my 1handed o704 build

[1hander]

ok after a ton of reading,... and help from a guy in an earthquake recently... i had done the A axis activation thing right......
it turns out that i was puuting my origin in the stock setup in the wrong place...the wrong place being anything other than the center rotating axis of the model... it took a while but it finally all
made sense to me.. talk about a learning curve....it never flattens out does it LOL

[1hander]

next problem if i could get some help please .... i got a new touch probe....the switch is not isolated from the body...so when i put it in the spindle i get probe error...
so the probees switch i guess is not isolated ...but im running a tool length touch probe that is wired in series with the touch probe. (which is isolated)

do i just need a resistor...from input 15 to 5v ....... im just not sure what size resistor...

[Fastest1]

You will most likely have to change the active state within ports and pins for the probe between the 2 types of probes. I have to do that depending if I use a probe or touch plate.

I believe there are also some circuits available (CNC4PC) that will allow you to leave Mach alone and it knows which unit is being used.

[1hander]

that sounds right.... if i hook up just the probe... it works with the same settings that both the probe and touchplate together worked on... but if i hook the toolsetter back up.. it goes nanners again..
im just gonna use it as an excuse to get a new board with more inputs.. then i can have the all the inputs i need... and i can get rid of the vfd plugin and hook the vfd straight to the board... hook up an index signal.. and seperate hookup for probe and toolsetter etc etc..

i can reuse the old board and stuff when i convert the lathe...

am i correct in assuming that if i use both ports on the c62 board... that ill need to add another parallel port to the control pc

[Fastest1]

Yes on the 2nd port on the PC.

However some breakout boards (like a PMDX 126), they offer an expanded mode. I believe they offer a few more inputs or outputs without a 2nd parallel port. Not as many as a 2nd port would offer. Please verify that before assuming I am correct.

I tried to look up the circuit I referred to that allowed both a probe and touch plate to share a set of pins and eliminate the need to change the active states between devices. I havent found it yet.

[1hander]

thanks for the effort 9

i went with c62 and added a parallel port..i though i got lucky with the parallel card but inputs 2-9 arent working...but ihave enough inputs and outputs to last me a while.. i finally figured out the s[indle setup... just need to get the pwm settings right, make an index ring and mount the sensor..rpm is way off

[Fastest1]

1hander, did you delete the linearity.dat file first?

[1hander]

sorry i didnt see this last post, i just gave up trying to get the indexing working... had a friend come over who had his working and he could not get mine to work....at all...so i quit on it..
once i get the money, im switching to a centroid acorn controller. ..

but i was happy today, as i got the 4th axis working and cut my first test part using wrap toolpath ... i had enable use radius as feedrate, uncheck 360 rollover and it started working great..

im using a 500:1 harmonic drive 4th ..only problem i having is its getting a stutter when it changes direction during a circular move.. the x and y do not have the stutter..so i dont think its a voltage problem.

the motor was getting really hot so i turned the amperage down to minimum ..then it lost steps..so i turned it up to halfway between full and minimum amoerage..and it stopped losing steps
but after a whiile started to get really hot then the stutter kind starts to get worse..
by hot i mean hold my hand on for 3 seconds and quickly remove it..,i think its getting to hot..but would like you alls opinions or any insight to settings i may have missed etc etc..
it is just a chinese harmonic fourth so it may just be a crappy stepper motor.

i was running all feedrates during cutting at 20ipm including the 4th, when that little stutter was taking place, only the a,x, and y were in motion, the z was stationary

[CL_MotoTech]

You have pics of that 4th axis?

What drivers are you using? Ever since I left my G540 for a MX3660 my steppers are cool as a cucumber.