Simon.

You asked :-

"Does MACH3 turn the M3 & M4 output off again? I think I only need a 24v pulse to pull the changeover relay one way or the other."

As I understand it M3, M4, M5 are individually persistant on the assigned parallel port output pins, so say your G code sends M5 to stop the spindle, it stays stopped (active)untill an M4 or M3 is sent.

Ian

Ian

"Does MACH3 turn the M3 & M4 output off again? I think I only need a 24v pulse to pull the changeover relay one way or the other."

As I understand it M3, M4, M5 are individually persistant on the assigned parallel port output pins, so say your G code sends M5 to stop the spindle, it stays stopped (active)untill an M4 or M3 is sent.

So does M5 need a sepparate pin? or does M5 turn off the M3 and M4 pins?
Thanks
Simon

Simon,

M5 does not need a pin it just turns off the M4 or M5 pin.

Ian

Attached are my current 2 options for the relays... I can't decide which is better...
The first one uses the original contactor and 2 new relays, the second, just 2 new relays.

Can anyone see any benefits to either? The only benefit I can see at the moment to using the original contactor is it frees up a set of relay contacts to use for a pair of direction LED's or to connect to the speed controller enable line which was just bridged in the original.

Simon,

Simple is best for reliability and troubleshooting. You can always add auxiliary contacts to your chosen contactors.

Ian

I have now got the steppers running on the 203v's and am busy trying to set up MACH3.

I calculate the steps per mm to be 1000 which gives me a max speed of 1500 mm/min, MACH3 does not let me go any faster than that using 25khz kernel, should I change the kernel speed? The motors haven't started to complain about the speed yet?

Something doesn't seem right though, I am not used to being able to max out the speed before the steppers start to complain!
The only one which complained a bit was the turret!
What speeds should I expect to get from this little machine?

Thanks
Simon

I run mine at 2250/min X&Z @ 45Kz the turret runs at 500.

Graham.

Ah, thanks, that is good to know that the machine is capable of those kind of speeds. I will play with the kernel speed when I have the rest of it working. I will also post some new pics when the wiring looks a bit tidier!

Simon,

I run at 2532 mm/min using 45kHz and 24 volt power supply. More to come when I fit my 50 volt supply.

Ian

I have just about finished the lathe now and I thought I would update the post to complete the information, just in case anybody is interested...

In the end I used 3 Geckos, a CNC4PC C11G breakout board, a CNC4PC relay board and CNC4PC index board.