If you are using a stepper driver to power the magnet then you will be striking the work on the release stroke so the return spring pressure will also figure in the equation.

I am using a stepper driver but my electromagnet is a push-type not a pull-type. But from what you're saying, will I still be firing backwards? Seems like it would be moving in the down-stroke toward the material when the pulse is given.

I'm headed to the shop (finally) to wire this bad boy up using the information at hand.

Hopefully it will be smooth enough to at least get the magnet moving, then I can start to tweak on it a bit.

Will report back.

Well, I'm using the second parallel port, pins 8 & 9 and am having no issues getting the 5 VDC showing when plugged directly into the DB25.
However, when I run it through the cnc4pc C10 card and out, then check the voltage, I get a -2.7 volts!?

I've loaded a couple different images and can see the voltage change when straight out of the pp so I think that would work and forego the C10 all together, but I'd really like to use the C10 to get the extra inputs, etc. (That's the reason for buying it).

I went ahead and connected to the TB6560 3A Driver Board just to see if the small voltage changes were enough to get the electromagnet moving.
No joy unless I have the board set for 1.9 amps, then the rod just stays extended, i.e., activated.  I reconfigured the TB6560 3A Driver Board's switches, backing it down to 1.6 amps (rod stays in) and have begun various iterations with the other switches. After a couple of hours of trial & error, it still doesn't respond.

Gonna try with the C10 tomorrow. For those of you that do have the C10, I will say that I have the 2-9 outputs common set to 5vdc as recommended by their literature. That's the only way I was seeing any changes in voltage. If I have it set to GND, I see nothing.

Anyway, wasn't sure if I needed to go to another thread.

Hi Vogavt,

Thanks for reporting back on you progress with this. Interesting about the -2.7 volts output from the C10 - I have absolutely no idea what is going on there.

I think it is just fine to continue using this thread for the discussion.



Just some basic notes regarding driving an electromagnet from a stepper driver which may help others that follow to grasp the principle being discussed here...

1) If an appropriate a.c. voltage is applied to an electromagnet it will be energized.

2) If the frequency of that a.c. voltage is progressively increased there will come a point when the magnet is no longer energized - it will drop-out or stall (in exactly the  same manner as a stepper motor stalls). This principle was used by Andrea to drive his magnet and initially paved the way for us all to follow.

3) The set-up is arranged so that the work is only impacted when the magnet stalls.

4) In operation the plugin scans an image and outputs a series of short (40mS) pulses, the repetition rate or frequency of these pulses varies in proportion with the individual pixel value of the image being processed. The greater the repetition rate the more often the magnet stalls and the more it impacts the work.


Hope this helps,

Tweakie.

Took the C10 out of the loop and confirmed the 5vdc on the secondary PP using pin 8 and port 2 and pin 18 port 2. I then connected them to stepper driver, and after changing some active high-low settings I got the reading to 0 volts. My thinking is it should start at 0 and see an increase in the voltage as the demands from the plugin are needed. However, I'm seeing negative numbers again when the X & Y move as the scanning starts. I would have thought the voltage would be in the positive direction.

Just to be clear, I'm not getting any movement still, even after attempting several different dip switches.

I may be close but not sure what kind of numbers I should be expecting.

It could be either too much mass in the solenoid I'm using, but not sure.

I'm putting my xml file so someone can look at it to see what I may have configured incorrectly.

Any help would be appreciated.

Working!

The most important piece of advice first: I can say that having some rest and looking at this with a fresh set of eyes does wonders.

I have found that proper wiring configuration is critical! LOL!

I can also say that using a higher strength electromagnet as I started with would not move due to the voltage differences I was seeing.

So I'd purchased an irrigation sprinkler replacement solenoid which has a smaller electromagnet and I finally began to see some movement. However, since this is a pull type solenoid, I may have to drill out the metal stop at the top and invert the thing plus fabricate another rod on my lathe to actually have a push pin sticking out that I can connect tip to.

I purchase a pin vise locally which I plan to couple up to the new rod. It has a collet on the end which will facilitate changing the tip when needed.
It has four different hole sizes so it can take any size tip from 0" to 0.125".

But all this was only after making changes to the ports & pins too so don't bother looking at the Impact-Vogavt.xml. It's definitely no longer valid.

Perseverance paid off.

I'll post photos at a later date.

Thanks for the input!


Now I've got to do some tweaking with the other dip switches but at least it's running as is.

I am pleased you are making good progress.

Tweakie.

As the original link seems to have disappeared, the latest version of the Impact / Laser plugin (v1.2c) can be downloaded from here;

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=12444.0;attach=41519

Tweakie.

Hi Tweakie,
     I have just test your plugin, everything works well except that the power of laser is weak ( I have turn up it to max using potentiometer and test without plugin OK).
Can u tell me how many can we increase the power of laser
THanks so much.

Hi Tweakie,
     I have just test your plugin, everything works well except that the power of laser is weak ( I have turn up it to max using potentiometer and test without plugin OK).
Can u tell me how many can we increase the power of laser
THanks so much.

This is something I have been working on but never seem to have had enough time to complete the constructional details of the project.
Increasing the plugin’s maximum duty cycle cannot be done from within so I have built an external, for want of a better name ‘pulse extender’ which will allow the duty cycle to be extended at any pre-selected feed-rate thereby producing an apparent increase in output power. This post relates https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12444.msg200818.html#msg200818
When I get the time to spare this project will definitely be completed but, sorry to say, it will not be soon.

Tweakie.

Thanks for ur reply
   U mean that, there is no solution for this case, so sad.
  My Laser is DIY CO2 Laser,  ratio is 1:1 ( Steps per : 32). If it's slow it's OK to me
Thanks.