Messages

1

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: K2 Relay & PMDX 171 Hall Effect Sensor ?

« on: June 15, 2015, 08:12:16 PM »

OH is there a way to copy & paste something then quote it?
I only see a quote button for an entire reply, no why to quote something I add.

2

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: K2 Relay & PMDX 171 Hall Effect Sensor ?

« on: June 15, 2015, 08:09:11 PM »

OK, jumper JP2 to "multimode" and DIP Switch 8 to "closed", and it will be Port2 - Pin14 to control relay K2.  And yes I'll look at the manual too.
Yes I am using two ribbon cables from the ESS to the PMDX 126.




Simple enough way to explain the "F" & "T", one get's set to "high" and one to "low", just got to decide what will work for me, or just experiment to see which works for me.  : )

And good to know that the "inputs" on the PMDX 126 all have pull-up resistors, I did think that at first but jumping to different sections of the manual I starting thinking about it too much. Thinking about it too much is what got me confused. LOL

I'm going to try the PMDX171 on one of the J11 terminals first (using Port 2), and if that doesn't work properly I'll switch it to J12 Pin15.
The reason for using J11 is because I want to add a touch probe later and I remember in the manual if it has an LED it most likely will need to be on J12 pin15, since I don't know what probe I'm going to use yet I'd rather keep it open for now.

Thanks again Bob
Off to look at the manual(s) again.  : )

3

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / K2 Relay & PMDX 171 Hall Effect Sensor ?

« on: June 14, 2015, 10:54:58 PM »

I have the PMDX 126 board, PMDX 107 speed controller, and an ESS.

The first question is most likely a simple one, but I can't find the answer.
Everything seems to be working, but I'd like to use the K2 relay on the PMDX 126 board to turn on/off a mister/fog buster type coolant setup, but with the PMDX 107 it uses pin 14 to turn on/off the spindle. I'm currently using K1 for this, but would like to add flood coolant later too.
Is there a way to still use the K2 relay with this setup? I looked through the manuals and some of the threads on here but can't find an answer.



Second question is about the PMDX 171 Hall Effect Sensor.
I want to hook it up to read the spindle speeds and hopefully other functions later, but I have no idea how it should be connected to the PMDX 126 other then the +5v & GND.
I have no idea if I need to use the F or T terminal to send the signal to the PMDX 126?

And I'm not sure which terminal to use on the PMDX 126, I thought the PMDX 171 just got hooked up to any "input"? But the part that's confusing me the most is in the PMDX 171 manual where it says that all PMDX boards already have "pull-up resistors", but the only thing I noticed in the PMDX 126 manual was J12 pin15.

I don't know if I'm thinking this wrong or not, but do all the "inputs" have pull-up resistors, so I can use any of the input terminals?
If I can use any input, I'd like to use the J11 Connector and just want to make sure that those terminals would be Port 2 and whatever Pin # the manual shows, right?

What about Mach3, this will be in the "Inputs" tab and the spindle is "Index", right? Active "High" or "Low"?

4

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Just purchased PDMX and other items

« on: June 14, 2015, 09:15:43 PM »

I'm far from an expert on these, so also see what others say.

But yes your heading in the right direction.
I didn't see it mentioned here but since your using the ESS and the PMDX 107 spindle controller, you need to have a separate power source of 5v for the ESS (per the manuals). Just wanted to mention it in case you didn't know.


"Also i assume Mach 3 ports and pins line up with the Numbers on the PDMX 126?"
As far as I can tell, yes, the numbers on the board line up with the pin numbers for Port 1, and the lettered ones to Port 2. If you look at the PMDX 126 manual close to the end they have all this info in groups for each J connector strip with brief explanations for each terminal.

5

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: May 28, 2015, 10:38:42 PM »

Glad to hear you got it working.

Sorry can't help with the MDF cutter, hope you found the answer by now.


That's a nice looking machine and box.

6

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: May 17, 2015, 10:52:39 PM »

Now I just want to comment and ask about the picture you posted.

That's a nice setup you have in that cabinet, everything is spaced out and you have room to add to it.
Mine is really tight, got too much stuff : )

Question;
Is your heat sink for the Gecko drivers water cooled?

7

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: May 17, 2015, 10:47:37 PM »

Hello Seebee,

I hope I can help, but if I don't I'm sure someone who can will be along soon.
First, I never looked at the XML files, I don't know how to open it. Sorry
Second, I had all the manuals and the PMDX AN002 AppNote infront of me, it was confusing looking at all those manuals at once. Here's the link to the AppNotes if you need it. http://www.pmdx.com/AppNotes

There's a few things that I can see you need to check and most likely need to fix/change.
The first, your showing that you have "pins" 16 & 17 in your Spindle Ports/Pins. Pin #17 is the "Charge Pump" pin. And the "Charge Pump" is just a signal that is sent from Mach3 to the 126 board, if the board doesn't receive this signal (when it should) it means something is wrong, it's just another safety feature type of thing and is not needed but it's nice to have just in case something happens to the PC.
Also I think you need to fix something for the J10 relay, mine doesn't activate when I turn on the spindle, I'll have to look at the manuals closer to answer this.

Here's some of my setting.

In Mach3

Motor Outputs tab
Spindle Ports & Pins line is;
grn, 16, 14, grn, red, 1, 1

Output Signals tab
My "Charge Pump" is;
grn, 1, 17, red

Spindle Setup tab
Relay Control (upper left of window);
Disable Spindle Relays is "checked"
Motor Control (top center);
Use Spindle Motor Output is "checked"
PWM Control is "checked"
PWM Base Freq - 25
Min PWM - 1%


Dip Switches on the boards;
126 - #1 OFF, the rest are ON
107 - All OFF

8

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 30, 2015, 04:29:53 PM »

I had some time last night to play with the mill a little, and I'm really happy with these boards (the PMDX-126, PMDX-107 & Ethernet Smooth Stepper).
I'm just a hobby guy and have them hooked up to a modified Rong Fu RF31 clone (table only now) with a home made column and Tormach 770 head, before I was controlling this with a Gecko G540 and it worked good but it wasn't great because it would loose steps when repeating tasks multiple times.

Last night I did several simple things and kept running the G-code like ten to twelve times for each code to see how accurate they would repeat that many times, same tests I did with the G540 before.
I did this on a piece of 2x10 board with a 1/4" end mill and did a circle pocket, rectangle pocket, circle bolt pattern around the pocket, rectangle bolt pattern around the pocket, rows of holes across the entire work area and varies arches of different sizes. As mentioned I did these ten to twelve times for each code and everything worked fine, I couldn't get more then five before doing the same tests.

Still need to fine tune the "steps" in Mach3, the X & Z are still off a few thousandths at 6" of travel, but it was easy to get it this close and only took a few tries the first time it was powered up.


Thanks again for all the help, and making such nice products, I'll recommend your company to anyone and if I do another build I'll be buying from you again.
I see there's a "show and tell" area, I'll take some pics and hopefully a short video of my crude build.

9

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 29, 2015, 04:27:08 PM »

OK good update

First when I hooked up all the wires the other day then did the parameter changes, and even after turning the power off and back on later I doubled checked the wiring and the parameters were the same as I put in.
Sitting here looking over the VFD manual for a while I found hidden in it a note something like this "some parameters will not take effect until there is a reset of the unit". Light bulb over my head turned on  : )
So by simply unhooking the jumper wire from B4 (enable/reset) and reconnecting it, reverse now works and when I put it in reverse the display shows a -number for the Hz.

I know I said it before, but the manual for this VFD sucks for someone like me that doesn't deal with electronics all the time.  That's sounds like a good excuse, right? well it does to me  LOL


Thanks again
And I know I'll be back again with more questions later  ; )

10

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 29, 2015, 04:27:28 AM »

 "And that both of these LEDs were not on at the same time, right?"

Correct, only one light came on at a time. Fwd/Run with M3 command and Rev/Dir with the M4 command.

I'll check the VFD setting again, but yes I did set parameter 11 to 0, and parameter 5 to AI.AV

I'll also try what you said about the wires too

11

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 28, 2015, 11:19:50 PM »

First off Bob, sorry for putting you through this, but I do really appreciate you going out of your way on this part of it.

The way you explained everything in those answers makes sense to me about the VFD, and now I understand a little more of the VFD manual. LOL
I wish they made their manual more like the PMDX manuals, there's only a few things in your manuals that make me scratch my head so far, but I found most of those answers searching the net.


OK I did everything you said, followed the PMDX manuals and the AN002 App Note, and the VFD manual. After I got everything hooked up and setup per the App Note for Mach3 & the ESS, I did the testing thing were you put command codes in the Mach3 MDI screen to set speed, turn the spindle on/off and forward/reverse codes.
This kind of worked, when I put in the reverse command (M4) it went forward, everything else worked like it should. I did check the lights on the PMDX-107 and they came on individually for both forward & reverse when the codes were typed in. I even disconnected the wires from the VFD and reconnected them just to be sure, then doubled checked the VFD settings, still not running in reverse.
So I'll send Emerson an email about this and see what they say.

But at least I can make it work going forward (clockwise rotation), start & stop and change speeds through Mach3.

Next will be the VSD Speed Calibration for the PMDX-107, check the spindle rpm with the digital tachometer, and try running a few test G-codes.

A huge thank you Bob, you really helped me a lot with this VFD thing.
Hopefully I'll be able to make some chips this weekend  : )

12

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 27, 2015, 07:55:52 AM »

First off sorry for the long post

Thanks Steve, and I did see Jeff's write up (the first link) and downloaded it, but I didn't find the list of articles so some of those might be helpful.

That PDF you linked to does cover setting up the pc for the ESS, explains setting up the PWM and mentions the ESS Home & Limits window. But in Mach3 there's the Config Plugins tab at the top of the Mach3 window and when you open that there's 5 or 6 ESS options to choose, a couple are self explained but a couple I have no idea how to use them or if anything needs do to them. That's why I asked about any good write ups so I can see if I need to do anything with those.
But I can join and ask on their forum since it's their product.



And I knew I was going to get confused with the VFD hook up, and I think it's mainly the VFD that's doing it.
Oh and I don't think I mentioned it before, but I upgraded to these PMDX products from a Gecko G540 (BoB and drivers all-in-one thing), so this is really a lot to me, and I'm most likely going to be typing this all out and not making it any easier for those trying to help. : )

But I'll start with a very easy question about the PMXD-107 first.
- Does the PMDX-107 generate the 5v/10v power for the PWM signal? If yes then a yes answer will do, just want to make sure.

Now this is where it gets confusing to me, it's the VFD manual because it explains things as if anyone reading it is experience with the product, and a lot of it I don't understand what they are talking about so I get confused and second guess how it should be hooked up to the PMDX-107. Or I might be over thinking it because of all the info in all the manuals. LOL
I might have to find the link to the manual so someone can look at it?

The VFD is a Control Techniques (Emerson) Commander SK series, if any of you are familiar with these it might be easier yet.

There are two rows of what they call "control terminals", T1 thru T4 and B1 thru B7, I think I understand them but not sure how to connect them to the PDMX-107, mainly the B terminals.

The T terminals on the VFD seem easy enough;
T1 - 0v/gnd gets hooked to the Agnd on the 107
T2 - Ref Input gets hooked to Aout on the 107
T3 - +10v which I don't think I need

The B terminals are what I'm not sure of, I think I'm confusing myself or over thinking it;
B2 - +24v output. I was told this is the power terminal to close the other B terminals for their function. I'm guessing this goes to the 107's COM for the onboard relays?
B3 - Digital Output, 0v-+24v (zero speed). I have no idea what this is for and don't think I need it? Didn't use it with the G540.
B4 - Drive Enable. I had a jumper from B2 to this before, I was told this needs to be active before a "RUN" can be activated. I was thinking about having this and B2 going to the main contactor so it would be active when I hit the power switch for the cabinet, but then it would be active all the time while the power is on in the cabinet. So I do need advice on this because I don't know if having this on the Fwd/Run terminal on the 107 will activate this first or not? And I did think of the relays on the 126, but I was hoping to use those for flood & mist later on.
B5 - Run Forward.
B6 - Run Reverse. Don't know if I need this for a mill?


Again sorry for the long post.

13

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 25, 2015, 02:42:08 PM »

Yes I did see the AN002 and downloaded it, I only glanced over it so far. Waiting until I was ready to hook up the VFD so I can sit and look at this, the PMDX-126, the PMDX-107, the ESS, the VFD and Mach3 manuals all at the same time.
I know my head is going to explode when I get to this.  LOL


Well I got the PC, ESS and Mach3 talking to each other.
That was a little bit of a pain, the instructions for the ESS make it sound really easy. I'm using Windows XP in that pc and it doesn't have that ?Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)", just a TCP/IP that still has the area to put in IP & Subnet Mask thing, after messing with it for a while I even tried a net search on this IPv4 thing but couldn't find anything about adding this to XP.
Had to run that Configurator thing from Warp9 to get it to connect to the pc, then got it to connect to Mach3.

After getting these talking to each other I hooked the ribbon cables to the PMDX-126 board and got the basic stuff setup in Mach3 ports & pins, motor tuning, and got the three axis set close to were they need to be (within a couple thousandths per inch of travel). Just need to fine tune them later, put in the distances each axis travels for the soft limits and some of that other minor stuff.


Question of the day  : )
Anyone know any place that has good info about the ESS Plugin Config in Mach3? The manual for this is very basic with no info about these and I can't find any place that explain them, only found some screen shots with little info.

So off to have some fun reading manuals and getting a headache  : )

14

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 24, 2015, 05:50:43 PM »

I did get to read your reply yesterday but wanted to work on this a little while I had time to : )

Got the board powered up, then wired up the stepper drivers, e-stop, and home switched to the board.
Also was able to use the "Test" feature that's on the board to move the steppers, successfully too. That's a really nice feature and easier to use then you'd think from ready the manual. LOL
 That's as far as I had time for yesterday, so today I'll do a fresh install of Mach3, try tackling getting the ESS talking to the pc & Mach.


And thanks for the app note, that looks interesting and simple enough for me to understand. lol
As for spindle motor hookup I know I'll be asking a lot of questions about mine when I get to it, although it might seem simple to some of you.  : )

15

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: My PMDX-126 Thread

« on: January 22, 2015, 05:38:16 PM »

Got my order today, thank everyone involved for packing it so well and the fast shipping.

More questions to keep me from screwing something up.
 With the main power into the 126 board, I'm going to be using 110v (set the switch already) and wanted to know if it matters which screw on J8 the hot & neutral wires get hook to?
 And I see the manual says it has a "poly-fuse" for main power input, but should I have a fuse/breaker on the main power lines too? If yes, what size? I'm confused by the manual saying 0.150 amp max (on page 38 section 13.0 Main Power).