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Reviving old machine using mach
« on: January 30, 2014, 09:22:47 AM »
Hello Friends

I am new here. I am going to revive an old CNC Devlieg using MACH controller. My drives are DC servo drives for Axes and spindle. All are old analog drives. As of now i am not going to replace drives as all drives are healthy.

I am going to use one breakout board for control with PWM to analog convertor for all axis drive

I am also using S7 200. I want to know what control i should use with PLC and what from MACH? Should i use toolchanger program in PLC? or Mach will take care of that?

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Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2014, 09:54:31 AM »
You can not use PWM for axes I am afraid. You have two options, get Step/Dir capable drives or get one of the external controllers that output analogue signals. Oh there is a third option, the YAPSC which takes step/dir and converts to analogue  but have heard mixed results with it.
Personally I would go the external controller and it would probably work out about the same price or less than getting new drives.

Hood
Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2014, 11:25:48 AM »
Thanks for reply

I am using PWM to analog convertor for drive. External controller is good option I agree but as of now installing new drive will cost huge that i dont want to invest. Orignal controller was GEFanuc which is not light up after giving supply so we decided to go for Mach controller. My customer has only 1-2 specific job which he want to run on this machine. These are the drives used originally and i think its good to use with mach also
Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2014, 09:53:15 PM »
Just want to know something. My existing machine is horizontal milling machine. What i have to set to use Mach for horizontal?
Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2014, 03:20:35 AM »
Now i want to take Step/Dir pulses in to PLC but for that i want to know what is the frequency of this pulses generated by Mach?

What will be max frequency ? can i take this signals to PLC using Modbus?

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Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2014, 07:57:18 AM »
What are you trying to control via Modbus/PLC?


Hood
Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2014, 12:14:46 PM »
I want to control all axis using plc

I dont have step/dir controlled drive so i want these signals in plc and plc output will control drive

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Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2014, 01:36:33 PM »
You cant use Mach to control axes via a PLC, well not if you are wanting Mach to plan the trajectory. It may be possible if you write a plugin and send commands via the plugin but it will not be pulses.
Your PWM not work?
Hood
Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2014, 08:00:32 AM »
No  :-[ :-[ :-[

Actually i thought to use PWM to analog convertor but found Step/Dir pulses are not PWM. Now what i understand is, Step Pulses are fixed width pulses but with having varying distance between pulses. isit correct? Now what i think to test is - give this step pulse to PLC as Input, program PLC in such a way that it will generate output for this distance between pulses. This will be almost PWM pulses, and then use PWM to analog converter. Do you think this will work?

One more thing - If this all not work, is it possible that i set speeds of drive manually and preset them with External POT and feed those data to MACH. After all MACH doesnt look whether motor is running or not, then can i use fixed setpoint to my drives and just start stop control with MACH

My machine is too old and having motors of 20Hp and 40 Hp so replacing drives will cost me much.

Whats your suggestion on this?

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Re: Reviving old machine using mach
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2014, 10:06:30 AM »
Your best option is as I said at the start, get a controller that will work with Mach and output analogue +/- 10v control signals to your amps.

CSMIO/IP-A is what I use.
There is also
DSPMC
Kflop with Kanalog
Galil
and there is also a DIY option, YAPSC, but I have heard of varying results from it, from working ok to not working at all.


Hood