Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle speed not accepted

« on: March 15, 2015, 11:30:50 AM »

Found the problem earlier today.
The macro file spindlespeed.m1s was empty. Don't ask how that happened...

After adding

Code: [Select]

Dim rpm As Double
rpm = GetRPM()
SetSpinSpeed( rpm )to it, everything seems to be working fine!

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle speed not accepted

« on: March 14, 2015, 04:14:30 AM »

Could this be related ?
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,28916.0.html

That could definitely be the solution! I really put some effort in searching the forum but managed to miss that one.
I'll try that out and report back

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle speed not accepted

« on: March 13, 2015, 07:39:32 PM »

I have an oscilloscope and recall I verified the output frequency a year ago. The project then halted for a while because I had other priorities. Can check again...

Nothing is impossible, but I seriously doubt there is a problem there. When starting the spindle it ramps perfectly from zero to top speed (the ramp is set in Mach3, not in the spindle drive) - which indicates that the frequency to voltage conversion runs fine.

Changing parameters could work. Maybe a certain combination of parameters will trig some kind of bug. I used an older ESS plugin until yesterday also. Don't remember the exact version but I believe I downloaded it somewhere around 12-18 months ago.

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle speed not accepted

« on: March 13, 2015, 07:24:46 PM »

Hi

I honestly do not think the cnc4pc board is the problem here.
It works alright as long as a pulse train with the right frequency is fed to it. The C23 board would not know any difference between executing an S instruction (not working) or altering the spindle speed by changing the override (works). This must be a bug/fault/misconfiguration in either Mach3, the ESS plugin or the ESS firmware.

I used an older version until yesterday. Unfortunately I do not remember the exact version though...

5

General Mach Discussion / Spindle speed not accepted

« on: March 13, 2015, 03:49:15 PM »

Hi

I have just started converting my Dyna Mechatronics 4400 to Mach3 (I will go with Mach4 later on when it has matured a bit).
I have a problem with the spindle speed.

My Setup
* Mach3 R3.043.066
* Ethernet Smoothstepper (ESS_v10h2d1a.dll)
* Windows XP Pro SP3 x86
* CNC4PC C23 breakout board. Using onboard analog output controlled through step pin (port 1 pin 14)

If I enter a speed in the Spindle Speed field and press Spindle CW F5 the spindle starts at correct speed. Also, when I press the spindle override buttons, the spindle speed changes.
So far, so good.

Description of problem
If I enter S1000M3 in MDI mode, the spindle starts, but at the wrong speed. The entered speed (1000) appears in the Spindle Speed field, but wrong speed.
If I change Spindle Speed Override just by one click, the speed changes and ends up correct.

The same thing happens if I run a program in auto, i.e. the spindle speed does not get correct until I increase/decrease override.





I have no idea if this problem is relate to Mach3 or the ESS, so I will post this into both forums. Has anyone else experienced this? May there be something wrong with the configuration?

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Step/dir + ESS spindle acceleration/deceleration

« on: July 23, 2013, 05:31:59 PM »

So...
After even more tests I have found out that it is impossible to set low enough acceleration values in the "Motor tuning" dialog. If I set a really low value, it will be changed to a much higher one as soon as I focus on another textbox or click Save.

The only way to get it working is to edit the XML file manually. There I can enter any value I want, and get the spindle to accelerate from 0 to 5000rpm in about 5 secs. Actually, as I mentioned, the acceleration is not a problem but I need long enough deceleration not to cause overvoltage in the driver. Since there are no separate settings for acceleration/deceleration the acceleration will be a lot longer than necessary. Not a big deal...

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Step/dir + ESS spindle acceleration/deceleration

« on: July 21, 2013, 04:07:08 PM »

I just found some new info about setting up Mach 3 + ESS for step/dir spindle control.
I thought up til now that the settings under "motor tuning" had no impact on speed/acceleration when using the ESS, but apparently they do.

The notes I have made now are:
Motor tuning
Velocity: 60
Steps per (max step frequency): As high as possible. For example 25kHz
Acceleration: As required

ESS Config
Check step/dir mode
Set pulse length to 1/"steps per" (40 us for 25kHz)

Maybe this will work. I do not remember what values I have been using but I think they are not even close to these. With the values I used before, I could not get a relatively low acceleration/deceleration because I could not set the "Acceleration" parameter under motor tuning low enough.

8

General Mach Discussion / Step/dir + ESS spindle acceleration/deceleration

« on: July 21, 2013, 03:06:54 PM »

Hi

The DC servo driver for my spindle motor does not not have configurable acceleration/deceleration ramp. I guess the original CNC system of my machine took care of the ramping.

I am now converting to Mach3 + Ethernet Smoothstepper + cnc4pc C23 breakout board. The analog out is configured as step/dir (as needed for the C23) in the ESS config. When starting/stopping the spindle, the level of the analog out is changed instantly causing the driver to try to accelerate/deceperate the spindle almost infinitely fast. When stopping the spindle (or decreasing the speed a lot), this fast deceleration causes the driver to trip due to overvoltage (the spindle motor now "produces" current instead of "drawing").

I have tried to slow down the acceleration by adding a 2nd order low pass filter between the analog out of the C23 board and the analog in on the driver, and this would probably work if I fiddle enough with the values. A better solution though, would be if I could just set a suitable accceleration/deceleration (preferably in rpm/s) in Mach3.

There is another solution, and that would be to simply disable the spindle driver letting the spindle coast to a stop when a "spindle off" command is issued. I don't really like this solution, and I would still have problems with overvoltage when decreasing from high speed to low speed without stopping the spindle.

I have looked everywhere in Mach3 but can not find any setting for this. Is there any way of achieving this, or should I maybe place a request for the next update of Mach3?

I'm running Mach3 v 3.043.062.