Is the Mach3 driver required when Mach is used with the dspmc/ip plugin?

No

Mach3 pp driver is not used at all.

So far so good.  It looks like the dspmc will shape up to be all that it promisses.  I think this will be THE servo controller to use with Mach.  I don't have the io hooked up yet but i have the control and break out boards installed and the encoders and amps hooked up so I can make motion.  I have my A-M-C amps tuned in voltage mode so I am running what is called a position over voltage loop--meaning my amps are running a voltage loop and the dspmc is running a position loop over that.  The following is a repost from my showntell thread on my spindle wizard for the benefit of others using the dspmc or considering using it.  I personally think my machine is the "***balls***" mechanically/electrically so it will let the dspmc shine.  My encoders are 1000 line quadrature encoders so 4000 counts per rev and my ballscrews are 5tpi so that's 20,000 counts per inch.  With my motors and power supply I should max at about 190 ipm so I am tuning at 150 ipm to be aggressive but avoid clipping by either the amps or control DACs.

Controller's PID tuning:

At first I tried a bunch of different tuning methods where you adjust one parameter at a time and wasn't  having much luck.  Then I tried a method where you set both p and d at the same time in a ratio determined by the pid loop sample rate.  The DSPMC/IP has a 5kHz sample rate which means the D should be 25 times the P--then if your amps are in current mode you probably have to turn up d but as you will see I didn't have to.  I have my scale set to 100.  This will allow me to have a small integer I--I will probably barely need any I at all.

First iteration I tried
P=100
D=2500




There was no motion on the first try to I multiplied by 10
Second iteration I tried
P=1000
D=25000
.....oops, I forgot to save that screenshot


There was very sluggish motion so I multiplied by 2
3rd iteration I tried
p=2000
d=50000









The motion was much better but still sluggish so I multiplied by 2 again
4th iteration I tried
p=4000
d=100,000






motion was excellent so I tested larger moves






Vital systems is still working on the axisworks software.  That's an alpha I'm working on now.  I asked Rufi/Abdul to add check boxes allow traces to be added for position error, commanded velocity, and commanded acceleration and to remove the commanded position and actual position.  When he has that done it will be easy to Dial in the feed forwards which I want to do before even bothering with throwing an I in the pid loop.

hello
I'm retrofitting a large cnc mill in china after shipping the machine the controller would not run properly so we thought we would try mach3/dspmc. the first problem was to switch from source to sink . Do you have sink source selectable option for future projects?
 I might be missing something but I was looking for a page that would configure or map the analogue inputs and outputs the for use on the mach3 also the manual does not go into much detail on this topic .
thanks

hi eds,

the axis configuration, eg counter, DAC, enable, pid etc, are saved in the dspmc.xml file located at c:\mach3 folder.  you can use a text editor like notepad to change the config, or you can also change the config using the AxisWorks software tool.  the 7535 opto-isolated digital b/o board is for sinking (NPN) type i/o.  we are releasing a similar b/o board for sourcing (PNP) type i/o in the next few weeks.

thank you
Rufi
www.vitalsystem.com/dspmc

Hi Rufi,

I have retrofit project for an old cnc mill, I use mach3 for my other project using stepper motor and this run very well.
now I need a closed loop system. I want to try your DSPMC/IP. I send request for quote in your sales but no response.

Can you provide me price including cost of shipping to Manila, Philippines.

Regards,
Rick

hi Rick,

pls email your request to  sales _at_ vitalsystem _dot_ com   or   sales _at_ vsi99 _dot_ com.

thanks
Rufi

HI Vital Team,

it took some time for me to start working on my project using dspMC;
however;
1.) do I need to dowload any plugin or upgrade - I  dowloaded last version of axis works, do the connection via Xover cable and it seems to work OK
2.) When connecting first old encoder I have some problems?:
- I am not sure whether mine encoders are OK - it seems that they have all signals (A,A+,B.B+,Ref,Ref+,U,GND) bit I am not sure if they work - how can I check via axis works
3.) When connecting Z axis encoder to dsp and pressing connct button in axis soft, green button turns on; when manualy turning encoder nothing hapens on axis soft- I have not output from dsp to drives connected yet
4.) Some advise please on further steps - currently I have just encoder wired, no outputs are connected; must I connect outputs in order to seen if encoders are working properly
5.) Since drives were working already with previous setup I do not intend to change any drives setup

Some photos of current setup
http://picasaweb.google.com/bostjan681/AlbumBrezNaslova
Thanks for any help

pls also post an email to sales _at_ vitalsystem _dot_ com when you post here.  sometime dont get notification.

when you move encoder and don't see any change in AxisWorks display, make sure you have assigned the correct encoder number to the axis.  when you run axisWorks, make sure you download the configuration saved in dspmc.xml file by using the "Download Configuration" button.

also, the latest manual has lot of information available.

thanks,
Rufi

What version of axis works is being run above?

Mine looks totally different, i have to open and adjust PID values in a different window. The version you have looks much better.