My PMDX-126 Thread

[Coils]

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.

[SeabeeGizmo]

I am glad I found this thread.

 I am using the same setup, 126,107, and Emerson commander sk.

 I think my trouble starts in the beginning of the string.  I made the connection from 107 to the Emerson. I pushed the test button on 107 the spindle made a sound like it wanted to start but did not move. I entered M3 at Mach3, the J10 relay clicked but 107 did not do anything.

 M3, M5 works but M4 does not. ( I do not need M4 but maybe it will help in figuring out what is up )

Charge pump: I read about it but I do not understand it.

 If I hit the spindle on Mach3 relay J10 works, but 107 dose not do a thing. I pushed the 107 test button and it runs the test. I hooked my tester to it and the power 10v and reply works.

I am falling in to the 2% rule. You have to be 2% smarter then the equipment you are working with.

The 126 boards dips are all on.
The 107 dips 4-5 are on.
Mach3 ports/pins (spindle) grn, 16, 17, red, red, 1,1

[Coils]

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

[Coils]

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?

[SeabeeGizmo]

I thank you for the reply and good info.  will try it out tonight.

 The heat sin I made it out of an alu block 400x50x80. I am going to hook it up to the old cpu cooler I found. This way I can use the cooling fan to move air in the box. The box is an old house elec breaker box. I cut part out of both sides and covered with 5mm plex glass. This way I do not have any trouble with the shielding for the stepper cables.

 

[SeabeeGizmo]

 I do thank you Coils and Steve for all your help.

 It is working, I have set it on a test run to level the table (MDF). What bits are good for use on MDF?

 The box I am not 100% complete on but close. I got the idea from a video I watched about using plex on the sides to keep the cable grounds away from the box body.

 Now all I have is playing/testing the motor amps and speeds.

Regards
Gizmo

[Coils]

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.

[SeabeeGizmo]

 I have two thinks I am trying to figure out with it.

1. I wired up a button in a box by the spindle that goes to the Estop on the 126 card. If I push it the card does the Estop as designed. BUT. If I push the Estop reset button on Mach3 the 126 will not exit Estop (the red light is on (126)) so I have to turn power offon to the 126 to reset. What am I doing wrong?

2. The stepper motor that is on my X axis now, it was my Y axis. I turned my table direction. From time to time ( it looks to be ramdumb ) make a jump in speed. Most of the time the it is OK but from time to time it locks up the screw making noice. This puts the machine out ot (now) X axis ''0''.  ???  Bad motor?

Regards
Gizmo

[Bob at PMDX]

I have two thinks I am trying to figure out with it.

1. I wired up a button in a box by the spindle that goes to the Estop on the 126 card. If I push it the card does the Estop as designed. BUT. If I push the Estop reset button on Mach3 the 126 will not exit Estop (the red light is on (126)) so I have to turn power offon to the 126 to reset. What am I doing wrong?

As long as the red LED on the PMDX-126 is on, Mach3 will not come out of reset.  Did you release your EStop switch?  Is your EStop switch "normally open" or "normally closed" (I presume normally closed if you connected it to the EStop input on the PMDX-126). 

2. The stepper motor that is on my X axis now, it was my Y axis. I turned my table direction. From time to time ( it looks to be ramdumb ) make a jump in speed. Most of the time the it is OK but from time to time it locks up the screw making noice. This puts the machine out ot (now) X axis ''0''.  ???  Bad motor?

It sounds like the motor tuning parameters are not correct and Mach is trying to run the Y axis (which used to be the X axis) too fast and the motor "cogs".  When you swapped the X & Y axis in Mach, did you also change the motor tuning?  Of course this presumes that the X & Y axis have different tuning settings.

Bob

[SeabeeGizmo]

The button I use for the Estop was a NO so I hooked it to a relay. The relay NC set is hooked to the 126 Estop. If I push the button the relay fires the switch to the Estop opens and the system goes to Estop. I let up on the the button the relay switch closes, but the RED light stays on.

I played some more with the motor settings and it has stopped the jumping. Hopefully that one is fixed.

Now I am working on speed cantrol to get better cuts and bit live. This is some different the running my 75- J2 Bridgeport.

Ben having fun. grin

Gizmo

[Bob at PMDX]

The button I use for the Estop was a NO so I hooked it to a relay. The relay NC set is hooked to the 126 Estop. If I push the button the relay fires the switch to the Estop opens and the system goes to Estop. I let up on the the button the relay switch closes, but the RED light stays on.

Do you have anything connected to the PMDX-126's FAULT input?  This is located next to the EStop input.

If you have a N/O EStop switch, you can leave the jumper clip (or wire) shorting the PMDX-126's EStop input to GND, and then connect your N/O switch to the FAULT input and the adjacent GND terminal.  With the switch open, the red LED on the PMDX-126 should be off and the board should function normally.  When the switch closes, the red LED should turn on and the PMDX-126 will disable all of its outputs.

As far as why your existing setup with the N/O switch controlling a relay keeps the PMDX-126's red LED on I'm not sure I can explain, unless the relay is some kind of latching relay.  You can test this by pressing the EStop button to energize the relay (and the red LED comes on).  Then release the EStop.  If the red LED remains on, take a piece of wire and short the EStop terminal on the PMDX-126 to the adjacent GND terminal.  The red LED should turn off.  If not, then something is not behaving as it should.

Bob

[SeabeeGizmo]

The red light is still on Bob...   Next....

 Yesterday I wired up a relay that would close on the fault of 126 if the 134 card lost power and put the other relay back to the Estop like I had it before. The dam thing worked ??? The Estop red light would go on  off with either of the switchs pushed. (Estop or fault) It worked all day. Then last night when I tested it the red light would stay on. So I turned off the power to the 126, waited 30 sec. turned the power back on to the 126 and it started working again.

 Could it have something to do with the power we have over here? 130,130, ground. There is only one other country in the world that has the same setup. One of the east blockers.

Bruce

[Steve Stallings]

Bruce,

Have you found your problem?

This problem should not have anything to do with the power system in your country unless for some reason it causes excessive electrical noise to couple into your emergency stop wiring.

The emergency stop system can also respond to two other things.

The ERR+ and ERR- terminals on J13 of the PMDX-126 are used for servo driver fault signals. If voltage is applied across these terminals it will cause an eStop.

The J19 interface for our PMDX-133/124 motherboards also contains an eStop signal input. If you have connected this to some other type of board, it may be providing a signal that is interpreted as eStop.

[SeabeeGizmo]

Hi Steve,

 Thanks for the reply.  The relays that I use are standard DPDT 250v 10a. They are what I am using to jump from gnd to Fault and Estop.

 When I power it up for the first time I flip on the main breaker. This power the 126 card, 24vdc supply and the cooling system. The Estop is set because I have not set my emergency buttons.

 Once all are in the open setting the 134, Gicko's and the relay wired to the Fault get power. The button (to repay) in the box by my spindle is the only thing hooked up to Estop on 126. Now the Estop light goes out and all is good to go.

 Now if at sometime later if I push one of the E buttons the system stops and goes into Estop. This is right. But is I reset the buttons the 126 Estop will not reset until I either turn off power to 126 or close Mach3.

regards
Bruce

[Steve Stallings]

Bruce,

I am having a hard time visualizing your relay wiring. Can you post a sketch or diagram?

Steve Stallings