PMDX-416/407 Connection Issues

[csdisme]

Hello All,

I am trying to replace an dead card on a Precision Mathews PM-45M mill with the 416/407 combo. I have about a third of it working as I have been able to get the the table to move thru Mach4 using jogging on the keyboard. Im guessing I may have the e-stop wired incorrectly as i dont get a shutdown when pressed. My real issue is the spindle. I followed (or at least I thought I did) the instructions Bob wrote up to connect the 407 to a VFD and control spindle direction. I made the changes in Mach4 as the paper showed but I cannot get the spindle to move through the keyboard. The machine originally had relays controlling the VFD, but following the instruction sheet I wired directly to the VFD form the 416/407 boards.

At this point I would be happy just getting the spindle to move forward. If anyone has any ideas on what I may be doing wrong I would appreciate the guidance. The machine has sat under cover for quite awhile after the board died and with everything being what it is I decided to take advantage of the extra tie and see if I couldnt get the the thing to work. I attached  a simple diagram that shows my connections, hopefully someone can tell what I need to do.

Thanks in advance
Cullen

[12strings]

Do you really have the 407's "Aout" connected to the VFD's "10V" terminal?  The 10V terminal should go to the 407's "Vref", and (I think) the "AVI" should go to the 407's "Aout".  Try that and see what happens.  If that doesn't work, then can you post the make & model of the VFD?

[csdisme]

Thanks for your reply.

Actually I did have those connected incorrectly. I reversed them as you suggested and still no joy. The VFD is made by Delta and is their model VFD-E. I have attached a picture showing the face of it and also a picture of the wiring blocks with the labels of each connection and my temporary wiring.

Hopefully this helps as I'm at a loss at this point. I'm betting it's something simple that I'm overlooking.

Thanks again for your help.
Cullen

[12strings]

Really basic questions: Do you see any messages in the message window in the lower left of the Mach4 screen?  You may have to click on the "History" button.  Have you configured the min/max spindle speed in the Configure->Control "Spindle" tab (configure line 0, min can be zero, max should be, well, max RPM).  Did you configure the PMDX plug-in to use the PMDX_407 for spindle speed?

If you have a DMM or other volt meter, tell Mach4 to run the spindle forward.  Make sure to also enter a speed (S) command in the MDI window (you can't just click the "Spindle CW" button and slide the SRO% slider up and down).  Measure the voltage between these terminals on the VFD:
- from MI1 to DCM
- from MI2 to DCM
- from 10V to ACM
- from AVI to ACM

What do you see? If you see close to 24V on both MI1 and MI2 then something is funky with your relay wiring.  If you don't see 10V on the 10V terminal, try disconnecting the wire from the 10V terminal to the PMDX-407 and measure again.  If you still don't see 10V your VFD is fried.  If you do now see 10V the PMDX-407 *MAY* be fried.  Try a couple different speeds and see if the voltage at AVI changes.  When commanded to full speed this should be very close to 10V, and at half speed should be close to 5V.

[csdisme]

OK, thanks for your speedy reply.

Following your instructions:
Messages in the window-
          PMDX: Communication status 'Sync'd to Device'
          Lua: Error occurred while opening file
          cannot open C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX Mill 2\Macros\mcLua.mcc: No such file or directory

          Lua: Error occurred while opening file
          cannot open C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX Mill 2\Macros\mcLua.mcc: No such file or directory

          Lua: Error occurred while opening file
          cannot open C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX Mill 2\Macros\mcLua.mcc: No such file or directory

         PMDX: Spindle speed 250 RPM bumped to min PWM duty cycle (10%, 360 RPM)
         Lua: Error occurred while opening file
         cannot open C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\PMDX Mill 2\Macros\mcLua.mcc: No such file or directory


I did have the parameters set in both areas.

I did forget to set a speed command in the MDI window.

Voltage readings:
          MI1 to DCM - 0v
          MI2 to DCM - 0v
          10v to ACM - 10.6v
          AVI to ACM - 1.4v
          24v to DCM - 22.8v

I also want to mention that the RUN light on the 407 was on and the PWM light was on as well

The digital readout on the VFD changed when I changed the speed setting, but in the display it has indicators that show FWD, RUN, REV and STOP. Both the FWD and STOP indicators were on just like it shows in the picture I attached in my prior reply.

That's all I can think of, I'm going to do some research on the errors that showed up.

Thanks again

[12strings]

The error about mcLua.mcc - that is a Mach4 issue.  Go ask on the Mach4 Support forums about that.  You are the 2nd person on these forums in the past couple weeks to have that error.

The message about bumping the RPM, it looks like you did an "S250" command, and the PMDX plug-in has its spindle settings for 10% minimum spindle PWM.  And since it bumped to 360, I presume your max spindle RPM is 3600.  The 1.4V on the AVI is high for 10% duty cycle (should be 1.0V), but the PMDX-407 is non-linear at low speeds, so that my be OK.  If you set the RPM for 1800 (50% of the presumed 3600 max) you should see around 5.0V, and at 3600 RPM you should see very close to 10.0V.

Now the voltage readings on the MI1 and MI2 are not right.  Both being at 0V does look like the VFD is being commanded both FED and REV at the same time.  I couldn't make out the indicators in the pictures as they were pretty low resolution pictures.  So... can you post a drawing of all of the connections from the PMDX boards to the VFD.  Or a detailed text description? Also, the manual I found mentioned a "SW1" switch to select NPN or PNP connections to MI1 and MI2, though I'm not sure that manual covers your drive and the pictures in the manual show a different control panel than you have.  If you *DO* have a "SW1" switch, how do you have the VFD's SW1 set - to "NPN" or "PNP"?  And finally, how do you have the Mach4 spindle output signals configured ("Spindle On", "Spindle Fwd" and "Spindle Rev" - hint, you only need either the Fwd or Rev configured).

If SW1 is set to "NPN" and you are using the PMDX-416's relay to control the FWD/REV signals, you should have the relay COM tied to the VFD's "DCM" terminal.  Then the relay's "N/O" (normally open) terminal to (usually) the REV and the "N/C" (normally closed" terminal to the VFD "FWD".  That presumes you have the Mach4 "Spindle Fwd" signal configured to control the relay and have the polarity set to "positive" (i.e. red "X" in the active low column).  If your VFD is looking for PNP-style conntections (i.e. switches between MI1 and 24V) then you need to tie the 24V VFD terminal to the PMX-216's relay "COM".

[csdisme]

Thank you so much for your help. I could have sworn the small switches on the VFD were in the correct position, but after looking again I noticed the one was incorrect and when I changed it and tried to start the spindle, it came on just like it was supposed to, except in the wrong direction. I swapped the leads on MI1 and MI2 and everything works!

The only thing I did notice is the RPM reading in Mach4 when compared to the reading on the digital readout on the machine is off by about 40 rpm with the machine reading being higher.

Thanks again for your help, I couldn't have got it running without you.