Messages

1

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 Step/Dir Outputs Pinout Question

« on: October 06, 2015, 03:09:43 AM »

I was wondering if it's possible to use pins 1 & 16 as step/dir pins?  I was also wondering if you can wire the e-stop to any other input other than pin 10?  The reason I'm asking is because on my smaller mill I'm testing out my Mesa 6i25 card with LinuxCNC and the firmware on the mesa card uses pin 1 as Spindle Speed and pin 16 as Spindle Dir when using Step/Dir Spindle control.  I plan on using my spare pmdx-126 board and my CNC4PC C6 spindle board.  The firmware also has the estop as pin 15. 

Thanks for all your help Bob & Steve.  I really appreciate it.  I finally have my big mill up and running and you guy's have provided excellent support to me when I needed it.  I plan on upgrading to Mach4 in a week or so I just don't know if I should buy the PMDX-410 and use it with my PMDX-126/PMDX-107 boards or buy the PMDX-422 and PMDX-407.

2

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 NPN-NO Proximity Switch Problems

« on: October 05, 2015, 09:45:50 PM »

Thanks for the help Bob.  I got it all sorted out.  The only way I could get it to work is power the sensors with the boards 12v and connect them individually to pins 11, 12, and 13.  I still had to use a resistor on each input otherwise the led on the board would be lit.

3

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 NPN-NO Proximity Switch Problems

« on: October 04, 2015, 11:34:47 PM »

I tried the resistor with all 3 sensors connected to pin 11.  The leds on my sensor are always on and just like the led for input pin 11 when metal is present they get brighter.  The leds on my sensor should be off and only turn on when metal is present.  I'll try it with one sensor connected and see if it works.  My only problem is that I have an external cycle start button wired to pin 12 and a hold button wired to pin 13.  I want to keep pin 15 open for future use.  Since i'm using a Smooth Stepper I could connect my cycle start and hold buttons to inputs E and F on the secondary status input connector (J11) right? 

4

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 NPN-NO Proximity Switch Problems

« on: October 04, 2015, 06:22:04 PM »

I hooked up a 470 ohm resistor from pin 11 to +5v terminal.  When I power on the board the led on pin 11 is lit but on the mach3 diagnostics page the M1 Home, M2 Home and M3 Home input signals aren't lit.  When I put a piece of metal in front of a sensor the led for pin 11 on the pmdx-126 gets brighter and the M1 Home, M2 Home and M3 Home light up.  It seems that the resistor helped but should I be worried that the led for pin 11 is always on?  Since three sensors are hooked up to input 11 should I use a bigger ohm resistor?   Thanks for your help Bob.

5

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 NPN-NO Proximity Switch Problems

« on: October 04, 2015, 12:06:09 AM »

I'm trying to wire my three proximity switches to my pmdx-126 to use as home switches. These are the switches I have:  http://www.amazon.com/SN04-N-10-30V-Approach-Inductive-Proximity/dp/B004V6PTKA
My switches run on 10-30v and have 3 wires.  I connected the three black wires to pin 11,  the three brown wires are connected to positive on a external 24v power supply and the three blue wires are connected to the ground terminal next to terminal 11.  I also ran a jumper wire from the power supplies ground to the same ground terminal that the blue wires are connected to.  I setup Mach3 and if I have active low selected then the leds on the proximity switches are always on and if I put a piece of metal in front of one sensor then all the sensors leds get brighter.  Also on the diagnostics page in mach3 I noticed that M1 Home, M2 Home, and M3 Home are always lit even if metal is in front of a sensor.  If I don't have active low selected the leds on the sensors are still always lit but the M1 Home, M2 Home and M3 Home diagnsotic leds aren't but they still don't respond to metal.  When I tested the sensors individually with my bench power supply they worked fine.  If anybody has any suggestions that would be great.  The only reason I'm using an external power supply is because I was planning on using PNP-NO sensors but then I bought these.  Should I try powering them off the PMDX-126?

6

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Ethernet smart bob

« on: October 03, 2015, 12:52:38 AM »

Any news on the PMDX-426?  I'm planning on making the jump to MACH4 soon and was wondering if I should wait till the PMDX-426 is released.

7

Generic Spindle interfaces, I/O boards, Misc boards and panels / PMDX-107 Test mode runs Rev

« on: September 29, 2015, 03:42:10 PM »

When I use test mode on the pmdx-107 my spindle runs in reverse.  I have it wired as Run/Dir mode.  When I issue a m3 command it runs forward.  Is this normal for this mode or is a setting wrong in my commander sk vfd?

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Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 E-Stop Question?

« on: September 29, 2015, 01:20:58 AM »

I'm about to install a Emergency Stop, Feed Hold and Cycle Start Switches on my mill.  I know how to install the cycle start switch and the feed hold but the emergency stop has two options.
If I connect the E-stop switch to my pmdx-126 board will the board notify mach3 that the e-stop was pushed?  I also have the pmdx-107 installed so when I push the E-stop I want it to disable the spindle and stepper motors.

9

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 and ESS Relay Mist Problems

« on: July 26, 2015, 03:57:48 AM »

Thanks for your help Bob and Steve.  I'm now powering my ESS with it's own power supply and it's working great.  I no longer have problems with the coolant relay and the ESS has stopped randomly shutting off.
Now I just have to get my spindle and new vfd wired up and I'll be all set.  Again thanks so much for your guys help.  Your customer service is amazing that's why I never have a problem buying one of your products.

10

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 and ESS Relay Mist Problems

« on: July 22, 2015, 01:38:32 AM »

Yes I'm using the ESS and powering it from the PMDX-126.  I just recently started having another problem where it seem's that the ESS loses all power and mach3 freezes.  When this happens and I look at the boards all the leds on the ESS are off and on the pmdx-126 the estop led is dimly lit.  Do you think the estop led is lit because when the ess loses power Mach3 no longer sees the charge pump?  I'll try running the ess with it's own power supply and see what happens.

11

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-126 and ESS Relay Mist Problems

« on: July 15, 2015, 01:24:14 AM »

I switched the k2 relay to port 2 pin 14.  The fogbuster worked two times but wouldn't turn on the third time.  I checked the relay led and it was on.  So it is receiving the signal from mach3 but it isn't turning on the relay for some reason.  The fogbuster works fine if I plug it into a 120v outlet.  I just noticed that I forgot to hook up the solenoid to the MOV terminal.  Would this cause problems?  I think I'll switch it to relay K1 and give it a try.

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Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 and ESS Relay Mist Problems

« on: July 13, 2015, 02:52:33 AM »

I'm having a weird a problem where my fogbuster won't turn on.  The first time I power on the pmdx-126 and run gcode through mach3 the relay will turn on when prompted by the M7 gcode but after two tool changes the relay won't turn on the fogbuster when a M7 command is issued.  If I try to turn it on manually on the mach3 screen it show's that output 1 is enabled but the fogbuster still doesn't turn on.  I'm using the K2 relay on port 1 pin 14.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I also have a pmdx-107 installed I disabled the spindle relays because I'm controlling the spindle manually at the moment.  Should I switch the K2 relay to multimode and use port 2 pin 14?  I was looking over the manual and noticed that the relay's have status leds,  I'll see if the led is lit when I enable the fogbuster.  I just think it's strange how it will work for two on and off cycles then it quits working and even If I reset the board and mach3 it still doesn't work again.

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SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-422 and PMDX-126 Questions

« on: July 02, 2015, 02:29:24 AM »

Alright thanks Steve.  I'm currently using a pmdx-126, pmdx-107 and a Ethernet SmoothStepper.  I'm looking to upgrade to mach4 and get rid of the ESS.  If I purchase the PMDX-410 the pmdx-107 will still work right?  Also since the pmdx-410 and PMDX-126 both have a E-Stop input which one should I use?  What positions should the dip switches on the pmdx-126 be set to in order to be used with the PMDX-410?  One of the main reasons I'm getting rid of the ESS is because I love your products and the support that you guy's provide is amazing.  Your always on top of updating your plugins to fix any issues or make it compatible with the newest mach release.  I can't wait till you release the SmartBOB-Pro.  It sound's like it's going to be a awesome board.

Thanks Luke

14

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 Air Solenoid Relay

« on: April 16, 2015, 02:11:12 PM »

Hey Guys,  It's been a while since I wired a relay and just want to make sure I'm doing it right.  I'm wiring a 120vac air solenoid for my coolant to the relay on the pmdx-126.  Do I wire a live wire to the com terminal and then connect my air solenoids live wire to the NO terminal on the pmdx?  What do I do with the N and gorund wires?

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Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / PMDX-126 and Safety Relay E-Stop

« on: April 05, 2015, 02:30:55 PM »

I picked up a safety relay from a friend and was wondering whats the best way to wire this with the PMDX-126?  I'm going to have the stepper motors power supply wired so if the e-stop is hit it triggers the safety relay which is connected to a contactor to cut power to the stepper motor drives.  For the vfd I'm going to use a relay on the safety relay to trigger the vfd to ramp to a stop.  My main question is how should I connect the E-Stop button so that its wired to the safety relay and the PMDX-126's e-stop terminal?  Should I use a relay with two N/C Contacts or can I wire the pmdx-126 e-stop terminal to a relay on the safety relay?  I attached a wiring diagram that I got from the safety relay manual.