Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 05, 2018, 05:05:14 PM »

I uploaded a video to Youtube

https://youtu.be/eh2Lx2pX8bU

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 setting up Limit switches

« on: December 05, 2018, 04:57:06 PM »

I just completed mine and added both homing switches and limits as I read numerous posts about keeping them separate...I have a Pokeys 57CNC board and the setup is going to be different for whatever electronics you are using. I used NPN proximity switches as I have them around here and am familiar with them.
After getting them on the machine with the P57 you have Axis+ and Axis- and Home in different areas again you will have to consult your electronics and connect.
Setup in Mach was pretty straight up  with telling Mach what and where you have them after configuring for your specific plugin which will have it's own config...P57 uses dedicated and identified pins for each and its' pretty basic...start in the Pulse Engine section for me and then in the Mach Homing/Limit tab...again in my case after setting parameters in plugin they showed up in Mach.

Throw a bit more about your setup, switches and specific issues and I am sure you can get it sorted around here.
John

23

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 05, 2018, 04:38:45 PM »

Craig I got after this again a bit here today and damn if I'm not tree stumped again...I have this ever so strange...offset I guess is the best way to describe it...I dial in the correct amount of steps to get the desired travel and then each time I go back and forth I shift ever so slightly shift in one direction...I set my test app back on a drive and bingo everything is spot on...back in Mach and 3 sheets in the wind...

i can just watch my counter in a terminal app...start at about 1~3 go 3997~4002 then cycle again I'm 18~22 and 4024~4030...just keeps sliding...

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 03, 2018, 11:23:02 AM »

Stuart they are in fact an Acme thus a trap screw but I go back to my earlier comment about these particular drives and my verification process for travel....I wrote a standalone program I could use directly off the internal encoder counter and I downloaded that into the motor itself and executed...with all my current hardware and setup I ran the program making a ~100MM circle for about 5-10 minutes with a dial indicated go-to-stop position and repeated and repeated .0002-.0004 kind of numbers and at a speed the Pokeys can't even transmit...I was actually quite surprised to say the least...totally impractical for anything other than a precision tool snapper but as an exercise to determine things like drift, backlash and general limits of functional capabilities it was nothing short of amazing...for a jerk like me anyway...

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 03, 2018, 08:25:52 AM »

2mm Pitch, 4 start = ~8mm...I ran it out with a dial indicator monitoring the counter and got 7.771mm in 0-4000 counts...just to be exact...but 8mm as factored...

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 02, 2018, 09:03:30 PM »

Greetings Craig...(Drum Roll please)...I may have it...

For clarity...for you...(I am never that lucky)....I have no complications...other than those I live with every minute...not belts or gears to further complicate the mess anyway...PIC LEAD screws and Nuts/flanges(Nearby outfit I use on other stuff....Like I said I ran through the internal motor program for a while and .0002-/+ straight off dovetails  to and fro shocked the hell out of me...I thought there would be something...PIC-Design.com)

I kept after it after I swore I would just drink and got it going pretty well...about 10,414.********* steps in MS and I got it to 0-4998-0-4999 true counter steps...anything beyond that and it would bounce either way about 8 tics and I will mess with the .********* and see what I can do...or not......again just awesome to be able to set the drive in stand-alone mode and then over to S/D and compare dial indicator to internal steps...odd thing is when you put it in S/D mode you can't get the counter but I think I know a trick...talk to my Schneider guy tomorrow...the thing is in S/D mode you lose direct access to the encoder

Like I said I got the Wizard of Mach counting for me and after I got it figured out I had to keep updating the "what's your counter now" part I got pretty good results and eventually ended up with 14,414.*********, 227V and 20.95A and it was almost humming around like the internal program...all in all very close now...
You were right on...16X and this setup can appear to really produce some exemplary results...I will clarify tomorrow I hope.

Thanks for all the co-horting...makes all the difference in the world to us jerks that have to have it beyond sanity...just because..
J

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 02, 2018, 05:56:12 PM »

OK...point taken and as promised I did some far lower MS...I also started using the tuning app wizard a bit toward the end...I got it to travel out quite well at 16X but it's still behaving rather odd...it sort of self set the Velocity at 226 and Accel 19.95 so I let that ride for the bit of testing I did...Math states 10445.456 Steps and with some tuning I last played with 10,446.6 as per the wizard' of Mach direction...funny thing is on Go To Work Zero I would always be off a thou and repeatedly the thou would accumulate...several back and forth jogs resulting in 3-4 thou off and counting...definitely better but not very good

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 01, 2018, 08:09:16 PM »

I know right but it was so much more rewarding being that much of a jerk isn't it...I mean if you can then...lol

The real magic of course is indeed the Ethernet bus and the interface you can then access and manipulate...even store, execute and run apps....it drives me right to my ever persistent frustration with control logic in general...I don't have the time to mess with them but don't even Arduino or Raspberry Pi's have IO speeds above 1mhz

One really nice thing is I could dial indicate the table and then give an absolute rotation number to the counter and measure my exact travel and very exactly 4000 counts and then -4000 back to an absolute zero and repeat which was really helpful...I then ran a program like I said to try to accumulate drift or backlash and damn was it true...like I said very neat tech....I was also very impressed with the screws.

I am a piss poor artist and always wanted to do scrimshaw...my tech my one day work...lol


Thanks Craig and you're a great well intentioned jerk...keep at it...

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 01, 2018, 07:12:14 PM »

I just had X,Y buzzing around to the table limits for a few minutes straight flat out on an internal program and then on esc back  to my dial indicator and .0002...the sound alone is music...lol...but I'll dial them back like I promised.

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Hybrid Stepper Setup in M4

« on: December 01, 2018, 06:56:40 PM »

ahhhhh...Craig you take the fun all out of "why not"...lol...I will reset them...I promise...I will rerun my test setup and go from there...but damn...

Thanks for the reality check...
J