Topics

1

General Discussion / Step Pulse Width

« on: January 24, 2016, 01:56:34 PM »

I am trying to troubleshoot a loss of steps on my Z axis, which happens over the course of a long 3D operation (runs for about 2 hours).  At the end I find that my zero has moved up by a few mms.

I've reduced the acceleration and speed right down and still had the same problem so I'm just looking into some other areas.

I have my Step Pulse Width set to 5us.  My driver (CW8060) specifies "Rising edge effective ,rising edge duration >10μS".  Is this the same thing?  Should I set it to 10us?  http://cnc4you.co.uk/resources/CW8060.pdf

Also I am currently running the PMDX-422 through a separate breakout board (a cheap generic 5 axis BOB) to make it easier to switch over to my old USB Smoothstepper and use Mach3 when I need to for certain jobs.  Could this BOB be interfering with the quality/speed of the pulse signals?

Thanks in advance.

2

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Laser on/off PMDX-422 Mach4

« on: January 22, 2016, 08:00:14 AM »

Thought I'd start a new topic on this.  I want to turn my laser on and off with a fast output.  I understand that the PMDX-422 doesn't support the M62P1/M63P1 command in Mach4?

I have read that the best way is to use the Spindle commands M3 and M5.  This works but I would rather not do this as funnily enough I am using this output (and the relay) for the spindle and I don't want to change the way the Spindle behaves (e.g. turning on the spindle in my gcode header before starting a job).  It also means I have to remember to power off the spindle controller before doing any lasering.

I also don't wish to use an M8 or M7 (Flood/Mist) command due to the fact that I am using M8 for my extraction and coolant, and M9 turns them both off.

I can't use the A-Axis DIR pin trick, as I am already using four axes (two on my X axis) and the controller only supports 4.

Is there not a straightforward way to turn an output of my choice on and off from the gcode?

Hopefully a solution would help others as I can't seem to find a simple answer.

Thanks!

3

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Error 7 when attempting to Home

« on: January 14, 2016, 08:43:56 AM »

Hi there,

Just got my PMDX-422 board installed and up and running.  I can jog my 3 axis and have connected two proximity sensors (NPN) to pin 13 for homing my X axis and Y axis.  I see the input working on the diagnostics screen for X Home and Y Home.

When I click the Ref All Home button I get the following message and the machine automatically disables:

"Error 7 (Communication error) queuing HOME pkt for axis 'X' motor 'Slave 1' (id 3), aborting HOME cmd"

My setup is as follows:

Win 7 64bit
Mach4 version 4.2.0.2803 Licensed
PMDX-422 plugin version 0.33.159
PMDX-422 bootloader version 1.8.64
PMDX-422 firmware version 0.42.137

I have two motors on my X axis, motor 0 and motor 3.  I have set them up as motor 3 slaved.  This works as I am able to job around.
Other than trying to get this working I haven't set up any other things like limit switches yet so I am unsure whether this issue is limited to the homing command.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Richard