Messages

46

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Heat related issue with homing of Z-axis

« on: July 08, 2018, 01:49:08 PM »

It is doubtful that the power on the PMDX-126 has a problem. The
way to verify this is to measure the voltage at the 5 volt points
on the screw terminal blocks. The minimum acceptable voltage
would be 4.5 volts.

It is more likely that the input circuit of the PMDX-126 is falsing
due to leakage current from the proximity sensor. As the PMDX-126
warms up, its trigger point may shift. Try adding a 1K ohm resistor
from the input signal terminal to the +5V terminal of the same
terminal block. Yes, I said +5V not ground, internally the PMDX-126
measures things against the +5V and looks for signals below +5V
for sensors that pull low (switches and NPN proximity style) or
above +5V for sensors that pull high (PNP sensors powered from
24 volts). The resistor bleeds the leakage current into +5V so that
it disturbs the signal less.

47

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Bridgeport cnc with pmdx 126 and 134

« on: July 08, 2018, 01:39:32 PM »

See page 9 of the manual here:

http://www.pmdx.com/Doc/PMDX-134_Manual_12.pdf

48

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-424 encoder spindle RPM not working in Mach4 Lathe

« on: July 08, 2018, 01:35:51 PM »

Please contact support and provide a packaged profile so we can check your configuration.

49

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Wiring E-Stop to PMDX-424

« on: July 08, 2018, 01:32:46 PM »

The E-Stop signal to J14 of the PMDX-424 is low voltage and low current
and 24 AWG is fine from this respect.

You may want to use a heavier wire simply because it is easier to strip
without losing strands.

The best E-Stop setup is to have two normally closed poles on the E-Stop
switch. One pole goes to the interface board to inform the control what
has happened. The other pole should control a power contactor that will
remove power from any dangerous part of the machine in case the control
does not respond correctly. This includes things such as the spindle, or in
some cases the servo amps.

50

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-179-PAN Probe Triggered Light Always On

« on: April 11, 2018, 04:45:04 PM »

The "Probe Trigger" light on the PMDX-179 was designed for a digitizing
probe, which has the reverse action of a touch off probe. Your could get
it to behave as you wish by enabling the "Merged mode" for probes and
move your touch plate to the other input. You will need to put a jumper
in place on the old input point so that it is not always providing a signal,
and also reverse the polarity in Mach4 or the SmoothStepper setup. I am
not sure how it is done under Mach4 with the SmoothStepper plugin.
 
If the LED on the Machine Diagnostics page lights up when you touch the
ground to the probe input, that should be correct. The LED on the PMDX-126
should be off until you touch the probe input to ground.

51

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: New 424 user, no love with my VistaCNC pendant

« on: February 02, 2018, 08:00:27 PM »

This is not related to using a SmartBOB or any other motion device, it is an issue of
pendant support under Mach4.

VistaCNC's web site says that Mach4 is supported on the P1A-S, P2-S, and P4-S pendants.

You are probably out of luck with the M1 and P1A (plain) versions. Apparently they
are using the micro that runs the LCD screen to do some of the Mach4 stuff.

52

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: New purchase (PMDX126) and No Power! Help

« on: November 29, 2017, 07:05:40 PM »

You mention connecting the + and - leads of your power supply to
the PMDX-126. This is confusing because the PMDX-126 does not
use DC power, it is connected directly to mains power of 120 VAC
or 240 VAC.

Can you confirm that your 120 VAC power is coming into the small J8
connector directly beside the voltage selector switch, and not the large
J9 connector which is for the big relay contacts?

Also try sliding the voltage select switch back and forth just in case
it was not fully seated.

Lastly check the voltage at the screw terminals of J8 to see if you measure
120 VAC.

If none of this helps, then we need to do a warranty repair and you should
send the board back to us with your description of the problem, your
contact email and/or phone, and your return shipping address on a printout
inside the box with the PMDX-126.

53

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: Recommend a controller board

« on: November 10, 2017, 07:02:22 PM »

The Moons' drivers and Xinfutai VFD both have conventional interfaces and
will work with our SmartBOB products. Documentation is available on line
for these products.

Because your configuration includes a VFD the electrical noise environment
is somewhat harsh. We would recommend the PMDX-424 for this situation
because it offers an electrically isolated USB connection to the host computer.
It also provides more input signals for things like home and limit switches.

In addition to the PMDX-424, you may want a PMDX-407 which will allow
the Mach4 software to control the spindle speed. If all you need is on/off
control for the spindle, you do not need the PMDX-407.

54

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: Fault circuit PMDX-122

« on: November 10, 2017, 04:56:17 PM »

There are many possible ways to utilize the e-stop and fault circuits, and even
more is you are ganging two cards. Without knowing the wiring and jumper
settings in you machine, it is difficult to offer usable advice.

The PMDX-122 will present E-Stop/Fault* status on pin 10 of the parallel
port as an active high signal.

The E-Stop input is activated when driven high, or when it is open circuit.
Normal operation requires the input to be connected to ground or driven
low.

The Fault* input is activated when the signal is driven low. If there is no wire
connected to the Fault/ terminal, the board will run normally. The E-Stop
input will override the Fault/ input, so you must ground the E-Stop input
if you want to be able to use the Fault* input by itself.

It is possible to daisy chain the fault logic between two boards, and use
the E-Stop input of the second board as a general purpose signal. To do
this see page 29 of the users manual here:

http://www.pmdx.com/Doc/PMDX-122_Manual_112.pdf

This shows the required interconnection and jumper settings.

55

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: K1 and K2 Stopped Working

« on: November 05, 2017, 10:04:18 PM »

Glad you found it. Mach3 will allow you to configure multiple
functions to drive the same pin, but of course that will not
work properly. Mach4 will not allow such configurations to be
created.

56

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: probe ground-PMDX 122-probe ground

« on: October 28, 2017, 09:15:06 PM »

It sounds like you have something strange in your configuration. Please
double check your pin assignment for E-Stop into Mach3. If nothing seems
wrong there, please send us a copy of your XML file to look over.

57

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: probe ground-PMDX 122-probe ground

« on: October 26, 2017, 07:15:17 PM »

All of the GNDs on the PMDX-122 connectors are electrically the same signal
and it will not matter which one you use. The COM on J1 through J4 are NOT
the same as GND and should not be used for this purpose.

The input signal to Pin15 should be your touch plate, assuming you are
intending to do tool length touch-off.

The GND should be connected to the cutting tool being measured using a
clip lead. Sometimes the frame ground of the machine may work, but in
general that is less dependable.

58

General Discussion / Re: LPT to USB

« on: October 24, 2017, 07:31:29 PM »

Yes, the device from Discount Campus will work with the PMDX-340, but you
should be aware that the PMDX-411 is less expensive. Mach4 is required to
use the PMDX-411, and we offer a bundle discount when purchased together.

http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-411

59

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: charge pump for reset works with 2 out of 3 G320x drives

« on: October 01, 2017, 01:47:48 PM »

I agree that the issue may be with the drive.

You might test the drivers one at a time to be sure there are no interactions.

I am not sure you can mix the old G320 and the new G320 on the same
reset circuit from a PMDX-126.

60

Parallel Port breakout boards, motherboards, and dedicated accessories / Re: trying to get rotary axis working

« on: October 01, 2017, 01:45:23 PM »

If you are able to get other axes driven by a ClearPath SD servo to run
properly, then we can assume you have the Enable wired correctly and
your drivers configured correctly.

If the LEDs beside the "16" and "17" legends on J6 of the PMDX-126 do
not respond to Mach commands, then a configuration issue likely exists.
It is easy to see the Direction signal because it always remains in the
last used state. The Step signal may be too faint to see because it is
too fast.

You might pins 16 and 17 double mapped. If more than one Mach signal
is trying to drive these pins the results are indeterminate, and unlikey
to run a motor.