Messages

331

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX 407 AOut voltage

« on: March 02, 2015, 10:13:23 AM »

Now that I see how you have the PMDX-407/422 connected to the VFD's Fwd/Rev inputs, it should indeed halt the spindle when the PWM shuts off (either from an "S0" command or "M5").  Setting the VFD's "start freq" is really just a stop-gap to cover up what appears to be improper operation of the PMDX-407.

Since the PMDX-407's "Run" LED remains lit at all times, it appears that something is wrong with either the PMDX-407 or the PMDX-422.  I haven't yet been able to find a way that incorrect wiring to the PMDX-407 can affect the RUN LED.  I'll talk this over with Steve (my boss), but I think you will need to send your boards back to PMDX (don't do that yet, we will let you know if/when it is time for that).

Everything was working fine when I ran it a week ago. The other day I plugged in the USB from the 422 and a spindle speed error (I don't remember the exact verbiage...should have written it down but have since reloaded mach and the plugin) continued to manifest. The computer seemed like it was continuously finding the 422 (beeping as if finding the

Sigh...  Error messages are important.

24V (COM) from the VFD is routed to the J2 COM.

Since you say the VFD inputs are "sink" logic, I presume that the "24V (COM)" is the same as the "L" terminal that I see mentioned in the NE-S1 Quick Reference Manual.

Bob

332

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PWM Output on the 422

« on: March 02, 2015, 09:58:03 AM »

It sounds like you have the "Spindle On" Mach4 signal mapped to a PMDX-422 output, and that output is then connected to the SuperPIDs "PWM" input.

The PWM spindle speed output on the PMDX-422 has been fully supported since plug-in version 0.15.77 (12 Jan 2015).  To enable this, go to the Mach4 "Configure" menu then select "Plugins".  When the "Configure Plugins" dialog appears, click on the "Configure..." button on the PMDX-SmartBOB-USB line.  In our configuration dialog, click on the "Feature Config" tab.  In the center you should see a "PWM Spindle Speed Control" section.

- Select either pin 14 or pin 16 (do not select "PMDX-407" unless you have one plugged in to the PMDX-422, which you do NOT need in order to control the SuperPID).

- Set the "PWM Frequency" field to "50" for 50 Hz, which is what the SuperPID manual says that it is expecting (see page 26 of the SuperPID manual in the "Setting up Mach3 for speed control").

- You can leave the "Min PWM Duty Cycle" at the default of 5%, of if you really need lower speeds than that you can set this as low as 0.

- Leave the "PWM Output Polarity" set to "Active High".

- The setting for "Report calculated spindle RPM to Mach4 as actual spindle RPM" is up to you.  If you check this box, the PMDX-422 plug-in will calculate what it *thinks* the spindle RPM should be (by [% duty cycle * max RPM]) and tell that to Mach4.  If this is un-checked, then Mach4 will not know anything about the actual spindle speed.  Our plug-in does not yet support the "Timing" input (which would connect to the SuperPID's "Tach" output).  So the only way to give Mach4 any idea of the actual spindle speed is to check this box, though I'm not sure what Mach4 would do with the reported spindle speed - there isn't any closed-loop control in Mach4.  All it could do is report the speed to the user.

- Click on "OK" two times to get back to the main Mach4 screen.

- Go to the mach4 "Configure" menu and select "Mach.." item.  Then click on the "Spindle" tab.

- In the first line set your min and max RPM (0 and 30000 according to the SuperPID manual).  This will determine that range of values for the "S" commands that control the spindle speed.

- You can also set the "Accel Time" and "Decel Time", though at the moment our plug-in ignores this.  And I don't remember if the Mach4 core handles these delays.

- At the bottom of the spindle tab, set the "Max Spindle Motor RPM" to the same value you entered for the "maxRPM" above (presume your spindle is directly driven by the spindle motor, which is the case for wood routers).

- Leave the "Step/Dir Spindle Axis" set to "none".

Click on "OK" to save these changes.

Now connect the PMDX-422 "Pin14" or "Pin16" output (whichever you chose above) to the "PWM" input on the SuperPID controller.  Also connect the "GND" terminal on the PMDX-422 to the "PG" terminal on the SuperPID.

You should now be able to issue "S" commands (along with an "M3" to actually start the spindle) and have the PWM control the spindle speed.

Bob

333

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX 407 AOut voltage

« on: February 28, 2015, 11:38:45 PM »

The "Run" LED remaining lit at all times, even with Mach4 shut down is very suspicious.  When you say "the speed control and directional control to the VFD are both working", do you mean that the PMDX-422/407 combo is able to control the direction and spindle speed in response to "S", "M3" and "M4" commands in Mach4?  And the PMDX-407's "Run" LED remains lit even when the PMDX-422's "Outputs Enabled" LED is off (which it would be when Mach shuts down)?

Let me verify some really basic things:
- The PMDX-407 in plugged in to the 422 so that the 407's circuit board almost touches the 422's relay?
- The mounting holes in the 407 line up directly over the 422's mounting holes?
- Jumper JP1 on the PMDX-422 is set to "On"?
- Do you have anything connected to J2 on the PMDX-407 (the 2-position screw terminal)?

I'll have to ponder this a bit more as, aside from a component failure or a short circuit, I cannot explain this behavior.

As for the spindle running at a very low RPM after an M5 command - the PMDX-407's analog output cannot go all the way down to 0.0V.  The lowest voltage is somewhere around 0.4V.  That means that you should have J2 on the PMDX-407 connected to a "run" signal on your VFD (the above issue with the "Run" LED not withstanding), or configure your VFD to ignore voltages below approx 0.5V (or 0.05 times full speed for a 0-10V input range).  It sounds like you found that setting.

Bob

334

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX 407 Need help

« on: February 25, 2015, 04:37:18 PM »

You don't mention the model number of your speed controller so I can't give you a specific answer.  If your speed controller is similar to that on Sherline models, take a look at this doc:
    http://www.soigeneris.com/Document/Gecko/Using_the%20Gecko_G540_VFD_Output.pdf
specifically the picture on page 4 that shows the pot and run switch connections.

Presuming your controller has a switch for "run/stop" (called an "inhibit" switch in the above doc), then you will need to connect the 2 wires from that switch to J2 on the PMDX-407.  It does not matter which wire goes to which terminal on J2.

The 3 wires from the pot should go directly onto J3.  The only issue is figuring out which wire is connected to the speed controller's positive supply reference and which is connected to the negative supply reference (these are usually the 2 outer wires on the 3-terminal pot).  If you have a volt meter, measure the voltage between the 2 outside wires from the pot.  Switch the meter probes around until you get a positive voltage reading.  The wire on the negative meter probe (usually the black probe) will go to the "Agnd" terminal on J3, and the wire on the positive meter probe (usually the red probe) will go to the "Aref" terminal on J3.  The middle wire on the pot should go the "Aout" terminal on J3.

In the above mentioned doc, this would be:
    P1 to the PMDX-407 J3 "Agnd" terminal
    P2 to the PMDX-407 J3 "Aout" terminal
    P3 to the PMDX-407 J3 "Aref" terminal

If your speed controller is nothing like the one in this document, then let us know the model number and I can give you a better answer.

Bob

335

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-407 Power and Specs

« on: February 25, 2015, 04:13:44 PM »

Addressed in this thread:
http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-Forums/index.php?topic=58.0

Bob

336

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: One Direction?

« on: February 25, 2015, 09:23:03 AM »

Also, here is a screenshot for the softlimits and active low setting.

Ahhhh, THAT soft limits signal :-)  That is an output from Mach4, and is set "active" whenever you have soft limits enabled (via the "Soft Limits" button on the main screen).  That output signal does not control anything in Mach, it only indicates what Mach thinks it is doing.

FYI - I also notice that you have several output signals enabled but not assigned to any device's output signals (the "Device" and "Output Signal" columns are blank).  It is OK to configure Mach4 like that, it just won't do anything**.  I think your earlier test where  you checked the "Low Active" setting for the "Softlimits On" output and then noticed the motors working was a coincidence. 

Bob

** Well, not exactly true.  Warning: Technical details follow - Mach4 *will* send messages to all of the plug-ins that, for example, "Softlimits" are "on" or "off" (or "Jog Continuous" mode is enabled/selected, etc.).  And these messages are sent whether or not the "Softlimits On" output signal is enabled.  It is up to the plug-in to decide what, if anything, to do with these messages.

337

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: One Direction?

« on: February 24, 2015, 10:30:38 PM »

3. J3 is set to +5v
4. I meant the soft limits button on the home screen of Mach4. I looked at the ports and pins earlier today and found that softlimits was selected to be ON, I turned on the "Active Low" setting and everything returned to normal with the machine softlimits working.
5. Before switching this on, all axis's behaved the same, i.e. moving only in the + direction.

As of NOW, everything is working fine....
One new question, should the Ground from my DM860A's be plugged into the COM on the 422?

First the connections.  I would suggest changing JP3 to the "GND" position.  You *can* configure the system to work when set to +5V, but I prefer to use the GND setting if at all possible as it reduces the chances of shorting the PMDX-422's +5V to ground somewhere.  Then, based on the manual that I was able to download (not from longs-motor.com, there were unreachable when I tried), you should connect the step/dir signals as shown in figure 2 on page 4, like this:
      PMDX-422 Step --> PLS+
      PMDX-422 Dir   --> DIR+
      PMDX-422 COM --> PLS- and DIR-
You need to have the COM reference connected to both of the optocoupler inputs on the motor driver, not to any "ground" terminal (which would be the motor power ground which you want to keep isolated from the PMDX-422).

Without the COM reference connected to your drivers I'm not sure how you got ANY motion, unless you had the PLS- and DIR- connected to a GND pin on the PMDX-422 somewhere.

And second - you mention:

found that softlimits were selected to be ON, I turned on the "Active Low" setting...

There is no "Active Low" setting related to soft limits.  Was it some input signal like "Motor0 --" (neg limit switch)?  If so, that could explain why you only got motion in one direction.

Bob

338

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Slaved Axis question

« on: February 23, 2015, 11:09:32 AM »

Still "real soon" :-)  While testing the slave axis code I discovered an issue elsewhere in the code that also needs to be addressed.

Bob

339

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: One Direction?

« on: February 23, 2015, 11:06:03 AM »

Disregard my last issue. I figured it out. I had the direction wire in the "COM" location for the axis output. totally incorrect spot.
Now that it is fixed, when machine soft coords are on the machine will duplicate the above problem. again tried switching the wires and believe this one ot be a legitimate issue.

Let me see if I understand, and ask a few questions:

- Originally you had the direction wire in the "COM" terminal. Questions:

(1) Where was your step/dir common wire connected? Was it connected where the DIR *should* have been?

(2) How do you have jumper JP3 set - to "GND" or "+5V" (this jumper selects to common reference for the step/dir signals)?

(3) What stepper/servo driver are you connected to (i.e. Gecko G203V, etc.)?

(4) Please list your current motor driver connections (ex. step to J3 "2", direction to J3 "3" and common to "com").

- Now you have the step and dir wires to the proper terminals (say, for the X axis that would be J3 terminals labeled "2" and "3"), and your step/dir common wire to the "com" terminal. Question:

(5) You say that when "machine soft coordinates" are on...  Do you mean the "Machine Coordinates" button, or the "Soft Limits" button on the main Mach4 screen?  Or something else?

- You say the machine runs in the + direction even when you are jogging in the - direction, with the DRO showing the expected changes (i.e. position changing + or - matching the jog direction).  Questions:

(6) Do *all* of your axis behave the same way or only this one axis?

(7) If jogging motion shows this behavior, what about G-Code motion?  If you click on the MDI tab and enter something like:
    G0X1
    G0X0
(substitute your actual axis for the "X" above), does this work correctly or does it exhibit the same "only motion in + direction" issue?

(8) Try swapping the step/dir connectors for this axis with one other axis and see if the problem stays with the motor driver or with the connector on the PMDX-422.  For example, say the "X" axis (J3) is not working and the "Y" axis (J4) is working.  Unplug both connectors and plug the "Y" axis motor driver into the "X" axis connector (J3).  Likewise, plug the "X" axis motor driver into the "Y" axis connector (J4).  Do not change your Mach4 configuration.  Try to jog the "X" axis (the one that didn't work before).  Does the motor move both directions?  Jog the "Y" axis.  Does it move both directions?

Neither "Machine Coordinates" or "Soft Limits" enabled *should* have that kind of effect on the system.  And I cannot yet replicate your problem here.  We'll see where to go from here after I see your response.

Bob

340

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: DS1 outputs enabled only lights up for one second

« on: February 17, 2015, 04:54:23 PM »

**EDITED TO CLARIFY 2nd and 3rd PARAGRAPHS **

First, to clarify:
DS1 is the power LED and should always be on.
DS2 is the "Outputs Enabled" LED and is a small surface-mount LED next to connector J10
Of the two right-angle LEDs, currently the green LED flashes on and off once per second if the firmware is running, and the red LED only comes on for approx 1 second during startup (it will eventually be the "EStop" LED).

If you click on the Mach4 "Enable" button (blinking green before you click on it), and it changes to red and says "Disable" and the PMDX-422's "Output Enable" LED does not light, you most probably have the EStop input active.  This is a potentially confusing part of the Mach4 GUI - when the button says "Enable", Mach is disabled and waiting for you to enable it.  When the button says "Disable", Mach4 *thinks* it is enabled (even though it may not be, see below) and is waiting for you to disable it.

There is a bug in the Mach4 GUI - it will allow the "Enable" button to act like Mach4 is enabled when in fact it is not.  And by extension, our device is not enabled.  You can verify that this is the case by clicking on the "Diagnostics" tab (*NOT* the "Diagnostics" menu item) and look at the "Emergency" indicator near the upper left corner of the screen.  If it is red, that means that the E-Stop input is active.

If you are using the sample profile provided with the PMDX-422 Plug-In, it is configured to have "Pin10" assigned to the E-Stop input.  That means that in order for Mach4 and the PMDX-422 to be "enabled", you need to:

- Ground  the "E-Stop/Pin10" pin on connector J7 (jumper connector pin 2 to pin 1)
- *or* ground the "E-Stop" pin on connector J10 (jumper connector pin 2 to pin 1)
- *or* if you are using an external break-out board connected via a ribbon cable to J2, then ground the Pin 10 signal on the external break-out board.

You should then see the "Emergency" indicator turn off (show as dark red).  If the Enable/Disable button still says "Disable", then click on it so that it says "Enable", then click one more time.  You should now see the "Outputs Enabled" LED on the PMDX-422 turn on.

If not, let us know and we will see what else we can figure out.

Bob

341

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Slaved Axis question

« on: February 13, 2015, 03:46:59 PM »

We will be supporting slaved motors very soon, most likely next week.  The homing support that we are working on will have a restriction that you can only use one homing switch on the axis with slaved motors, and in the Mach4 configuration you must assign that one home switch to both motors in the slaved axis.  A future enhancement to the homing functions will support separate home switches for each motor.

FYI, the current version of our plug-in will allow you run slaved motors as long as you don't try to home the axis with slaved motors (i.e. you can jog the slaved axis or run GCode that moves the slaved axis). If you try to home the slaved axis the plug-in will issue an error and skip that axis.

To find out when we release the new plug-in you can configure your forums account to monitor the "Announcements" forum (http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-Forums/index.php?board=2.0).  In fact, this is a good idea for anyone who has a SmartBOB-USB.

Bob

342

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

« on: February 08, 2015, 11:03:38 PM »

**OOPS** DISREGARD THIS POST.  See the next post by Steve

The "regular" outputs from the PMDX-126 are not designed to directly drive relay coils.  They *can* drive 5V relays if you connect an external "catch" diode, but they cannot directly control 12V relays.  The best way to have the PMDX-126 control the laser power would be to use a 5V-compatible solid-state relay.  We sell one - the PMDX-SSR25 (http://www.pmdx.com/SSR25), though you can get them from other sources as well.

Bob

343

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-122 Ethernet smooth stepper install

« on: January 30, 2015, 11:13:05 PM »

If you made the ribbon cables yourself, do you have any way to check or shorts between pins or no-connects?  If the PMDX-122s were working in this exact configuration before (I presume from 2 parallel ports on the PC), the only new things are the SmoothStepper and the ribbon cables.  Saying that "Swapping the ribbon cables for the 4th time" made it work except for the "A" axis makes me think of intermitent connections in the ribbon cables.

One test to help you diagnose the "A" axis problem is to swap the step/dir wires for the Z and A axis on the PMDX-122.  For example, if the "Z" axis was connected to J3 (pins 6 & 7), and the "A" axis was on J4 (pins 8 & 9), move the "Z" step/dir wires to J4 and the "A" step/dir wires to J3.  DO NOT change the Mach3 configuration.  Now, if you try to jog the "Z" axis in Mach3 the physical "A" axis should move.  And if you jog the "A" axis in Mach3, the physical "Z" axis should move.

If the problem remains with the "A" axis motor then it is likely an issue with the motor driver. If the problem moves to the "Z" axis motor, then the problem is most likely with the Mach3 config, the ribbon cable or the PMDX-122.

Verify that the pin that your Mach3 configuration says should be the "A" axis step signal is indeed wired to the motor driver's step input.  Likewise with the "dir" signal.  You can also do the test of jogging the "A" axis one direction then looking that the LED for the direction signal.  Then jog the "A" axis the opposite direction and the "A" axis direction LED should change states.  If the LED turns on and off as you jog back and forth then at least the direrction signal is getting to the PMDX-122 board.

Bob

344

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-122 Ethernet smooth stepper install

« on: January 30, 2015, 05:23:27 PM »

Any suggestions for me to try and get motion back? If the machine was working before the ESS and the ESS is talking to the compter any suggetions what to check. thanks

First a correction: I mis-spoke (mis-typed?) in my initial response.  Figure 11 in the PMDX-122 manual shows ENCODERS connected to board #2, not motors.  The jumper settings shows on board #2 make pins 2-9 inputs to the PC.  If motors were connected to board #2 then jumper JP5 on board #2 would need to be installed in the "OUT" position.

Now we get into the "20 questions" game:
(1) Do you have the PMDX-122 jumpers configured as in Figure 11 in the PMDX-122 User's Manual?  If not, please tell me how the jumpers are set on both of the PMDX-122 boards.  You can refer to the PMDX-122 boards as "#1" and "#2" where "#1" is the board that is connected to the ESS port 1, and "#2" is connected to ESS port 2.

(2) If you DO have the PMDX-122 jumpers set as in Figure 11, please verify that the PMDX-122 shown as "#2" is indeed connected to the ESS port 2.

(3) Just to clarify for me, which PMDX-122 do you have the motors connected to (using the same board references as in question 1 above).

(4) Do your ribbon cables have keys on the connectors (a bump in the center of one of the long edges that makes it so you cannot plug the cable in backwards)?  If not, most ribbon cables have a red stripe on the edge that is pin 1.  On the ESS boards, pin 1 on ports 1 & 2 are on the left-hand side of the connectors when the ethernet connecter is facing to the right.  On the PMDX-122 boards, pin 1 is on the edge closest to the EStop connector.

(5) When you enable Mach3 (click on the "Reset" button so that it stops flashing and turns green), do both PMDX-122 boards have their "Outputs Enabled" LEDs turned on?

(6) In your Mach3 configuration, which port are the motor step and direction signals assigned to?

(7) Do any of your non-motor inputs or outputs work?  EStop?  Limit switches?  Can you cause the relay on either of the PMDX-122 boards to engage?

(8) Jog one of the motors forward, then look at the LEDs on the PMDX-122 for the step/dir that are connected to that motor.  Note if they are on or off.  Then jog that motor in the reverse direction.  Look at the LEDs again.  One of them should have changed from on to off, or from off to on.  If so, that signal is what Mach3 is driving as the direction signal.  Verify that that is connected to the DIR input on your motor driver.  If you see no difference then we will have to dig deeper into your configuration.

OK, so that was only 8 questions so far.  I'm sure there will be more.

Bob

345

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-122 Ethernet smooth stepper install

« on: January 30, 2015, 03:30:38 PM »

Ohhhh, now I think I understand what you mean by "unconventional numbering".  The ESS User's Manual (page 21) tries to show how a normal ribbon cable connector is numbered as compared to the **CORRESPONDING** DB25 pin numbers.  You can safely ignore that diagram and all the confusion generated by it :-)

The signals are connected to the ESS Port 1 and Port 2 ribbon cable connectors so that if you connect a "26-pin ribbon header to DB25" cable, the signal that Mach3 calls "Pin 1" will show up on pin 1 of the DB25 connector, and "Pin 2" will show up on pin 2 of the DB25 connector, etc.  That is the SAME connection scheme that the PMDX-122 boards (and in fact, ALL of the PMDX products) use.  So if you take a 26-pin ribbon cable and connect the ESS port to a PMDX-122 it just works.  There is no need to think about how ribbon cable pins are numbered.  Just think about the DB25 (aka standard PC parallel port pins) pin numbers.

Bob