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Author Topic: Yet another charge pump question  (Read 11045 times)

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Offline ger21

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Re: Yet another charge pump question
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2011, 07:26:14 PM »
If it was a Mach3 problem, you definitely wouldn't be the only one having it. Especially since it seems that just about everyone building routers uses a G540 and Mach3.

Have you tried the G540 .xml file on Gecko's website?

Just guessing here, but is it possible that noise is tripping the E stop? Any error messages in Mach3?

Also wondering if the parallel port isn't suspect. A lot of users have had G540 issues that were caused by a weak parallel port. Perhaps a PCI parallel port card might be worth a try. At $20, probably the cheapest test.
Gerry

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Re: Yet another charge pump question
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2011, 07:29:07 PM »
I was thinking along the same lines.  I did indeed try a different PP, same results.  I am stumped.  I do know that when I turn on the G540 box the FM radio goes to white noise, this thing generates some no small amount of RFI.  Nope, no error messages in Mach.
Re: Yet another charge pump question
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2011, 02:49:08 PM »
I spoke with Brian briefly at Cabin Fever expo... folks, there are *way* cool things coming in the new version on Mach 3, especially for the advanced users.  He expressed interest in looking into the charge pump race condition he described.

Look for parallel port support to eventually go away, it is just too hard to do in the Win 7 64 bit world.  External motion controllers are the way forward, smoothstepper being one example of this.  He spoke of a low cost ethernet connected external motion controller, circa $30, as being a promising desired external motion controller soloution.  The existing PP driver that we all know and love was two man-years in development, and would require a similar level of effort to develop a 64 bit PP driver.  OK, so say they do that... but the general trend was to depreciate PP interfaces on PC's so they payback is not likely to be there from Artsoft's perspective, which makes sense.
Re: Yet another charge pump question
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2011, 10:54:21 PM »
I've recently setup Mach3's Charge Pump feature and do not have "charge pump on in estop" checked and get the following behavior that I want.  

Mach3 not running, no charge pump 12.5Khz output on BOB
Mach3 running, Reset flashing, no 12.5Khz output
Mach3 running, Reset clicked, solid Reset button, got 12.5Kz output on BOB
Mach3 running, Reset clicked, Reset button flashing, no 12.5Khz output on BOB
Hit eStop , Reset button flashes, no 12.5Khz output on BOB

I noticed that the Gecko G540 drive's charge pump feature expects a 10Khz input on pin 16 of the DB25 port.  Mach3 puts out a 12.5Khz Charge Pump square wave.  You might check with GeckoDrive and ask them what the frequency "slack" is on the G540.

« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 10:56:14 PM by airnocker »
airnocker

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