Hi there,

I'm just setting up a HiCon Controller (plus 7775 breakout board) on a mill and have run into a slight problem with the motors that I am hoping someone can help me with?
 
Currently I have the Hicon talking to Mach3 and have been able to configure both outputs and inputs without a problem. However I can't get a pulse train (tested at K8 and K9 using a oscilloscope) from the step/direction outputs for the motors. I have tried using the details on page 16 of the Software Integration manual (i.e. Port 1 Pins 2 & 6 for X Axis) with no luck. Can anyone confirm that the Port 1 is the correct port to use for the Motor Outputs in Mach3 or should I be using a diffrent port number. Unlike the Inputs and Outputs the HiCON manual isn't clear on which actual port the motor outputs end up on.

Cheers and thanks,

Hello Pax,

For the motor outputs page on the software integration manual, we only look at the axis enable variable. All the other values there are not used by our plugin and are ignored.

For your issue, we recommend that you first start with the HiCON.xml sample profile that we have provided on our webpage.
http://www.vitalsystem.com/portal/motion/hicon/HiCON-xml-mach3-profile.zip

To properly set your axis, you would need to:

 - set the axis as enabled in Config->Ports an Pins->Motor Outputs.

 - go to Config->Motor Tuning and set the Counts per unit, Max Velocity, and Acceleration.

 - go to the plugin config (Config->Config Plugins->HiCON Plugin), go to the tab of the axis, and set control input to Machxx, and Control Output to the StepGen you would like to use.

 - if you're using encoder feedback, then you would need to set the Feedback to the proper encoder channel.

 - you can try doing the test motion on this axis config page before you start any other motion.


You can read all of this in more detail in the Software Integration Manual.

Thanks,

All sorted now, works a charm, I should have read the fine print at the back of the manual!

For future revisions of the manual it might be worth making a note on Page 16 under the Motor Outputs section that "further motor configuration is required, see page 25" or something to that effect?

Cheers and thanks,
Pax