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Author Topic: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!  (Read 2438 times)

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3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« on: February 21, 2018, 11:47:00 PM »
Hello everyone!!!  Hope all is well.  I'm going to try to keep this short, but it will likely be long in order for me to provide all the information and the steps I have been through.  I built my first machine with the help of everyone here ;D ;D.  Four years later what I intended doing versus what I was doing was two totally different stories.  I design and build equipment at work, so I thought at first I would just build a bigger machine.  After much investigation, I decided I could purchase a Chinese machine(Roctec) servo driven.  Yaskawa servos, HSD Spindle, so on so forth.  I drove a few hours from here to look at one and I was impressed.  Unfortunately they were having control problems so I didn't commit.  Later decided that with as well as everything else was built, if I had to do a controller upgrade I would.  Took several months to get here and unfortunately.  One of the selling points to me was it was Mach controlled.  I had some familiarity and a great support forum.  Of course when it finally got here I was so excited.  Only bad thing is it wouldn't run.  Hood told me I should try a CS-Lab controller.  I did and for the last four years it has ran like a champ.  I purchased another controller for a lathe project, that I haven't finished yet but its in process.  I haven't run the other machine in some time.  My dad lives in Texas and is a big wood worker.  Hes been going nuts to get a cnc for awhile now and talked me out of this one.  Of course he asked me if I would put the same control system on this.  So it got CSMIO/IP-M, MPG Module, hard wired pendant, and all new digital stepper motor drives.  Essentially I rewired the whole panel.  Finished up soldering the db-25 connectors to the pendant this weekend and was ready for power.  Powered up nicely,  all led lights on the controller and mpg module were as they should be.  All the inputs that were suppose to be on were.  Checked the estop on the machine and the pendant.  All was well.  No problem I thought lets get this pc hooked up and start communicating.  After a little time I had established communication. I set all the inputs up and made sure they were flagging via the plug in screen.  Next I went to the diagnostic screen in Mach and verified.   Next I set up the mpg.  Hit the tab key on the keyboard and checked axis and increment selection.   Okay thats all good, now lets get these motors moving and tuned.  I thought Ill have this thing running tonight.  WRONG!!!  Now i went through the plugin and Mach and set the motor outputs up.  Turned my speed down and hit the arrow key.  Nothing happened.  I checked all my wiring again.  Must have done it a dozen times before powering up.  Check power supplies and drives have no errors.  I must have missed something I thought.  Go over to my other machine to verify and still cant find anything.  Jog is enabled, the E stop is working, what am I missing.  Then I noticed when I hit the jog keys that the DRO numbers dont shift.  Well the motors arent going to move unless Mach tells it too.  I called it quits for the night.  Next day at work I put mach on my work station at lunch.  Done a real quick set up, hit the jog key numbers on DRO moved.  Okay thats an older XP computer that I built.  I will install the newest version of Mach 3 and start over.  After doing that when I hit the jog key the motor moved, but then the pc locked up.  Restarted everything and when I hit jog pc locked up.  Must have a pc problem, its been in the dusty shop for several years now.  Night 3 of debug I get a new hard drive and put Windows Seven on.  After all its whats running flawless on my other machine.  Go through the whole set up on the pc then start with mach.  Plugin is done, firmware is done and matches and we have communication.  This time I just do the basic setup to test the motors.  Nothing. DRO doesn't shift either.  Next I disconnect the mpg module and wire around the estop that was on it.  Maybe thats it.  Same old story.  By this time I am at the end of my rope.  One last thing to try.  I get my pc off my big machine and connect it.  I boot it up off the backup  drive because I dont want to make any changes that might cause me problems when I put it back on the other machine.  I had to change the plugin so the firmware would match up but thats it.  The machines are wired identical with the only difference being a servo enable output.  Now I know this is a working system.  I run it every week.  Same problem.  This is an Ethernet controller but I am beginning to think it is a controller problem.  I haven't contacted CS-Lab yet because I thought there might be something silly I missed, but it should have took off with the other computer.  If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.  I attached my xml file to a no motor movement post under CS-Lab.  Thought I might get more response here.  Thanks for all the help.

Offline rcaffin

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Re: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2018, 04:34:11 AM »
You probably will need someone local to come on-site. Gremlins are gremlins, and they are never where you expect them to be.

Cheers
Roger
Re: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2018, 06:54:24 PM »
Jug,
Some paragraphs would be nice. Streams of thought are very difficult to follow except when they are in my own head.
Re: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2018, 09:54:44 PM »
Hello everyone!!! Thanks for the replies.  Since the weekend I have figured out most of the problems.  I'll have to admit I'm not proud of myself for missing some very basic things.  I have been surprised at the lack of response, but it has been awhile since I have posted.  I figure most are working on the Mach4 platform, and probably aren't watching this one as much as they were.  Now I am just as guilty as next one for using this forum as a tool when I needed it and now paying much attention after that.  So from this day forward I am going to try to help others as much as they have helped me.  Hopefully I can help them not make some of the simple mistakes that I have.  I'll have to say that most on this forum have probably forgot more than I will ever know.

Now lets get down to the chase.  Here's what I figured out.  After much thought I realized that there had to be something simple I was missing.  Unfortunately when I am stumped I have a hard time turning it off.  Now I'm working on a huge project at work that I done a large percentage of the design on.  I typically don't do much wiring, but we have been behind and I have spent this last month wiring and doing Ethernet input and outpout cards.  Its actually worked out quite well.  Seem to get me in the right mind set.  I hate to tell on myself,  but if it helps someone else I feel obligated to do so.  Mid week after much reservation I decided to take the controller out of the machine I was working on and put it into the machine that runs flawlessly.  Its all ribbon cable to female db25 to terminal block.  I knew the wiring on that machine was good.  I loaded my XML file into the computer that I was on the machine I was working on and hooked everything else up.  The only reason I switched computers was that the new controller I was using had  a different firmware version.  I didn't want to take a chance on  messing the functional machine up.  I thought to myself  this machine isn't going to run.  Wrong!!! LOL!!  Ran like a champ.  That's a good thing.  I know the controller is good.  Next I plugged in the new teach pendant that I had soldered up.  Also good!!  I feeling better but still confused!!!  Next I tried to jog my working machine with the keyboard.  It wouldn't jog.  I shut things down for the night feeling better but still somewhat confused.  After thinking about this all day at work, I came home hit the tab key  and realized until I turned the axis selection off on the teach pendant that mach wouldn't go into continuous jog mode.  I hit the arrow keys on the keyboard and everything was as it should.  Took all of five minutes.  Talk about feeling pretty dumb.   I switched everything back to the machine I was working on and finished the configurations.  Short of finding a bad trace on one of the circuit boards all has been fine.  I soldered a temporary jumper wire in until I can get a new one.  Motors are turned and everything is homing.  A few calibrations and testing the spindle control and hopefully this one will done.  Thanks for all the help!!!

Offline rcaffin

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Re: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2018, 01:21:31 AM »
The BIG reason your first posting got so few replies was that it came in one big lump without paragraphs. It was basically impossible to read and understand. So everyone skipped past it.

Cheers
Roger
Re: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2018, 07:31:22 AM »
I will try to do better in the future!!!!

Offline rcaffin

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Re: 3rd Machine Control Revamp!!!I'm Stumped!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2018, 04:03:38 PM »
It's more a matter of helping us to help you.

Cheers
Roger