Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Step Pulse Width

« on: January 29, 2016, 10:54:55 AM »

On the chance that your motor driver opto inputs are really slow, could you try setting the
step pulse width for the SmartBOB to 20 uS to see if it makes any difference?

I have tried that previously, on all axis.  But just in case I will try it again! 

To be honest I am very close to throwing in the towel, I think mainly with Mach4.  I understand that people have different needs and the program is designed to be adaptable, but many many of the basic features that Mach3 had are not there yet.  Every time I want to do one small thing I have to trawl through endless forums hoping that perhaps someone else has put a snippet of code on there for me that might work.  For example manual tool changing which although I have now found a script, stops working and I have to restart Mach to make it work again.  Every time there is an M6 toolchange it restarts my program and I have to restart Mach.  Except I have to force quit because it keeps running in the background.  It crashes or gets stuck on things quite often and I have to do this.  At the end of the day, I have paid for a piece of software so I expect it to be "finished" to some extent.  You don't buy Microsoft Word and expect to have to learn a programming language and code in your own spell checker.  I understand that it should take some time to setup, as it did with Mach3.  But even with no previous CNC knowledge, a year and a half ago I spent a LOT less time getting Mach3 up and running.  But I'm trying to run a business and for the last two weeks I have been creating a backlog of work.  I am not a programmer, and I don't have days on end to spend messing with buttons and macros.  I think they should make it VERY clear that the software is NOT finished and that when paying money for it we are signing up to be part of a development process. 

Sorry, rant over.  Not directed at you because your support is impeccable  - very much appreciated.  It's a shame though that I can't use your board with any other software, just as I can't use my Smoothstepper USB with anything other than Mach3.  For now I'm going to "unplug" Mach4 and try to make the best of the setup I had before.  Unless anyone can persuade me otherwise??? 

2

General Discussion / Re: Step Pulse Width

« on: January 28, 2016, 06:46:37 PM »

Hi Bob, yes the DRO shows 0.0000.  I tend to either pause the job part-way through or wait till it finishes, then use the Goto Work Zero button and check out whether I have a gap or not!  On finishing the complete job with Mach3, the tool was in perfect position on the material surface.  With Mach4/PMDX-422 I get half way through the job before it has moved up by approximately 4mm.

Also it has occurred to me that I haven't made certain that I'm not losing position on the other axis.  It's certainly not been obvious and as far as I can tell it's not, but I should make a mark at my work zero and check in case the problem is evident on the X and/or Y to any extent. 

Thanks for your time.

3

General Discussion / Re: Step Pulse Width

« on: January 28, 2016, 07:05:07 AM »

An update on this problem I am having with losing Z steps.

I have extensively worked through a lot of factors to try to solve this problem (list below).  Interestingly my latest find is this; when I switch the board back to my USB smoothstepper, and use Mach3 with all the same motor settings, and run the same gcode, I don't get this problem.  It is sat next to me right now having run for an hour and a half with no "drifting" of the Z axis as I have had with the PMDX-422 and Mach4.

I have worked through the following which have not helped:
- Adjusting pulse width and correcting reverse polarity on pulse setting, now running at 10us on each motor (though I have also tested it with 5us and 15us)
- Re-wired signals cables to motor drivers using shielded cable and minimum length (about 4 inches to Z motor driver)
- Swapped out motor driver for CWD556 (digital driver, see link http://cnc4you.co.uk/resources/CWD556%20Manual.pdf)
- Turned acceleration and speed RIGHT down on Z axis to 11.8ipm acc and 100ipm speed (have converted to imperial for you Americans)
- tried various microstepped settings on the driver to achieve a range of steps per unit (mm) from about 64 to 600.  Motor obviously runs smoother on the higher numbers but still loses a similar amount of Z height.

The main breakthrough right now is as I've mentioned, the fact that on reverting to my old setup, Z axis height is maintained and no loss of steps.  I was expecting to eliminate the electronics/software side by performing this test (and turn my attention to the mechanics), and in fact I was suprised to find this seems to confirm the issue is with the control side of things.

I have attached an image with some notes showing the different results.

4

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

« on: January 25, 2016, 12:20:32 PM »

Thanks Bob, this is just what I need.  Guess I need to put some time into learning macros etc for Mach4.

5

General Discussion / Re: Step Pulse Width

« on: January 25, 2016, 12:13:29 PM »

Thanks Bob,  looks like I have been running it with the step pulse inverted then.  My CP+ and CW+ terminals are the ones I have connected to the board.  I'll swap things round and fire up another test run! 

6

General Discussion / Re: Step Pulse Width

« on: January 25, 2016, 11:07:26 AM »

Having run a job this morning, I have found that it is still losing steps, that's with changing the pulse duration to 10us and removing the breakout board (using the PMDX-422's in-built BOB).

I'm just wondering about one thing, you said:

You also should have jumper JP3 on the PMDX-422 set for "GND" for the step/dir common voltage, and the step polarity should be "positive".

however when I switch J3 to ground, none of my motors move.  I previously had it set to high which has been working so far.  Could you clarify this?

Thanks!

7

General Discussion / Re: Step Pulse Width

« on: January 25, 2016, 05:34:36 AM »

Thank you for your very helpful suggestions as always.  I attached the wrong link - here is the datasheet I was looking at http://www.smartautomation.it/CW8060.pdf.  I will give it a try, with the pulse width on 10microseconds and also I'll try removing this breakout board I've been using.  I have it running now so I'll find out in a couple of hours how things have gone!

8

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.

9

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!

10

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

« on: January 22, 2016, 07:41:08 AM »

Try increasing the SmartBOB's GCode buffer len and see if this has any effect.

No unfortunately this didn't help.  It is happening with small files too so it doesn't seem to be related to the file size.  My error log is attached to the last post and I have emailed it over.  I have run one file perfectly fine a couple of times just now, and then next thing it won't run, giving the motion overrun error.  It doesn't make a difference if I restart Mach. 

11

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

« on: January 21, 2016, 11:37:01 AM »

Thanks Jarhead.  Though I see "Go To Work Zero" on wx4 screenset and I am using Mach version 2803.  Should I be using a different screenset?

Ok so just to summarise, here are the problems I am currently experiencing:

1. "Reference All Axes (Home)" button causes the error "Unexpected homing request while Mach4 is disabled, ignoring" and also the error "Error 7 (Communication error) queuing HOME pkt for axis 'X' motor 'Slave 1' (id 3), aborting HOME cmd" flashes up briefly.

2. Go To Work Zero doesn't do anything.  Maybe I need to create my own button with a simple script for this.

3. A new problem I am having right now is that I can't run *some* gcode files.  One quite large (1.5Mb) file I was running happily an hour ago is now giving me the error "PMDX-SMARTBOB-USB DEVICE ERROR: SYSTEM ERROR (7): Motion Underrun"  When I press "Cycle Start Gcode" this message flashes up briefly and then the program seems to reset and disable the machine. 

I can email over logs shortly.

12

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

« on: January 19, 2016, 04:26:52 AM »

In case you haven't tried this yet, you should be able to go to the "Machine Diagnostics" screen and home one axis at a time.

Yes this works, but only as long as I don't try using the "Ref all home" button on the main screen during the same session.  If I do, I have to restart Mach4 to get the ref buttons on the "Machine Diagnostics" page to work.

Right now, no, other than "soon".  After the show we are going to review the "to do" list for the SmartBOB software and review priorities for the next couple of releases.

Great that it will be soon.  I will probably have to switch back to my Smoothstepper along with Mach3 in the meantime, as this is a crucial feature for me.

*Another* issue is that the "Go to Work Zero" button does nothing.  I have attached a log file generated when pressing the button.

Thanks

13

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

« on: January 15, 2016, 11:39:57 AM »

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your reply - especially when I know you are busy with the trade show!

Yes I think with a combination of a different USB cable and moving things around a bit I seem to have avoided the communications errors - fingers crossed!  I ran a long routine of gcode and haven't had it stop again.

So yes, it looks like it's just the homing issue.  Fairly crucial but I can get by for the moment manually.

I wonder if I could ask a related question; do you have a timescale for supporting gantry squaring homing?  With the smoothstepper I had this set up with two proximity sensors, and it's quite important for me since using only one I often find a squaring discrepancy.

Thanks for your help.

14

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

« on: January 14, 2016, 11:01:38 AM »

Just to follow up, this seems to be a general problem communicating with the board.  I have tried running some g-code and after a few seconds of running it will stop dead and not respond.  The board becomes disabled (DS2 LED off) and won't respond to mach4.  "ERROR: Could not disable the PMDX-SmartBOB-USB, error 'Communications Error''.
I then have to close Mach4, unplug the USB and re-plug to get it working again.

I have also tried JP2 (USB Shield Connection) in each different position.

Another thing to mention is that I'm running Windows natively (using Bootcamp) on a Mac Mini, not sure that this should make any difference to USB operation. 

15

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

« on: January 14, 2016, 09:31:24 AM »

Error log attached.