We've recently purchased a Smithy 622 mini-mill, and i'm currently working on getting it setup with Mach and a 13" touchscreen.  X,Y,Z all configured fine, motion is very nice and repeatable.

I've gone through the mach quick start tutorial, and the larger support document, and i havn't quite gotten the spindle under control.  Any help appreciated.

controller board is a PMDX-110 (combination 132&106)

LPT pins for spindle:
pin 14 > spindle motor direction signal from PC
pin 16 > spindle speed as PWM signal from PC

Mach setup stuffs:::::






When i hit the toggle spindle button in mach, the spindle turns on and hits full speed (3500rpm), hit the toggle spindle button again, and the spindle will reverse direction full speed (3500rpm).  it won't toggle off. 

I'm sure it's something simple, i just haven't been able to figure it out.  Any help appreciated!

Yes - you are making a mistake.

Firstly - does you motor control require a Pulse Wave Modulation signal, or Step and Direction signals. I do not know, but looking at your config, you have both set up.

Mach 3 can put out either. In the case of PWM it puts out the normal forward and reverse signals on the allocated M3 and M4 pins (off being M5). The PWM signal is put out on the "Step" pin of the spindle output. The PWM signal is converted by such a board as Digispeed, into a control voltage (usually 0 - 10v) and fed into your inverter.

The step and direction method is like an axis - and the spindle output pins are used.

On your ports and pins/engine configuration you are showing PWM selected, but you seem to be set up for step and direction on you spindle output page

If you are using PWM, you cannot have M3 (clockwise) and M4 (anticlockwise) allocated to the same pin because you will not get any change in direction. If you are using Step and Direction, leave the "disable spindle relays"ticked, you are not using them.

Yes - you are making a mistake.

Noted.   

If you are using PWM, you cannot have M3 (clockwise) and M4 (anticlockwise) allocated to the same pin because you will not get any change in direction. .

Ok, made some changes, have the spindle mostly under control but obviously, i still have the problem mentioned above.  I guess i just don't know what to put in output for M4 since i believe the PMDX-106 only has two outputs for the spindle:
pin 14 - direction
pin 16 - PWM spindle speed output  (http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-106/PMDX-106_Manual_03.pdf)  {and in actuality, i have a PMDX-110 BOB/spindle board combo which is basically the 132 BOB and 106)

So... pin 16 enabled in the motor outputs/spindle section, and pin 14 as output 1 for M3.

Per the PMDX-106 manual i have tried both dip switch settings for forward/reverse run mode, both of which only give me clockwise direction upon either m3 or m4 command.
 What else can i do with mach to get direction control functional?

Current settings:




(also have put '0' in for M4, with no change)


Thanks in advance for the help.

Matt

I have not tried this, so you will have to bear with me as I am thinking through it. If, if the normal course of things, you wish to retain the standard M3 (forward) and M4 (reverse) commands, and M5 off, this would seem to be a good idea, since a lot of CAM programs will be geared to that form of command.

It seems to me that when M3 is selected, then you need to put +5v on the "direction" pin and enable the "PWM" pin.
conversley ------------  when M4 is selected you need to put 0v on the "direction" pin and enable the "PWM" pin.
When M5 is selected, you need to disable both pins.

This would seem a job for a brain - and I haven't done anything with brains - any brain fans out there

Thank you for the advice jimpinder.  I'll look into brains options.