Hi,

Just joined this forum after seeing the detailed expert advice given, so hopefully I can purchase MACH3 soon..


My only issue is I've just mentioned in the introduce yourself section that i've purchased some parts for a CNC build including Mitsubishi MR-J2S servo drives and motors

The model of drive is the MR-J2S-70CP and that why I could really do with some help/advice.. please

I understand the A model can take a pulse/direction signal and the B model cannot however after hours studying the manual I cannot figure out if the CP model can?

The closest I can see is the "Manual pulse generator" input.. could I use that and connect MACH 3 via a breakout board?

thanks
Kevin

These drives look to be basically Indexing drives and thus not controllable by Step/Dir or Analogue voltage signals.
The MPG mode looks to be basically a means of using an encoder input to control them, that means both A and B pulses rather than a Step pulse and a Direction signal. Mach outputs Step/Dir and not A and B pulses natively. I seem to recall the SmoothStepper can be set to output A nd B pulses but you would be best checking up on that before considering that route.
Hood

Hi,

thanks for the reply, it really is hard work just looking through the manuals especially as i'm new to this

Looks like my only hope is the A/B pulse which the manual says is "A-phase and B-phase signals with 90°phase difference", does not say what voltage

This did not really mean anything to me, looking on the internet it seems to be a "table" of two values (A and B) that you move through forwards or backwards.. is it really that simple?

What comes to mind is converting step/direction to A/B via some simple TTL circuit (or a small microcontroller), does that sound possible?

I will investigate SmoothStepper, not found much info yet, I really wanted to get things going as cheaply as possible until I prove I can work with the Mitsubishi drives at all, maybe just get something working at a slow feed rate then progress from that

The other thing I found was something called "CL Mode" which it says is "quadrature" for working with MACNC CL10, was this an old feature with hard coded output for one specific mill?

thanks
Kevin

Yes the Max modes were for people converting the MaxNC machines to Mach, as you have seen the I/O is hard coded to specific pins when using these modes.

Hood