Topics

1

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 and CNC Drive DG4S

« on: February 01, 2018, 12:45:26 PM »

I have a PMDX-126 Rev. C, running now with Gecko G320X drives. I'm going to replace the Gecko's with CNCDrive DG4S-08020 drives.

My first question is about the error/reset lines. The Gecko's have one ERR/RST terminal where the DG4S drives have separate Error and Reset terminals. But....5.6 in the DG4S manual mentions wiring them together, but not having to wire them together. So am I correct to assume they'll wire all the Error lines to ERR- and all Reset lines to RST and 5v to both COM and ERR+?

Second question, the encoders are powered from the Gecko's now. It seems that I need to supply 5v (or 12v) TO the DG4S drives to power the encoders, or the "digital part of the device." Section 3.2, page 6, of the doc explains this. Is that right, I supply 5v to Pin 4 and 8 or 12v to pins 7 and 8 on the drives? Then THAT 5v would also go to the ERR+ and COM terminals on the PMDX-126 J13?

Sorry to seem so ignorant but every time I do this I'm afraid I'll blow something up and reading the manuals, while I understand a bit, I really DON'T understand what's happening with all this electricity flowing around!!!20

Link to DG4S manual:

http://cncdrive.com/downloads/DG4S_series_manual.pdf

Thanks,

Tom Hesselman

2

Generic Spindle interfaces, I/O boards, Misc boards and panels / Linearity.dat?

« on: February 08, 2017, 06:43:16 PM »

In the PMDX-107 PDF, page 12. There is reference to deleting linearity.dat, depending on Mach3 version. I delete it, run the machine, linearity.dat is back, so is it safe to assume that's just the way Mach3 v_____.043.062 does it? So if you've EVER run the auto calibration, THAT messes up linearity.dat, but otherwise linearity.dat just lives there and gets saved seemingly every time Mach3 runs, looking at the file date. Everything seems fine, but I was just running thru my setup relearning stuff and ran on this in the PDF.

Curiosity killed the old guy!!!

3

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 Rev. A to Rev. C

« on: December 19, 2016, 06:53:31 PM »

OK, I bought a brandy new PMDX-126 Rev. C to replace my Rev. A while rebuilding my box. The K1 Relay is the question. On the Rev. A, did it use Port 2 Pin 14 and now it uses Port 1 Pin 14?

I use Mach3.

I have my spindle using Port 1 Pins 14 and 16, so I guess I can't use K1 unless I figure out something else. Is that right?

I'm not good at all this and it's been years since I originally built my box. Everything seems to work except for K1. Is there a solution for this? Do I need to do my spindle differently to get Port 1 Pin 14 freed up? I hope not, spindle setup is a royal PITA as I remember!!

Any suggestions appreciated!!

OH, and are probe merged inputs the opposite of the way they were on Rev. A? My probes trigger the led on the board, but are active when not triggered in Mach 3. I guess I have to look into this one a little more!!

Thanks

Tom Hesselman

4

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 Rev B K1/K2 Relay issue

« on: January 21, 2016, 11:16:33 AM »

I've had my PMDX-126, Rev. B (I think!) running on my BP clone for years, Mach3, ESS. I've used K1 and K2 for coolant/mist all along. Suddenly, I get an eStop when issuing M8 or M7 in MDI/Gcode, or via my Pokeys mapped physical switches. I'm using  port/pin 1-1 and 2-14 and as I said, been working all along.

Obviously noise somewhere, but to my knowledge nothing has changed in my setup. I don't know where to start to try and fix this. The coolant relays are 110v, so the power is coming from the Mains power on the PMDX-126 to K1 and K2, simply jumped up to the relays. I've checked all the wiring connections and everything seems OK. I've tried Smoothstepper Noise Filtering of Inputs settings, up to 250, but I'm unsure what field might effect this so I've put 250 in all to NO effect. I think Mach3's Debounce is ineffective with the SS, correct?

So, what to try? Capacitance across the K1/K2 and if so what capacitor? More SS Noise Filtering value?

I'm baffled and open to suggestions!

*****Edit********

The ESS is powered remotely, it's own stand alone 5v PS.

Thanks in advance!

Tom