Messages

1381

Galil / Re: Spindle Control Through Galil Digital Output

« on: December 23, 2010, 03:11:52 PM »

Map Mach Output #1 to a Galil output in Ports and Pins "Output Signals".  Do the same for Mach Output #2 to another Galil output.  The Port and Pin settings are in the Galil Plugin documentation.  Then, on the Ports and Pins "Spindle" tab, enable your spindle relays.  Clockwise is output #1 and counter clockwise is output #2.

Since you have a 2 axis controller, you will not be able to control the speed of your spindle from the Galil.  That would require another axis, so your encoder wont do you much good here. 

Steve

1382

Galil / Re: Need Help with Galil Setup on DMC-1842

« on: December 23, 2010, 03:02:44 PM »

All of what you need to do is done in Mach.  These questions apply to setting up any motion device for Mach whether it be Galil or the Printer port, etc...

ANSWER 1. 

You need to enable the motors in Config->Ports and Pins.  Click on the motor outputs tab and enable all of your axis motors (x, y, z and a for your slaved axis). 
Now you will be able to input the counts per unit in the motor tuning dialog.

ANSWER 2.

Config->Slave Axis.  Then for the X axis, choose the A radio button.  Restart Mach.

1383

Galil / Re: Galil to Mach

« on: December 23, 2010, 02:52:39 PM »

Enable debug output in the plugin confguration and run a program.  Then take a look at the GalilDebug.txt file.  If there are a bunch of '?' characters in the file, then the firmware is probably the problem. 

You can download the firmware from the Galil website and then upload the new firmware from the Smart Term program.

Steve

1384

Galil / Re: X,W home problems

« on: December 20, 2010, 06:13:12 PM »

Dave,

PM me your email address.  I send you a plugin to try out.

Steve

1385

Galil / Re: Another gantry mode limit switch question

« on: December 16, 2010, 12:17:52 AM »

I would suspect that Mach treats the gantry axes as one axis.  Thus when the limit is tripped, Mach does the same for the slaved axis.

Homing...  It's supposed to home both gantry axes at the same time because they are geared together with GR (operating on the master axis switches).  Then, if axis squaring is checked in the config, it will decouple the axes and home the slaved axis to it's switches and then recouple the axes.  This second op should not move the axis very much.  Just enough to square the gantry.  In theory, that's how it should work.  But I have no way of testing it because I don't have a gantry machine.

Steve

1386

Galil / Re: Multi-pull Galil controllers

« on: December 14, 2010, 01:15:08 AM »

Using two Galil controllers to gain axes is not possible.  

Also, you will need to use USB for the connection instead of Serial.

Steve

1387

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Disabling I/O during file loading

« on: December 11, 2010, 01:27:09 AM »

Mach is generating the tool path at this point, so it's not a true simulation.  MainPlanner->PathGenerate is set to true when the gcode file is loading.  Stick this in your update loop to keep your plugin quiet while loading a file:

Code: [Select]

if (MainPlanner->PathGenerate) {
return;
}


1388

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Communicate RS232 port

« on: December 11, 2010, 12:42:28 AM »

I would use the Windows API to do the serial port duties.  Have a look at CreateFile(), WriteFile(), ReadFile(), and DeviceIoControl();

CreateFile uses the NT namespace to open a device.  "\\.\COM1" would operate on COM1, etc...  Remember that the backslash is an escape character in C/C++, so in the code, the device path would be "\\\\.\\COM1"

Steve

1389

Contec / Re: Which Contec cards work with the plugin and which don't

« on: November 21, 2010, 11:59:23 PM »

Any of the PIO(PCI) series cards should work.  Oly the PIO-16/16T(PCI)H has been tested.

Basically, here are the list of likely candidates:

16 input / 16 output
PIO-16/16T(PCI)H - TTL (5v input/open collector output to 30v)
PIO-16/16L(PCI)H - Low voltage (12v - 24v input/output)
PIO-16/16H(PCI)H - High voltage (24v - 48v input/output)

32 input / 32 output
PIO-16/16T(PCI)H - TTL (5v input/open collector output to 30v)
PIO-16/16L(PCI)H - Low voltage (12v - 24v input/output)
PIO-16/16H(PCI)H - High voltage (24v - 48v input/output)

The "bi-directional" cards are not supported by the PIO plugin.

Steve

1390

Galil / Re: Mach with galil reliability

« on: November 19, 2010, 02:12:28 AM »

I would say that the only reason you would ever see a run away axis with Mach/Galil is if you had an encoder failure.  And if you set OE (Off on Error), the Galil would stop even that in short order.