Messages

4061

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 set up for clearpath motors and c62 BOB with Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: July 11, 2018, 05:47:30 PM »

Hi,
yes they are not bad but they have already assigned inputs and outputs in a particular
fashion...that means OP is back to having to follow one manufacturers design ideas
whether he wants to or not. Neither are they cheap.

Three C10s for under $75.00.....vs $150 for the MB2.

Craig

4062

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 set up for clearpath motors and c62 BOB with Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: July 11, 2018, 03:13:46 PM »

Hi,

Have you read the manual for the C34CP DRIVER CLEARPATH BOARD Rev. 1.

No, I haven't, I didn't know it existed, do you have one?

I think I can reasonably promise that if you had a couple of simple C10s you could get your machine running. No doubt the extra circuitry
of the C62 could be used to advantage but only if you follow the manufacturers/designers solution. As soon as you depart from that scheme
you are in trouble. By all means follow the manufacturer if you wish OR get some C10s and do it yourself.

Craig

4063

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 set up for clearpath motors and c62 BOB with Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: July 11, 2018, 03:07:45 PM »

Hi,
yes.

The only real let down with the C62 is not being able to hook wires to it conveniently. I see also that the manufacturer has published a set-up file
for the C62, but that would assume that the motors are hooked to it not another board. To be honest once you depart even slightly from the
manufacturers intentions their set up file becomes irrelevant and may engender MORE confusion of the operator rather than prevent it!

For the sake of simplicity I would recommend two (or three) C10s. Trying to retain the C62 is likely to cause you more confusion and remember
you will now have to set the ESS plugin up, the less confusion you suffer the better! The good news is that once you have set it up, and its not
rocket science, you will be confident and be secure in the knowledge that you can modify your basic setup in any way that you need. Very satisfying.

Craig

4064

Tangent Corner / Re: Always check the deals.

« on: July 11, 2018, 02:31:24 PM »

Hi  Tweakie,

Obviously I am getting old but wtf is going on with fair and honest trading and advertising these days ?

I'm getting old too, and increasingly cynical....was there ever a time of honest trading and advertising?

Craig

4065

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 set up for clearpath motors and c62 BOB with Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: July 11, 2018, 02:23:21 PM »

Hi,
the C62 is perfectly fine, it just that you can't plug your motors in, you'll have to cut the plugs off and probably solder direct to the board.

The C10's are very simple boards. With screw terminals they are flexible. Note that it has no relays or other circuitry for a spindle, you will
have to make that stuff or add it. If you do get some get at least two, that will match the C62 as far as IO, but better get three. Then you can
have all three of the ESS port in action.

Craig

4066

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 problems when moving.

« on: July 11, 2018, 02:08:35 PM »

Hi,
if you choose to ignore a suggestion that is of course your choice. Maybe someone else will have another idea, unless you ignore them to.

Mach4 should change the settings for the machine, and not change the machine for Mach4.

Good luck and goodbye.

Craig

4067

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 problems when moving.

« on: July 11, 2018, 02:47:14 AM »

Hi,
the picture in your previous post was a part cut by your machine? If it was then the velocity and acceleration in Machs  motor tuning must be adequate.
If the servos were not fast enough or powerful enough to at least equal the acceleration and velocity settings in Mach your machine would
fault 'following' error and fail to cut accurately.

Clearly your servos are at least big enough and powerful enough to meet Machs demands, except at <CycleStop>.

Lets say you put some really big powerful servos  on your machine that could exceed Machs acceleration and velocity settings. The precision of the cut is still
determined by the acceleration and velocity settings in Mach so the extra big servos haven't improved the precision of cutting but might have enough power
to stop really quickly at <CycleStop>.

I am of the opinion that your servos are big enough that even if you detuned them a bit they would still comfortably exceed Machs acceleration and velocity settings
but be a little less aggressive when decelerating at <CycleStop>. In short you have tuned your servos to be more aggressive than they have to be.

This is my suggestion, 'try detuning your servos a bit so they are still at least as good as the current acceleration and velocity settings in Machs motor tuning'.
I'm hoping that by detuning a bit that you retain the current level of precision BUT REDUCE the tendency to fault.

You don't have to buy anything, just try a slighty less aggressive tuning, if it doesn't work put it back, no harm done.

Craig

4068

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 set up for clearpath motors and c62 BOB with Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: July 10, 2018, 02:34:47 PM »

Hi,
the C62 has two ports so you should have plenty of inputs and outputs. Shame that those connectors differ from your requirements.

Do you actually have the BoB? If not I would consider the C10 instead, it has screw terminals which will be very much more convenient for you.
Note that you would need two of them but the good news is that two C10's ($23.00 each) are still way way cheaper than one C62.

Craig

4069

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 set up for clearpath motors and c62 BOB with Ethernet SmoothStepper

« on: July 10, 2018, 02:19:08 PM »

Hi,
the Clearpath plugs are not compatible with your BoB.

The servo requires three inputs; step, direction and enable and produces one output; HLFB.
Your BoB has two outputs only; step and direction and one input; Err/Res.

You need to decide whether you are going to have one dedicated Enable per servo or one Enable that covers all of them.
Next you need to decide how you are going to handle HLFB. You could combine them so each or any servo causes a fault or you could
have one fault line per servo. This last alternative would be my recommendation. You will also have to decide if you want a servo fault
to cause an Estop.

Depending on what choices you make may well mean you require additional inputs, in which case you may need another C10 BoB to equip
another ESS port.

Craig

4070

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 problems when moving.

« on: July 10, 2018, 10:18:42 AM »

Hi,
already the acceleration that the servo is capable of is MORE than what you have set as max acceleration in Machs tuning page.

I'm sure that the PID settings in the servo drive should be as high as possible, so that you can accurately perform the task of the match

Yes and I see that you've done that but then in Machs tuning you must have limited it or it would fault under acceleration as well as deceleration.

From:

Software Manual
Of the ACS306, ACS606 V2.0 & ACS806 V2.0

Page 12 / 34 The Error Trace window will give you which of the conditions is causing the fault. You can probably cure 1) and 3), but I don't think you can
cure 2)

Craig