Messages

81

Galil / Re: Position or torque mode?

« on: December 29, 2010, 12:58:27 PM »

I don't have any video, but we use Galil and Mach for everything from sign carving to lathe turning. You should have no trouble at all with rapid Z moves.
Kenny

82

Galil / Re: Position or torque mode?

« on: December 29, 2010, 12:06:18 PM »

I use the Galil with Yaskawa drives in torque mode. Just need to tune it well.
Kenny

83

Galil / Re: Galil 40x0 issues:

« on: December 29, 2010, 09:28:52 AM »

I can answer some of your questions.
Not sure about the VT vs IT, will look into it.
Any and all burnt settings may be overwritten by Mach as they are arrived at.
Your best choice for the B motor is to rewire it so that the direction reverses.

Servo motor run-away or direction reversal methods.
When the polarity of the encoder feedback is wrong, the motor will attempt to run away. The
controller should disable the motor when the position error exceeds the preset following error. If the
motor runs away, the polarity of the loop must be inverted.

Inverting the Loop Polarity:
When the polarity of the feedback is incorrect, the user must invert the loop polarity and this may be accomplished
by several methods. If you are driving a brush-type DC motor, the simplest way is to invert the two motor wires
(typically red and black). For example, switch the M1 and M2 connections going from your amplifier to the motor.
When driving a brushless motor, the polarity reversal may be done with the encoder. If you are using a single-ended
encoder, interchange the signal CHA and CHB. If, on the other hand, you are using a differential encoder,
interchange only CHA+ and CHA-.

Sometimes the feedback polarity is correct (the motor does not attempt to run away) but the direction of motion is
reversed with respect to the commanded motion. If this is the case, reverse the motor leads AND the encoder
signals.


Kenny

84

Galil / Re: Home switch set up

« on: December 28, 2010, 08:02:12 AM »

Shivu,
Have you mapped the switches on the ports and pins screen according to the instructions in the Galil.PDF document? If so, do the switches show up correctly on the diagnostic screen? Also make sure that there are no other identically mapped ports or pins elsewhere as they will conflict. You may have the switch state wrong in Mach. The Mach homing routine is completely different from what you use in Smartterm. Check the debug file for any errors or "?" returns from the Galil board.
Kenny

85

Galil / Re: Pin Numbers for the AUX connector on 2040

« on: December 27, 2010, 08:01:23 PM »

The mapping of extended i/o is explained in the PDF file on the Mach plugins Galil web page.
Kenny

86

Galil / Re: Pin Numbers for the AUX connector on 2040

« on: December 27, 2010, 07:42:48 PM »

The plugin doesn't need the pins enabled in Mach only that the MPG is correctly connected to the Galil. You'll need to go to the tabout screen in Mach and enable jogging and MPG mpde and setup an increment such as .005" and select the axis to move. Use Smartterm to make sure that the encoder is hooked up properly.
Cheers,
Kenny

87

Galil / Re: Galil Softlimits Jog

« on: November 19, 2010, 07:55:16 AM »

Just want to note that the plugin overwrites any MT and CE settings that you burn in to the Galil. It was the switch to axis reversed in the plugin that apparently fixed the trouble.

Kenny

88

Galil / Re: Mach with galil reliability

« on: November 18, 2010, 09:14:41 AM »

Dave,
The Galil gets a "LI" with the new positions every 16ms. That is how more than two axes are interpolated at a time. This is true even for circles which are a collection of very short lines strung together. This is also why fast communication between Mach and Galil is important. The newer 40XX series controls also have a different method available, but Mach still sends the new position data every 16ms. Try it, and look at the galildebug file that is created by the plugin to see how the communication takes place and the commands that are send to the Galil.
Cheers,
Kenny

89

Galil / Re: Galil Softlimits Jog

« on: November 18, 2010, 08:13:23 AM »

Albert,
I only see this trouble if I'm jogging before homing the machine. In that case, the Galil's soft limits won't be initialized and may halt motion in one direction prematurely. Following a home to home or limit switches, everything works well again.
Kenny

90

Galil / Re: Mach with galil reliability

« on: November 18, 2010, 08:07:40 AM »

Dave,
The Galil plugin is NOT a gcode to Galil code converter! The plugin uses Mach3 as the profiler and NOT Galil's profile generator. That being said, the combination has been working fine for about two years now. Your results as always depend on the quality of your installation. The Galil can't make up for bad grounding or incorrectly installed (unshielded) hardware.
Kenny