On Wednesday 02 January 2019 08:58:27 Marius Liebenberg wrote: > Gene > You can configure Mach3 to drive anything on any output pin. It is up > to the creator of the machine and the BOB that is used. > You can dump the enable signals and hard wire them to be on all the > time. The last thing you want is for the machine to have the steppers > switched of and some axis moved. > > Mach3 can drive 6 axis from the parallel port same as LCNC. It's a > port limitation. > > I have replaced the parport on some Mach machines with a 5i25 board > with the right firmware used to simulate a parport. I cannot remember > the name of the pin file but I will try and look for it. > That, Marius, I likely have in the 5i25 in that machine right now, so don't go out of your way in that. I put the card in it a couple years ago and had forgotten it. So its running on a real parport ATM.
I went back to bed after posting that since the missus wasn't awake yet, and the first thing I'm going to do is go get the 4 axis box I've been running the little hf mill with for years. The worst I might have to do is rearrange the motor coils on the terminal block all the motor cables hit on the side of that box. Its already set to pound sense into somewhat bigger nema 23's so I'll only turn the currents down if they get too hot. That will take care of everything but the spindle, and there already pwm, dir and a separate enable coming off that bob that I can wire up to the OEM box when I get tired of running it by hand. I see this vfd can be set to run from a pwm, and is normally driven from the relay db25-9 controls, but that bob has no relay. Its a late version of a CNC4PC C1G, the one that has all the leds for trouble shooting. I love that bob, but its priced itself out of the market at $80 so its no longer made. The next best one is the $18 SainSmart, the only opto's are the inputs, and they are easily bypassed if you have a high resolution encoder, which because mine for the G0704, is on the back of the motor, has a scale of 7000+ in high gear. and over 14,000 in low gear. And its plumb amazing how tight the control is now. I can set it in high gear where the top revs is 3000, to 35 revs, and I cannot stop the spindle by hand! However, it appears that this 120 volt vfd, although haveing a more complex setup with 200 setup points acc the docs I found on it, is not capable of reverse running! At least theres no reverse callout in the mach pinout I have. We'll have to see, after makeing the 1st 4 axis's run and scaled correctly, hopefully by the end of the day. The pitch of the ball screws is UNK and the sizes vary. I may have to transplant some code from the G0704's hal file that I used to determine the spindle scale's there. One possibility anyway, as that worked really well. Just comment it back out when done but left it that way for possibly future use. Probe the length of the ruler from a trysquare with a 1/8" tool, divide that count by 97 (extra 1/8th for the tool dia), and * 96 and use that for an axis scale. That ought to give .001" per foot, provided the ruler itself is accurate. A purely local std, if you've more than one, probe them all and average the result. Quick and dirty, and likely as accurate or better than a dial. And if counting steps, the answer is in steps. Neat! And that lack of a reverse is a bummer because I have for yonks, used a low speed reverse when probing as it guarantees perfect probe concentricity giving accuracy's well below .001" with any old contact in the spindle. Doesn't, unless heavily oxidized alu the probe has to hit hard enough to cut/punch thru, leave a mark on the work. And thats an ideal way to locate the work since its going to normally be mounted on an insulating spoil board anyway on a machine like a 6040. Might have to step up the probing voltage so it will punch a hole in the oxide better when its only a micron away. The only provision for edge finding is that you have to know the probes rad, completely unk when its a wobbly piece of 10 ga copper sticking out of a teflon holder, so I don't edge find with that on the g0704, but for locating a hole, it can't be beat. The disadvantage of coarse is the tool change. A bridge to be located, identified and crossed, when encountered. Thank you Marius. Once again, the conversation has shown me other potential ways to skin this cat. From that, I make progress. > > ------ Original Message ------ > From: "Gene Heskett" <ghesk...@shentel.net> > To: emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Sent: 2019-01-02 13:46:51 > Subject: [Emc-users] mach3(winderz) vs LCNC bob useage diffs > > >Greetings all, PCW in particular; > > > >Trying to sort a basket of rattlesnakes here. This computer has been > >driving an HF micromill, thru the parport, using software stepping > >since > >the early 2000's, thru a variety of actual motherboards. > > > >It seems that mach3 at least, uses pins on a std parport that > > somewhat resemble a game of 52 pickup. Scrambled would be the mixed > > audience description. > > > >Whereas all the stuff I've ever used, this being a linux only site, > > has driven the x axis steppers from the db25 pins 2 and 3. > > > >But not mach3, where ack a doc I just found on cnczone: > >pin1=XStep > >Pin2=YEnable, > >Pin3=YDir > >Pin4=ZDir > >Pin5=ZStep > >Pin6=ZEnable > >Pin7=XDir > >pin8=YStep > >pin9=spindle on/off relay on most bobs. Dir and speed apparently not > >supported by mach3. Shakes head in disbelief. > >pin10=input1 > >pin11=input2 > >pin12=input3 > >pin13=input4 > >pin14=XEnable > >pin15=not used in 3 axis setup, but I've a 4 axis machine. > >pin16=expand output1 > >pin17=expand output2 > >pins18-25 grounded > > > >Funny part, from the keyboard Y works both dirs, Z works both dirs > >although I had to invert the scales in the .ini file. So I am not > > even 50% sure that is how THIS machine is wired. > > > >PCW: Does the 5i25 have a firmware that can drive this mess? > > > >Or am I doomed to rewire the electronics box that came with this > > beast to > >make it into a std machine? In which case I'll just go get the box I > >was > >driving the HF toy with, its already setup to drive 4 axis's. Thats > >sounding like a better option all the time, but it needs more volts, > >only 28 for the 2M542's in it. Needs 40+ volts to reach the speeds a > >5i25 can drive it at. Uses the same motor connector although I might > >have to make pins match in the cabling. IIRC that will be a matter of > >moving wires on the output terminal strip on that box. Since the > >2m542's > >have been totally bulletproof, that might be the best idea. That > > leaves the spindle control to deal with. > > > >Its bob is different from any I've seen before. > > > >Even if I expand p3 usage with a 7i76? > > > >Thanks everybody. > > > >Cheers, Gene Heskett > >-- > >"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: > > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." > >-Ed Howdershelt (Author) > >Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Emc-users mailing list > >Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
