Messages

151

Box level controller products / Re: Bridgeport CNC

« on: March 09, 2016, 11:07:17 AM »

is there any way to take the PMDX-340 and bump up the amp output to 7 amps with a different power supply?

No.  Either the built-in protection circuits kick in, or the driver chips go "pop".

152

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Converting a Precision Mathews PM45M Cnc mill to use a Smoothstepper, PMDX-126

« on: March 08, 2016, 05:31:34 PM »

Thanks for the XML.  I forgot to ask earlier, what are the DIP switch settings on the PMDX-126 and PMDX-107?

153

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Converting a Precision Mathews PM45M Cnc mill to use a Smoothstepper, PMDX-126

« on: March 08, 2016, 01:28:23 PM »

So how does the PWM signal get to pin 16. Do I connect something to the #16 wire connector? Is it something that the PMDX-126 board creates when directed by Mach3? It seems to me that this signal is not getting to the PMDX-107.

There are 3 groups of settings that combine to have Mach3 (and the SmoothStepper) output the PWM signal on port 1 pin 16.  The PMDX-126 does not create the PWM, it simply passes through whatever Mach3 and the SmoothStepper send to it.  The references below are to sections in our app note AN002:

(1) Section 5 - telling the SmoothStepper that the spindle speed is controlled via PWM

(2) Section 6, step 2 - Telling Mach3 that spindle speed is controlled via PWM

(3) Section 6, step 3 - Telliing Mach3 (and the SmoothStepper) which pins to output spindle speed "step" (which by virtue of (1) and (2) above is now really "PWM") and direction.  There are also settings in section 6 steps 4 and 5 that, are necessary.  The values given in our app note for the spindle motor tuning are values that were arrived at through trial and error and I don't know any real-world basis for why those values work (or at least *used* to work).

So....  are you able to get pin 14 to reflect the spindle direction?  Or does pin 14 still remain on as long as the spindle is on (in either direction)?  If you've tried all of our suggestions above and still cannot get either pin 14 or PWM on pin 16 I think it is time to send us your XML configuration file so we can take a look.

Bob

154

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Converting a Precision Mathews PM45M Cnc mill to use a Smoothstepper, PMDX-126

« on: March 07, 2016, 10:33:22 PM »

Two things:

(1) You say that the pin 14 LED remains on for both M3 and M4 commands.  It almost sounds like you have two Mach3 signals trying to drive port 1 pin 14.  Make sure that there is nothing in the "Output Signals" tab assigned to port 1 pin 14.

(2) To clarify/expand on what Steve mentioned - there can be some confusion with the term "relays' when talking about Mach3 and the PMDX-126 and PMDX-107:

- There are the two physical relays on the PMDX-126 board, one normally controlled by pin1, and one normally controlled by pin 14 (but this can be changed via DIP switches and jumpers)

- There are two solid-state relays on the PMDX-107 that are used to control the Run/Forward and Direction/Reverse signals to a VFD or spindle controller

- and finally there are the Mach3 "relays" signals on the "Spindle Setup" tab of the Mach3 "Configure->Ports & Pins" dialog, that map to Mach3 output signals, which in turn can be assigned to output pins on the PMDX-126

When Steve said to disable the "relays', he means in the "Spindle Config" tab - check the box that says "Disable Spindle Relays".  Your KA1 and KA2 external relays (sheesh - yet ANOTHER set of relays :-) should be connected to and controlled by the solid-state relays on the PMDX-107, not by the mechanical relays on the PMDX-126.

And as Steve mentioned, if all else fails you can post your configuration XML file here or email it to us.  The name of the file is displayed in the lower right corner of the stock Mach3 Mill screen where it says "Profile".  Look in your Mach3 directory (typically C:Mach3) for that file name with a ".xml" file extension.

Bob

155

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Converting a Precision Mathews PM45M Cnc mill to use a Smoothstepper, PMDX-126

« on: March 07, 2016, 05:25:08 PM »

Is it necessary to have the charge pump operational as long as the switches on each board are set correctly and it is turned of in software?

If you have both the PMDX-126 and PMDx-107's DIP switches configured to ignore charge pump, then you do not need a charge pump signal on pin 17.  Though we usually recommend using the charge pump signal.

I set up everything as in AN002. Then on the 107 I ran the test and the spindle worked. I am not getting an led on #16.

Since you mention using AN002, I presume that you are running Mach3.  If you are running Mach4 please let me know.

Starting at the very basic stuff - on the PMDX-126, is the "Outputs Enabled" LED on?  And is the EStop (red) LED off?

Please verify that on the "Config", "Ports& Pins" dialog, on the "Motor Outputs" tab that you have the spindle step and direction assigned to port 1 (the right-most two columns).  It is easy to overlook this and leave them at port 0, which won't do anything.

Do you have pin 14 configured as the spindle direction signal?  If so, look at the LED on the PMDX-126 at J6 for pin 14.  Enter an M3 command, and then an M4 command.  Depending on the polarity (active high or active low) of the spindle direction signal, you should see the LED turn on for one of those commands, and off for the other command.  Can you see the pin 14 LED turn on and off?

Are you able to control any other outputs on the PMDX-126, such as either of the two relays?

Bob

156

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Converting a Precision Mathews PM45M Cnc mill to use a Smoothstepper, PMDX-126

« on: March 06, 2016, 09:10:29 PM »

First thing - does the PMDX-107's self-test mode drive the spindle (see the PMDX-107 User's Manual)?  If not, then we need to verify the wiring between the PMDX-107 and your spindle controller.

If the PMDX-107 self-test mode *does* control the spindle, the next thing is to make sure that the PWM signal is getting to the PMDX-126 and therefore the PMDX-107.  In general, make sure that the PWM signal is on port 1 pin 16, with a PWM frequency of (typically) 100 Hz.  The direction signal should be on port 1 pin 14.  With the spindle turned on in Mach and a non-zero spindle speed, look at the LED on the PMDX-126 at connector J6 on the terminal labeled "16".  The LED should be glowing, and the brightness should change with spindle speed (dimmer at slower speeds, brighter at higher speeds).

If you see this LED glowing as it should, now check the LEDs on the PMDX-107.  The "PWM" LED should behave just like the pin 16 LED on the PMDX-126.

If you are running Mach3, then look at our application note AN002 here:

http://pmdx.com/AppNotes

It is titled "PWM Spindle Speed with Mach3, SmoothStepper, PMDX-125 or PMDX-126 and PMDX-106 or PMDX-107" and it shows all of the settings (SmoothStepper, PMDX-126, PMDX-107 and Mach3).

If you are running Mach4, the ESS plug-in is much different and I do not know how to configure the ESS for this.  There are a couple of threads on the MachSupport forums (http://www.machsupport.com/forum/) , but I suggest going straight to the Warp9 support forums (http://warp9td.com/index.php/kunena/index).

Bob

157

Cables, connectors, switches, contactors, sensors and other items / Re: Inductive Sensor

« on: February 25, 2016, 03:42:28 PM »

I got induction sensors  AE1-AN-1A. 5 items . How to properly connect to the PMDX 424

Brown wire to "+12U" terminal on J16 or J17
Blue wire to "GND" terminal on J16 or J17
Black wire to to "isolated input" 1 through 8 on J16 or J17

When you assign the input to a Mach4 input signal (like "Motor 0 --"), make sure to put a green check mark in the "Active Low" column.

Bob

158

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Understanding PWM Spindle Control

« on: February 21, 2016, 09:03:24 PM »

Well that's good news that there is *some* explanation for the strange behavior.  Lets hope the new board really does fix this.

Bob

159

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX 126 limits/pogo

« on: February 21, 2016, 08:59:55 PM »

Yes, you can use the machine frame ground connected to the GND terminals on the PMDX-126.  These *are* isolated from the PC side of the PMDX-126.  My concern would be guaranteeing that the pogo pins make good electrical contact with the frame (no manufacturing crud/coolant/oil/grease/rust (gasp!) etc. gets in the way).

There is no need to an additional resistor in the circuit.  The PMDX-126 has built-in pull-up resistors.

The "proven" method is mechanical switches or proximity switches with the PMDX-126 GND to one terminal and the PMDX-126 input terminal to the other switch terminal.

Bob

160

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Understanding PWM Spindle Control

« on: February 19, 2016, 05:30:37 PM »

Question 1 - How do I set up the controls to get maximum power out of the laser. I have the spindle set up as a 0-100 with a max speed of 100. I set my tool at 100. The slider override is 0-300% with a default at 100. I would think the with the slider at 100 it would set the laser at full power, however, that does not seem to be the case. If I set the slider at 300 the laser appears to be more powerful.

If you mean that on the Configure->Mach dialog, "Spindle" tab, the first line (labeled "0") has MinRPM=0 and MaxRPM=100, then you should never be able to get more than 100 RPM, and 100 RPM should correspond to maximum PWM duty cycle (100% or pretty darn close to it).  When I try this on my system, and set the spindle speed to 100 RPM and then slide the SRO slider up above 100%, the RPM stays at 100.

Question 2 - The spindle speed indicator DRO on wxMach does not seem to work. Is there anything I need to do to get this to work.

That DRO shows the "actual reported RPM", which is what the plug-in tells Mach4 is the actual spindle speed.  By default our plug-in does not provide that feedback.  Go the our plug-in configuration dialog and click on the "Spindle Config" tab.  You will see a checkbox labeled "Report calculated spindle RPM to Mach4 as actual spindle RPM".  Check that and click on OK.  Our plug-in will then read the current PWM duty cycle from the SmartBOB and calculate what RPM that corresponds to.  For example, if the actual PWM is 75%, then the RPM will be (100 * 0.75) = 75 RPM, and that will show up in the DRO.

Question 3 - How can I test the PWM output with a meter?

On the PMDX-132, put the ground probe of your volt meter on J9 pin 6, labeled "GND", and put the positive probe on J9 pin 4, labeled "16".  The voltage should vary linearly between roughly 0 and +5V based on RPM.  100 RPM should be 5V, 50 RPM should be 2.5V.

Question 4 - This is weird. When cutting out a pattern Mach 4 (or SmartBob) occasionally changes the power output for the laser for individual items. I have even generated a different G Code file that uses a different order of cutting so the item is in another position; however, the item still has a lower power. If I reboot Mach 4 this problem goes away. Told you it was weird.

You are right - that IS weird.  Try this with the plug-in reporting calculated RPM back to Mach4 (see above), then look at the spindle DRO and see if it changes during that segment.

Bob

161

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Driver disabling 422

« on: February 16, 2016, 03:07:05 PM »

yay! it all works. thanks so much. I cant wait to tear up some metal with this mill.

Good deaL!  If you see the general communication errors that you *were* seeing after a couple of minutes,  then try capturing a debug log of this happening as described above and send that to me.

Bob

162

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Mach 4 freezes at spindle control

« on: February 16, 2016, 10:56:34 AM »

OK, the first step is to generate a plug-in debug log.  The general procedure for this is described under FAQ #4 here: http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-Forums/index.php?topic=75.0.

Enable the debug log, exit Mach4, the re-start Mach4 and run until you see the communications error.  Then disable the debug log and create a Mach4 profile package (step 8 in the FAQ procedure) and send that to me.  You can email it to me at bob at this domain, or you can upload it to this forum.

Also, in your posts on the MachSupport forums (https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,31495.msg222355.html#msg222355) it seems that you have *both* a laser and a spindle ("The laser and spindle are both on the same side of the button").  Is that the case?  If so:

- when you are running the laser is the spindle motor also running?
- How are you controlling the spindle motor on/off and speed?

Bob

163

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Driver disabling 422

« on: February 15, 2016, 06:29:07 PM »

But some weird stuff is now going on. If I ref all axes, it will home the z, and then the x axis quits about half way home, then the 422  loses communication.

Update to the most recent plug-in (version 0.36.171 found here: http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-SmartBOB-USB-Plug-In). This fixes a bug in the homing code that causes these symptoms.

It will seem to lose communication after about 1-2 minutes of doing anything. Jogging, homing... I have gotten an internal error message, a error 107 and the regular communication error after disabling and re enabling.

If you still see this after updating the plugin, please generate a plug-in debug log.  The general procedure for this is described under FAQ #4 here: http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-Forums/index.php?topic=75.0.

Enable the debug log, exit Mach4, the re-start Mach4 and run until you see the communications error.  Then disable the debug log and either send me just the log file (the location is described in the FAQ), or create another Mach4 profile package and send that to me.

Bob

164

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-424 & DM556D WIRING

« on: February 14, 2016, 10:49:20 PM »

Thank you. I understood. motors work.

Good!  Have fun.

165

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 C, WITH 133, 3 GECKO 203V

« on: February 13, 2016, 09:31:15 PM »

ok so I wired them parallel, checked the 133 for power on, everything is ok. Now, I'm going through the manuals step by step and I come across this ""instaall the motor current set risister in...". What is that?

The G203V drivers need a resistor to set the motor current, unless you want the whole 7 amps. If you look in the Geckodrive G203V manual it tells you how to calculate the resistor value (http://www.geckodrive.com/g203v-rev-7).

Bob