Hello guys!

Sorry for the dummy title, I just can't combine all my questions under a single label. It has been a month or two since I am an owner of CSMIO-IP-M. It was very carefully that I made the choice on them, after reading tons of pages here, CNCzone, elsewhere... I think I've done the right choice but we are about to see soon. It was too much time that I was kicking the box left and right without having time to design the electrical panel and start working on the project. The mechanics was also postponed too much due to other projects with higher priority but now we start seriously.

I am almost done with the wiring today but still have several questions which I emailed to CS LAB but they seem to be very busy and I don't get a reply unless I send one email several times. Probably they are hard working on the Mach4 plugin and integration.

Enough words, let's carry on to the questions

1) Where should I wire the shielding of the twisted-pair cable, used for STEP+/- and DIR+/- signals? As you may see, the documentation does not show where the shielding should go. I believe unshielded cable may be used but it is always better with shielding. As you may see the other picture, my servo driver manual insists that we wire the shielding to 0V. Is this the 0V of 24VDC or what? Differential wiring is 5V and my real earth in the machine is very noisy with 5 servo drivers leaking some AC volts.

2) What type of outputs are the CSMIO-M ones? I believe they are sourcing transistor outputs but why do they require both 24V and 0V for supply?


3) How am I supposed to understand which GND is for analog input and which one is for analog output. From what I see on schematics it is probably the pin2 GND being the output ground while pin 8 is the ground for the analog input.

4) What potentiometers(resistance value?) should I use for the CSMIO analog inputs to control feed override and speed override? Should I use shielded cables for them from practical point of view, do they inflict each other if they are on the same cable, different wire numbers?

1. You would connect the shield to an Earth stud/din rail in your panel, that is where all shields should go.

2. I think the reason is that you may wish to have a different voltage rather than 24v, for example you may have 18v. You would have to check the specs though as I am only guessing.

3. Likely wont matter as I suspect all Gnds for the analogue will be tied together.

4. If I recall I use 4k7 pots but also I found best results were with Log Pots rather than linear. This is with IP-A and IP-S but I would think the IP-M would be the same. Yes use shielded cables if possible, using multi-core should be fine as long as you do not have high voltages, especially mains, running in the same cable.

Hood

1. So you confirm that the shielding should be connected to the Earth of the panel, where all the other consumers and not to forget servo drivers are also connected to their earth?

3. I'll check if there is internal link with the multimeter, maybe the terminals are organized in a way to directly connect potentiometer.

4. Do Log Pots are also 4,7 kOhm? I don't have much experience with potentiometers at all and didn't find an example in the CSMIO manual, it is just mentioned that you can override G-Code values for feed and speed via potentiometers.

Yes, shields should be connected to Earth point, what is normally called Star Grounding.

It may be a 5K pot I use, will see if I can find details of my order. However as I said I found a LogPot better as it was more controllable at the lower end than a linear pot.. I have two connected on my machines, one for feed override and the other for Spindle override.
In Mach I have the rapid linked to feed override and thus when I turn the pot the rapid override also works at the same time as the feed override.
Hood

Thanks,

if you find some information about yours, just let me know because not touching the mouse for override is what attracts my attention.

In fact, I've wired also external start/stop/hold buttons to minimize the use of the mouse.

I have looked and the eBay receipt doesnt actually show what value pot I got but I am almost certain it was 5K, if I remember tomorrow I will check for sure.

I also use external buttons on my panels, I have a trackball on my machines but rarely use it as the only time I need it is when entering values into MDI or DROs and as I have a touch screen I just tap the DRO or MDI ready for inputting the data.
Below are a couple examples of my panels.
Hood

It looks pretty good.

What is this mach screenset because it looks very good?

Don't you have problem with flies landing on your touch screen and activating controls? Also, what about dirty hands?

I install HMI touch screens on various machines and based on experience, they don't live too long before certain areas become less sensitive to fingers.

My friend with the Mach machine also has a touch screen but due to the above problem and the touch screen itself too sensitive, it almost crashed once so he had that option disabled.

Its my own screenset that I use which I modify for each machine. I have posted it on the forum a few times but be aware that some buttons are VB buttons and as said are specific to my machines. I do however have buttons in psd format so that they can be altered and "saved as" for making your own buttons easily.

I really need to keep a link to where I posted the files though as it takes me an age to find that link each time I am asked

Regarding the touch screen, it may depend on what technology your panel is. I have used capacitive and resistive without any issues and one of them has been in use for maybe 8 or more years without a problem, the others maybe 6years.
 I did have issues with one panel, that was an ELO with SAW technology, it was higly sensitive to moisture and as the machine was opposite a manual lathe, that covered it in coolant, I replaced that with a resistive panel.

Regarding flies, dont have that problem at all, maybe because we dont have vast amounts of wee beasties up this way

Below is a screenshot of one of my screens

Hood