Messages

2281

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C11 plugin for Mach3

« on: July 12, 2019, 07:10:48 PM »

Hi,

But I understand the 'Plugin' is also available for MAch3 ?

Yes, that is correct. The ESS can be used with either Mach3 OR Mach4. When the ESS was developed there was no
Mach4 so the Mach3 plugin is fully developed.

In recent years Warp9 have concentrated on Mach4. Its Mach4 plugin is even more complete that the Mach3 plugin which
preceeded it. It has Laser Rastering/Vectoring, spindle PID (with Ki and Kd terms that the Mach3 PID lack), and
most recently a very comprehensive THC feature, exceeding the THC function of Mach3.

The guess is that Warp9 consider Mach3 as a 'sunset' product and are not inclined to invest in extensive Mach3 plugin
development. To whit.....we have seen a succession of 20 plus releases of the Mach4 plugin whereas in the same time frame
two or three Mach3 plugin updates.

Craig

2282

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 outputs 15hz to vfd instead of 0

« on: July 12, 2019, 06:58:05 PM »

Hi,
good AC servos and drives still command a price premium over asynchronous motors/VFDs and steppers/stepper drives.

I would commend you look at DMM and Delta if buying new. Good quality at very reasonable prices. There are even cheaper
Chinese brands, often made to look alike Delta servos, even using the same or similar part numbers. Don't be deceived.

http://www.dmm-tech.com/index.html
https://www.deltaww.com/Products/CategoryListT1.aspx?CID=060201&PID=23&hl=en-US&Name=ASDA-A2+Series

DMM is  a Canadian company and enjoy a good reputation for support. They manufacture in China and that is how they can
sell at the prices they do. If you want a spindle motor then you'll be looking at their 1kW, 1.3kW and 1.8kW models. Note these
three models have a rated speed of 1500 rpm and a maximum speed of 3000 rpm. You may well consider that 1500 rpm
will require a belt or gear reduction/increase to match spindle demands.

Delta is nominally a Taiwanese company and have been in the business of servos and VFDs for many years.
Their flagship servo models are the A3 series. They have a 24 bit multiturn encoder....very flash, but not really required
for hobby use. The A2 series I have linked to is the previous generation and is very suitable. They have 17 bit and 20 bit
encoders.....more resolution than you can shake a stick at. In the range 1kW to 2.2kW (the largest practical size for
single phase 230VAC input supply) the low inertia models can be had with rated speeds of 3000 rpm (4500 max)
and medium inertia models at 2000 rpm rated.

Just beware the some Chinese merchants have even earlier models which are by no means bad but they lack the functionality
you really want. Beware also that there are 'look a like' servos out there and despite their price you don't want them.

The other alternative is second hand. I have had a good run with my unit. I have become familiar with the Allen Bradley
range and can recommend them. For instance this is on Ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Allen-Bradley-Servo-Motor-MPL-A430P-HJ23A-Marked-A42099/113211316441?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Its 2.2kW but note the rated speed, 5000 rpm and continuous torque of 6Nm. Very Very useful as a spindle motor.
It needs to be matched with a servo drive and you can't go past the Ultra 3000 series.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Allen-Bradley-Ultra-3000-Series-C-Digital-Servo-Drive-for-Servo-Motor-Used-Good/311641997971?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

This is the DSD-020 model, really a little undersized but fairly readily available at reasonable prices.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALLEN-BRADLEY-ULTRA-3000-2098-DSD-030-DN-1PH-120-240VAC-30-PEAK-SERVO-DRIVE/223556432252?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item340d00717c:g:Ya4AAOSwkHxcRTxo&enc=AQADAAAB0KX%2FKt4E1xf3SDqEdBclaYaKy9QPwpoy5ZyVplcr3WY8dFWZDBfEaedWu%2BGcWwgfKJQ2i9CoDEZB3QU5L8a%2FsDDqzAbDB0NpXGqrbfFEsqzLHXpk%2F1pq%2Fum4mVp7NEZfYdG0zl23prr43GnIY3D4jT4jfQb0qNum0HccefoPeBwzsAhobIHwBJqmr085CnFPECQ5wdh5pTXBCz4aV3RxOPNOZ34aSMY3uYB9krMdalJBYxAv3WnqXK4wlHqCJFbpAK1Hc8P8EuIEAM6hW5YzY2tjXr7fQHVC0I2mxO4atQURW1T6657AKxix7WvaHVW9DHtzA4rz5ssWY1R2nEDrA2KiyeyJlR5gKTl38SvogtaiBXL35AEB%2BBpLjm35VF%2By8C2%2BfDAz2ABxLL0fYm0O13k6d7NpbjTk5gvGgUsG%2BtJea8TPkUva7%2FVRS3%2FTvFZ3qHlMohkQPu%2Bzo3Y2TYaUsvyKqbtI5sKaHh%2BYDI8h6MjBKSKoPHgN9A9R2kUGzVJEFoTHHym%2BpRuHSwkfDIeyaYdruSKhCZCXwnwKnsvZMkaYYnYfSWRMnQ4g%2B5RO2I1OORZxM7tn6jHa4gF5VlRF9LZamm9mdVkWx80ctVxZK32W&checksum=2235564322521774c7050596450d987ef57856c7c7e9

This is the DSD-030 model and is the biggest 230VAC single phase input servo drive I know of. Somewhat harder to find
especially at a good price but perfectly matched with 1.8kW, 2.0kW and 2.2kW MPL-A********* series servos.

As you can see you pay a very distinct premium for Allen Bradley servos even second hand. They are on the other hand very
good quality. In general European, Japanese and US made servos and controllers are very expensive. You will pay as much
and more for second hand as you will for new DMM or Delta.

As I said earlier I was lucky to find a 1.8kW Allen Bradley servo AND DSD-020 servodrive for a very good price. Maybe if you
troll Ebay you too will find a good deal.

Craig

2283

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C11 plugin for Mach3

« on: July 12, 2019, 06:10:38 PM »

Hi,
I think you have made a wise choice. Its not that the parallel port does not work but rather that an ESS is just
that much 'smoother'. Additionally when you decide to upgrade to Mach4, and I guess you will eventually to take advantage
of the increased functionality, then you just download the ESS Mach4 plugin and away you go.

The ESS is an external motion controller and will therefore relieve the PC of time critical tasks, of course all external motion
controllers do that. The upshot is that your PC, if adequate for a parallel port, is now even more than adequate for operation
with the ESS.

You might be advised to get a second breakout board, the C10 ($23.00) is a simple and economic bi-directional board.
If you exploit the bi-directional option of the second (of three) ports of the ESS then the second port pins 2-9 will be treated
as inputs. Thus the second board will give you and extra 13 inputs and 4 outputs.

You can use all those extra inputs for individual home an limit switches for instance. For many years people have combined
home and limit functions in order to reduce the number of input pins required. With an ESS and a second breakout board you don't
face that same restriction. Take advantage of it.

Craig

2284

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 outputs 15hz to vfd instead of 0

« on: July 12, 2019, 06:29:23 AM »

Hi,
I made a miniature bed mill. I fitted a 750w German made 1 pole pair asynchronous spindle motor and 400Hz VFD
for 24000 rpm. In my naivety I thought it would cut steel. It can cut steel but only with really small tools, less than 3mm,
and very light cuts with coolant. Its tediously slow.

Asynchronous spindles tend to have low torque and especially so at low rpm. I'm happy with my spindle, it does all the PCB
stuff that I want and it will do aluminum , brass, bronze etc with smallish tools, say less than 6mm, with coolant at 12000 rpm
or so. What I wanted was to be able to spin 16mm tools in steel. That requires much lower rpm and much higher torque.

I ended up buying a second hand 1.8kW (4 pole pair, 3500 rpm) Allen Bradley AC servo and matching drive. I got lucky and
was able to buy off the New Zealand auction site and got for  $900NZD ($630USD) delivered. I still had to get the cables
(specialized) and I bought the set up software so all up I paid about $1000USD for it. I matched that with a Swiss made
Rego-Fix ER toolholder and NSK P4 angular contact bearings and made my own spindle. Its great, it has 6.2 Nm continuous
and about 18Nm overload. It chews up steel and stainless like its going out of fashion.

This was my first real experience with modern AC servos....they are just that far advanced over any other motor.
You can run them with analogue voltage much like a VFD, called velocity mode. You can also run in torque mode so that
the motor produces a torque proportional to the analogue voltage applied irrespective of motor speed. I imagine that
would be real handy in printing equipment or conveyor type applications.

If you want tight control you run in position mode. The controller produces step/direction pulses and the servo and drive
can achieve VERY TIGHT and ACCURATE position control far exceeding any stepper in terms of accuracy and overload.
You can also use this mode to drive a spindle in free running mode which produces EXCEPTIONALLY TIGHT LINEAR speed
(and position control to the order of 2 arc min) control. Rigid tapping is possible.

I highly recommend you get yourself a modern AC servo, even just to experiment with. I know you will find as I did
that the control options, flexibility, torque density will blow your mind. You'll never buy another stepper ever again!

Craig

2285

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: touch probe function question

« on: July 12, 2019, 04:12:13 AM »

Hi,
under the Diagnostic Tab select Logging from the drop down menu.

You can Pin-to-Top the logging window and start logging. You can save it should you need to communicate with NFS say about
what Mach is doing.

With a bit of interpretation and some judicious questions on the forum its possible to deduce much of whats going on,
all very instructive.

Craig

2286

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 outputs 15hz to vfd instead of 0

« on: July 12, 2019, 04:01:41 AM »

Hi,
while its not perfect it is about what I would expect.

PWM is quite hard to achieve if you must also have perfect 0% modulation simultaneously with perfect 100% and linearity.

If your demands are that stringent then you should consider a step/direction servo and matching servo drive as a spindle.

Craig

2287

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC4PC C11 plugin for Mach3

« on: July 11, 2019, 02:59:47 PM »

Hi,
I think Tweakie will confirm that you can do this with Machs parallel port. To use the parallel port you MUST have a PC
with Windows 7 32 bit or earlier. Any later version of Windows or any 64 bit OS and the parallel port is a DEAD DUCK.

You have a very comprehensive set of instructions predicated on the use of an ESS......if you want to be able to use those instructions
the you'll need an ESS.

Craig

2288

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 outputs 15hz to vfd instead of 0

« on: July 11, 2019, 02:54:07 PM »

Hi,
the most likely explanation is that Mach3 or your BoB doesn't quite go all the way to 0V.
With a multimeter measure the 0-10V signal and confirm the range it actually achieves, especially the bottom end.

Note that is  not correct to stop the spindle in Mach  just by specifying zero speed (S0.00). You should use M5 because
this opens the ON/OFF relay. If you rely on S0.00 any noise or linearity fault could cause the spindle to turn unexpectedly
because the relay is still ON. This could have injurious consequences if you were doing a manual tool change.

Craig

2289

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: touch probe function question

« on: July 11, 2019, 02:33:41 PM »

Hi,
the first thing Support is going to do is to ask for a logfile so they can track Mach......have you generated and/or viewed a logfile?

Craig

2290

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Circle G-Code issue

« on: July 11, 2019, 02:29:43 PM »

Hi,
look at the description of g2/g3

Craig