended Step/Direction input and I really need to go to differential signalling. When the servo is doing 2000rpm
the signalling rate is a more modest 200kHz, within the capability of a single ended input and my machine is still doing 10m/min which is more than
fast enough for me.

P1-46 is the setting that determines the lines/rev number of the synthesized servo for monitoring purposes only. For instance you might have an external
monitor on your axis that requires 1000 pulses to read 10mm. If your ballscrew is 10mm pitch (conveniently) then you would set P1-46 = 250. The monitor
encoder output would then be 4 x 250 =1000 counts (or pulses) per rev, just right for your external monitor.

Note the the synthesized encoder output has NO BEARING on the internal operation of the native encoder nor the electronic gearing parameters that
accompany it.


Craig

1724

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3, Delta ASDA-B2, ESS. 12 straight hours working on this. could use assist..

« on: February 04, 2020, 01:45:46 PM »

Hi,

I am having trouble with parameters 1-44, 1-45, and 146. I don't seem to be able to figure out how to enter the gearing ratio correctly. I suspect this is due to the fact that the parameters for gearing are able to be input as a large number, I cannot figure out where the real decimal point is in the setting, I fear that if I don't know which decimal is the right one, I have been entering erroneous numbers.

I had exactly the same problem, trying to program numbers that have more digits than the display is wide. I had the decimal in the
wrong place and it ages for me to work out why. Eventually I got the special programming cable and used the software, its highly recommended.
I bought the Delta made cable but I believe a 'Firewire' cable will work, although I understand there are two types of Firewire cable, only one of which
is applicable to Delta servos, ergo I bought the right one, a Delta accessory.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ASDA-B2-AB-A2-rs232-ASD-CNUS0A08-PLC-Programming-Cable-HJ54-YD/173788498397?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I'm just about to leave for work but will consider some of the questions you raise and reply tonight.

Craig

1725

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: vbs to lua

« on: February 03, 2020, 06:53:17 PM »

Hi,
am I correct that these VB routines probe from the right and from the left?
It would appear they set the gear ratio based on diameter, is that correct?

Just as a matter of interest have you studied the probing module of Mach4?. It looks like what the VB macros are doing are
in large measure standard Mach4 procedures in the probing module. Further I think the source code for the probing module is
shipped along with the compiled script so you could modify/edit/add to it at will.

Craig

1726

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: vbs to lua

« on: February 03, 2020, 05:00:30 PM »

Hi,
the structure of Mach4 is quite different and commonly a direct translation between VB and Lua is not possible.

Tell us more about the functions performed by the VB code you want to replicate?

Craig

1727

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Breakout board choices with smooth stepper

« on: February 03, 2020, 01:31:02 PM »

Hi,
having just one MB02 (or C10 equivalent) results in 12 outputs and 5 inputs.

If you have one input for an Estop, one for a probe that leaves just three for up to nine limit and home switches if you chose not
to combine them. I'd seriously recommend a second MB02 (or C10) set up as inputs and that would result in another 4 outputs but
a extra 13 inputs. These extra inputs allow you to have separate homes and limits that have distinct advantages.

I dont' need that many inputs, but I don't like the missing optoisolation..

I've used two MB02's for six years WITHOUT opt-isolation. It must be said that I did something silly with one input
on my primary BoB and have manged to damage that one input, and I haven't bothered to replace the SMD IC responsible,
but overall I don't miss opto-isolation. I was concerned that my probe might be vulnerable so I isolated that one input,
all the rest I had no need so didn't bother, no problem. Relays and 0-10V outputs are no big deal, a handful of components at best.

No doubt the MB3 from CNCRoom or the Technics equivalent will be fine but they are approx. $180 or 200 Euro respectively.
Neither were available at the time I was building my machine but doubt I would have spent the extra even if they had been.

Craig

1728

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Breakout board choices with smooth stepper

« on: February 03, 2020, 07:03:31 AM »

Hi,
the MB02 IS VERY DIFFERENT to the MB03, they are not even by the same manufacturer.

What you need to do is decide whether you want one/two/three single port MB02's or C10's and customize to suit your
machine or go with an MB03 (or Technics equivalent) which is a fully developed three port board.

C10's are $23USD each, they are hard to beat at that price even with import tax and shipping.

Craig

1729

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: XHC Pendant WHB04B-4

« on: February 03, 2020, 06:11:53 AM »

Hi,

The X and Y axis are run by professional Yaskawa servo+motor kit, so when a certain amount of steps are given to the servo, it is sure it will do that amount of steps...

It sounds like you have confidence that the servos are doing as they should, an I tend to agree for the following reason, IF the servos were losing
steps then they would fault 'following error' long before they got 7mm out from the commanded position; UNLESS you have programmed a ridiculous
'following error window', and surely you have not done that??

That would tend to suggest that either the pendant or the motion control board is losing steps. My money is on the motion controller.

Have you got any suggestions to give on software/parameter setup check-up before I go chang the hardware?

I've got no idea about XHC plugin parameters, XHC is shhitte and so I've never bothered with them.

Craig

1730

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Breakout board choices with smooth stepper

« on: February 02, 2020, 10:30:06 PM »

Hi,
I use an ESS and two MB02 BoBs from Homann Designs in Australia.

Just to be clear the MB02 from Peter Homann IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED with the MB3 from CNCRoom.
Its unfortunate that their part numbers are so similar, it's bound to create confusion.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to Bobs with an ESS.

The first school is to use a very simple bi-directional board like the C10 or MB02. Such boards have one input port,
and for our discussion the port is identical to Machs parallel port, and can be configured with pins 2-9 as inputs OR
outputs.

With my two boards I have one set for pins 2-9 as outputs allowing plenty of outputs for motor drivers, but the second
board I have pins 2-9 set for inputs. This means I've got swags of inputs for limits, homes and probes.

The downside of such simple boards as the C10 or MB02 is that there are no opto-isolated inputs, nor are there any relay
outputs nor a PWM to analogue output. Electronics is my thing and if I need an isolated input I will make it and add it to
my MB02, likewise if I need a relay output I will arrange the output to drive a relay, often through an intermediary transistor.
Such small additions are fine if you are electronically minded but may not be to your liking.

Using C10's or MB02's offers the greatest flexibility, you can decide which boards a dedicated to inputs and which to outputs and as you
are making the translation electronics you can decide whether you want single ended or differential outputs say, and whether inputs should
be 24V tolerant for example.

The other school of thought goes that the BoB should be configured to your needs as is. The MB3 from CNCRoom is a good example.
The board has three ports and is matched to the ESS. It has a balance of inputs and outputs, some differential, most inputs are opto-isolated
and 24V tolerant. It has two relay outputs and a PWM output for a spindle. In short the MB03 should just about fill any requirement.
The cost of the board is about $180USD. The only downside, in my opinion, is that you are now bound to use the configuration determined
by the manufacturer and I rue the loss of choice, having said that many users are more than happy with the manufacturers choice.

Craig