Well got a bit done this week, managed to get the spindle working correctly for a toolchange. In Mach Mill the spindle is stopped with a M6 call and there is nothing you can do about that. Probably for 99.999999999% of mills that is not an issue as they require the spindle to be stopped for a toolchange, the Chiron however requires the spindle to be turning. I tried entering code"m3s200" in the M6 macro but when I did that everything just stopped working, no spindle turn on, no code running etc. I had to press Stop to be able to continue. Graham suggested I might try DoSpinCW() instead and lo and behold it worked. I still however wanted to have the 200rpm in the code so I added code"s200" to the macro and again nothing would work.
 Rather strange I thought so I tried simply typing S200 into MDI and then pressing my spindle start button and again nothing at all, took me a while to figure it out. The computer I am using had been on the Bridgeport and I had altered the code in the SpindleSpeed macro and that was the problem, it was waiting for a signal back before it would release Mach to continue with things and as it  never got a signal it was just sitting patiently waiting. Luckily I dont have any hair as if I did I wouldnt have had now anyway
 Anyway got that working and it seems to be working well, most of the toolholders could do with new bearings but thats for the future. Heres a vid of it changing tools, starts  3800RPM, drops to 200rpm for the tool change then back to 3800rpm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9NfS1ohtyA&list=UUNEcFI4fdD5kV938uchW3sg&index=2

Today I was down at the workshop and decided I had enough wired up to tune the axis. I hooked the laptop up to the X axis  Lexium drive and opened the software and after a wee bit of figuring out found the auto tuning and how to get it to work, so let it do its thing, I then went to the control of the Chiron and enabled the drive and the axis took a jolt and faulted, took me a wee while to realise that I needed to invert the encoders direction in the CSMIO plugin. Once I had done that then I was able to try the autotuning in the CSMIO plugin and that seemed to go well so I tested out the X axis, it seemed good so I moved onto the Y. It was easier as I now knew what to do in both drive and CSMIO as regards the tuning.
 The autotuning of both the servo drive and the CSMIO seems quite good and certainly good enough for me to start moving the axis around.
 I also have the home switches input to the CSMIO and have it set for encoder index pulse homing and it worked great, moves to the switch at 4000mm/min (20% of rapid) hits the switch, backs off at a slower rate then when the switch closes it continues until it sees the index pulse, it then stops and sets the macchine coords DROs to zero in Mach.
Heres a vid of me doing a test simulating a 200mm dia circular pocket at a feed of 15,000mm/min.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI5Kj1BHQgc&list=UUNEcFI4fdD5kV938uchW3sg&index=1

The Analogue CSMIO/IP seems very nice at this point, further testing will be needed but I am extremely happy with it so far.
Hood

Oh also meant to say I tested the backlash on X axis and its not bad 0.02mm which is not too bad for a 25yr old machine, just hope the Y and Z are as good.
Hood

Hi Hood,

Good to see it moving and changing tools finally The autotuning seems to have done a good job.

Dan

Ha ha I was reckoning a year to get it going but thats only been 3 or 4 months so I am doing well
Hood

Heres a vid of me doing a test simulating a 200mm dia circular pocket at a feed of 15,000mm/min.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI5Kj1BHQgc&list=UUNEcFI4fdD5kV938uchW3sg&index=1
Hood

Hey Hood, do the drives you are using do the dynamic braking internally ... or is there an external shunt req. similar to the AB's ?
They decell quite nicely !
Nice work !
Thanks,
Russ

Russ, they are like the DSD-030 drives in that they have internal circuitry and resistors and also have terminals should larger resistors be required.
 The micro DSD drives you use do not have the circuitry or resistor so if one is required then you need the additional active shunt module.

Hood

Guess I was most impressed by the speed in the video.
 Realized after posting that G2 or 3 might not be the best demo of accel or decel. (except for at the center of a spiral)
What are your current acc/dece values btw ?l
That's a pretty keen machine for sure.
Thanks Hood,
Russ

Velocity is set to 20,000mm/min (approx 787 IPM) and accel at the moment is 1200mm/s/s (approx 47 inch/s/s)
Hood

Wow .... better bolt it to the floor !

Thanks

Ha ha no need for that, it sits steady, German design so what do you expect
Dont know what the original  accels were set at but rapids were 20m/min like I have
Hood