My PMDX-126 Thread

[Coils]

First off hello to everyone, and a thank you to PMDX for putting up this forum, since I'm fairly new to CNC I know I'll be asking a lot of question too.  : )

I just purchased a PMDX-126, PMDX-107 and an ESS yesterday and have been looking over the manuals.

And my first question is a really simple one dealing with Home/Limit switch wiring.
In the PDF manual on page 22 it shows the diagram for "normally closed" switches and has the GND wire going out through the switches and coming back to terminal "13" (or vise versa). I know this is showing for one axis.
Do I need to wire each axis having it's own GRD loop, or can I have a single GRD and bring each axis back with their own wire & terminal/pin? Example; one (1) GRD wire out and daisy chained to each axis on one side of a NC switch (3 axis total), then GRN wire for X to #11, YLW wire for Y to #12 and BLU wire for Z to #13.
And if I can do this, does it matter which GRD on the J12 strip I connect to?

John

[Bob at PMDX]

Yes, you can run a single "ground" wire from any of the "GND" terminals on J12 to all of your limit switches.  All four of the "GND" terminals on J12 are tied together on the PMDX-126 board (and also tied to the four "GND" terminals on J11).

NOTE: Just to reinforce this, the "GND" connections on J11 and J12 are **NOT** then same as the "PCgnd" on connectors J1 through J5.  The signals on J11 and J12 are isolated from the "PC ground".

Bob

[Coils]

Thank you Bob, and all that info is helpful

[Coils]

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).

[Bob at PMDX]

The AC hot and neutral may go to either of the two screw terminals on J8 - there is no polarity.

The "0.150 amp max" specification is for the maximum current that the PMDX-126 draws from the AC power input.  Since the PMDX-126 has its own internal poly-fuse, any external fuse in the AC line feeding the PMDX-126 would be to protect the AC wiring, and a 0.25A to 0.5A fuse should be sufficient.  If you don't care about the wiring then you don't need an external fuse on the AC line feeding the PMDX-126.  Whether or not you need a fuse in the AC power to your motor power supply is a whole nother matter.

FYI - speaking of motor power supplies, we have an app note covering EStop switches and configuring the PMDX-126 to control power to the motor and/or spindle drivers (including external fuses).  If you are interested, see app note AN003 here: http://www.pmdx.com/AppNotes

Bob

[Coils]

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.  : )

[Bob at PMDX]

Since you are using a SmoothStepper and will be using our PMDX-107 for spindle speed control, you should also check our app note AN002 (PWM Spindle Speed with Mach3, SmoothStepper, PMDX-125 or PMDX-126 and PMDX-106 or PMDX-107), also at http://www.pmdx.com/AppNotes.  This app note covers the various settings needed to make spindle speed control work with a SmoothStepper and our boards.

Bob

[Coils]

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  : )

[Steve Stallings]

Jeff Birt over at Soigeneris has done a good job of explaining EtherNet SmoothStepper installation.

http://www.soigeneris.com/Document/Warp9/Installing_and_Configuring_the_Ethernet_SmoothStepper.pdf

He has other useful documents also.

http://www.soigeneris.com/documentation-content.aspx

Steve Stallings

[Coils]

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.

[Bob at PMDX]

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.

Yes.  DIP Switch #6 controls whether this is 5V or 10V.  See the PMDX-107 User's Manual section 4.0 on page 12.

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

Almost correct.  Terminal "T2" is the "remote speed reference" and terminal "T4" is the "local speed reference".  Which one is used depends on how terminal B7 is configured.  If you leave B7 un-connected, then terminal "T4" should be connected to the PMDX-107's "Aout" terminal.  If B7 is connected to B2 (+24V) then connect the PMDx-107's "Aout" to terminal "T2".

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?

These will be used to allow the PMDX-107 to turn the spindle on and off, and/or control the direction:

B2 - Yes, this connects to the PMDX-107's "COM" terminal
B3 - Yes, you do not need this.  It indicates when the spindle is stopped.
B4 - keep jumpered to B2 (+24V), the VFD will not do anything if this is left "open"
B5 - Connect to the PMDX-107's "Run/Fwd" terminal
B6 - *if* you ever want or need to run the spindle backwards and depending on how you have parameter 11 configured (see below), connect this to the PMDX-107's "Rev/Dir" terminal.
B7 - Leave this disconnected to select "local speed control" (terminal T4)

According to the only version of the manual I was able to download (without registering on a web site) says that parameter 11 controls the start/stop logic (i.e. the function of terminals B4 to B6).  It says that the default setting for units in the United States is "4", which makes B5 a "run" signal, and B6 a "jog" signal with both of these being latching signals (i.e. once B5 is connected to +24V the spindle will run until B4 is disconnected from +24V).  THIS IS NOT THE PROPER SETTING.  Verify and/or change parameter 11 to "0" (which is the European default).  This makes B5 "Run Forward" and B6 "Run Reverse" and the inputs are non-latching (i.e. the motor moves only as long the "Run Forward" is connected to +24V).

Also, parameter 05 controls where the VFD gets is speed commands.  This should be set to "AI.AV".

See your manuals for instructions on how to set the parameters using the built-in keypad.

Bob

[Coils]

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  : )

[Bob at PMDX]

When you say:

they came on individually for both forward & reverse when the codes were typed in

Just to be absolutely clear, do you mean that when you entered the "M3" command the "Fwd/Run" LED on the PMDX-107 came on and the "Rev/Dir" LED stayed off.  And when you entered the "M4" command  the "Fwd/Run" LED went off and the "Rev/Dir" LED came on?  And that both of these LEDs were not on at the same time, right?

If this is the case, make sure that you've set parameter 11 in the VFD to "0" (zero).  And verify in your copy of the VFD manual that param 11 = 0 makes B6 mean "run forward" and B7 mean "run reverse".  Also verify that this setting means the inputs are "not latched".

Here is a test you can run.  Remove the wire from the "Fwd/Run" terminal on the PMDX-107 (which should be connected to the B6 terminal on the VFD).  There should now be NO signal connected to the B6 terminal.  Then move the wire from the "Rev/Dir" terminal on the PMDX-107 to the "Run/Fwd" terminal.  Now go to Mach and give it a non-zero spindle speed and an "M3" command.  If the VFD is correctly configured the spindle should run in the reverse direction.  If it still runs in the forward direction there may be some other parameter in the VFD that needs to be changed.

Bob

[Coils]

 "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

[Coils]

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  ; )