Messages

221

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 29, 2015, 02:30:04 PM »

Hello,

Hmmm, try checking your soft limits to see if you have configured them correctly, or if you currently have them enabled.

Limit switches will always disarm the system regardless of what kind of motion is being performed, or even if the machine is idle. Because MPG jogging works, then it may be something different.

As a side note, the only exceptions where limit switches are ignored are as follows:
1. When a limit switch is also configured as a home switch and the machine is homing.
2. "Limit override" is enabled in Mach.

If the soft limits don't work, then please post, in exact words, the error that you were given.

-Marc
Vital System Inc.

222

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 29, 2015, 01:08:11 PM »

Hello,

I'm having a little trouble understanding your description. What do you mean by it blowing by the limit sensor? Do you mean that the axis triggers the limit sensor when it shouldn't?


-Marc
Vital System Inc.

223

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 28, 2015, 05:22:13 PM »

Hello Steve,

Hmmmm, perhaps you need to take a look at the axis counts per unit in the the motor tuning config and verify if the value is accurate. You may also have some working offsets?

-Marc
Vital System Inc.

224

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 28, 2015, 05:10:30 PM »

No problem. But 100ms is a little too high for a debounce value (and this debounce affects all digital inputs). At this value, the inputs could be a bit unresponsive.

Our engineer recommended a maximum value of 50ms for the sensor debounce value. Another thing he recommended is to make sure that the power supply negative (0V/GND) have a proper connection to the earth ground in order to reduce the occurrence of electrical noise.

-Marc
Vital System Inc.  

225

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 28, 2015, 02:31:25 PM »

Hello,

What is your homing speed % set to? Maybe this value is too high? We typically use somewhere around 5-10%. Slower speeds produce more precise results.

If that still doesn't work, then try temporarily setting the debounce to a higher value like 200 to see if it makes a noticeable change in the behavior, in which case you may have to resolve the noise issue.

Let me know what happens.

-Marc
Vital System Inc.

226

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 28, 2015, 12:12:58 PM »

Hello,

What did you configure for the Z homing in the plugin config?

If the Axis is set to use a "Home Sensor", then it should back off the home switch to the point where it gets deactivated. Perhaps the Homing setting was set to "Use Index Pulse Only"?

There is also the off chance that the sensor may be experiencing some noise which causes the Motion Controller to read the signal as deactivated when it shouldn't be. You can try going to "Config->General Config". On this window, look to the upper right corner for the "Debounce Interval" setting and set this to something like 10-50 (this value is in milliseconds even though the window says "x40 us"). This setting controls the debounce for the digital inputs in order to filter out some noise.

-Marc
Vital System Inc.

227

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: limit switch setup on the mach3 using a hicon integra controller

« on: September 28, 2015, 11:53:22 AM »

Hello,

You can set up the limit switches by going to "config->Ports and Pins->Inputs". On the inputs tab of the ports and pins config, it lists a variety of input signals for Mach3. The axis limit switches are among them.

The spindle setup can be found on page 16 of the HiCON Mach3 software  integration manual.

-Marc
Vital System Inc.

228

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Estop Button Pressed Error

« on: September 18, 2015, 02:03:22 PM »

Hello,

Ok, so I ran the test using the files on the web and I did see the same thing during probing. So I tried the test with some newer files and the probing worked fine. Also tried some other test GCodes just to make sure that these versions worked fine.

Send an email to support@vitalsystem.com and I'll reply with these newer files so you can test them and see if the problem goes away. We typically don't update the Mach3 files on the web (especially the firmware) since we're not 100% sure that all the newer features that we're adding for Mach4 will play nice as far as Mach3 compatibility goes. But if it works out well for you, we can consider uploading them.


-Marc
Vital System Inc.

229

dspMC/IP Motion Controller / Re: Estop Button Pressed Error

« on: September 17, 2015, 12:51:55 PM »

Hello,

In this step of your test:

I execute a G31 command and detect the probe. An emergency stop occurs and Mach 3 posts the message 'ERROR: Following error limit exceeded on Axis 0. Servo disarmed'
I hit the reset button.

Maybe your digitize signal and EStop signal are mapped to the same input? Does this behavior only happen with G31?

Also, what other plugins do you have loaded?

-Marc
Vital System Inc.

230

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: Significant Problem - Mach4 freeze on M codes

« on: September 14, 2015, 02:03:28 PM »

Hello,

Haven't checked the release notes, but 2686 does prevent the GCode processor from getting stuck.

I'm not 100% certain that your issue is the same as what I'm fixing, but the symptoms sounded similar. The thing with the "M5" in the example that I posted was that it was implementing custom functionality (which called a motion sync) for THC control where the problem was most prominent. The problem applied to any time a motion sync was called in the middle of a GCode file. It's hard to pinpoint where this could happen unless I run your files with some debugging information from Mach and our plugin.

Oh, and about re-running the GCode File, have you tried M99? M30 is used to rewind the file to the start, but doesn't run until the Cycle Start button is clicked. M99, on the other hand, re-runs the GCode file from the start for continuous execution.


-Marc
Vital System Inc.