Need Help! Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?


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Thread: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?

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    Default Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?

    QUESTION :How to upgrade to Mach 3 software, on Bridgeport BOSS Cnc mill, using original Driver boards and Stepper motors?

    In my recent reading on these forums, I think I have seen threads talking about doing this, but I don't remember the details.

    Here are some things I think I have figured out.

    1. A common way to upgrade to Mach 3:

    To power Stepper Motors, use a new breakout board, 3 new stepper motor driver boards,(Gecko G203, Automation Technology KL-9082, etc.), and new power supply .

    The original Stepper Motor Drive boards, (SMDs), are not used with this method, but the original stepper motors can be used.

    The new breakout board buffers, and or, opto isolates the signals between the PC computer and the mill electronics.

    Mach 3 sends Step, and Direction signals, through the Breakout board, to new Driver boards.

    The Driver boards interpret Step and Direction signals, and then generate output signals, that are sent to the coils in the Stepper Motors. These signals to the coils of the Stepper Motors make the stepper motors rotate.

    2. How the original BOSS controller drove the Stepper Motors:

    Each Stepper Motor has 4 windings in it. The 4 windings are connected to form 2 pairs of windings. Each pair of windings is connected in series.


    In the original BOSS system, the BOSS controller sent two pulsing signals, to the inputs of each Stepper Motor Drive board, (SMD).

    The Stepper Motor Drive board broke each of the 2 incoming signals into 2 output signals of opposite polarities . (Total of 4 output signals from the Stepper Motor Drive board).

    Each pair of opposite polarity output signals, from the Stepper Motor Drive board, is sent to one, of the two, series connected coil pairs in the Stepper Motor. The positive polarity signal goes to one end of the series connected coil pair, and the negative polarity signal goes to the opposite end of the series connected coil pair.


    3. As I said above, the one thing that I don't understand so far, is how is the direction signal from Mach 3 is going to be used? As far as I can tell , the original Stepper Motor Driver board didn't use this signal.

    Thanks for any help from the readers of this post

    Rob

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  2. #2
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    Default Re: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr m

    Hi,
    ( The following info, is stuff I have just learned, so there may be errors and omissions in it. I hope that is still helpful to point someone in the right direction)

    I believe I have found the answer to my question above, about "how the direction signal from Mach 3 is going to be used?"

    The short answer is it won't be used.

    The inputs, to the original Bridgeport Stepper Motor Drive boards (SMDs) , don't use "step and direction" signals. They use "Quadrature" signals instead.


    I found out how to implement the Quadrature signals in Mach 3, from a document titled: "How to convert a Bridgeport Boss 6 to Mach3
    using Darek ’s (Hillbilly BOB) board
    " Here is a link to the document : http://manuals.chudov.com/Bridgeport..._to_Mach_3.pdf

    On page 3 of the document, the 1st paragraph explains what you do to output the Quadrature signals:

    "The software must be set to Max CL Mode (This is done under
    Config, Ports and Pins, Port Setup and Axis Selection.). When
    the software is in this mode you do not have to configure the
    motor outputs for the axis (Pins 2-9)."

    This document gives a thorough writeup, of how to convert a Bridgeport BOSS 3 to BOSS 6 CNC mill, to Mach 3, using the original Bridgeport BOSS Stepper Motor Drive boards, and original Stepper motors.

    I haven't done it yet, but it looks to me like this document has all of the informations necessary to convert the Bridgeport BOSS mills to Mach3, while still retaining the original drive boards and stepper motors.


    The document also mentions a breakout board that was sold by Darek Ashburn. Darek called his board the "Hilbilly BOB" breakout board.
    I don't think Dareks' board is still available.
    I believe you can use other Parallel Port Breakout boards just as well, for the conversion to Mach 3



    I also found this comment from Derek Ashburn, on a Mach support forum: https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=202.0 ( go to reply #8)
    He explains a little about Quadrature signals.
    It looks to me like the Quadrature signals ,sent to the 2 coil pairs of a Bridgeport BOSS stepper motor, are 90 degrees out of phase to each other.
    Which signal is leading the other determines the direction of the stepper motor rotation. When Mach3 needs to change the direction of the stepper motor
    it switches which signal is leading the other. This accomplishes the same thing as using the step and direction signals used in the more common method of



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    Default Re: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr m

    I've made a little more progress.

    First of all, I made a mistake in my last post. You need to select" MaxNC-10 Wave Drive", not "MaxCL Mode Enabled" in the "Ports and Pins/Port setup and Axis selection"
    part of the configuration of Mach 3.


    Initially I thought I might be able to make my own breakout board with opto isolation, so
    I ordered and received some 4N25 opto isolator ICs and some 7407 buffer ICs.

    After more research I decided it wasn't really practical to think I could make my own breakout board
    They seem much too complicated, so I decided to buy one online.


    I then purchased and received a PMDX-122 Buffered bi-directional breakout board, and a Parallel port cable for $105 incl. shipping

    When I got the PMDX-122 , I realized that it doesn't have opto isolation on the outputs ,that would be fed to the inputs of
    the stepper motor drive boards, (SMD boards).

    I decided to call PMDX and see if I could return the board.

    I called PMDX and ended up talking to Steve. He told me I should be able to make my own opto isolator board that would go between the outputs
    of the PMDX-122 and the inputs to the SMD boards on the mill. I decided to try it ,especially since I already have the opto isolator chips.

    I included some pics of the circuit I have so far.
    Pics 1 and 2, are of one axis of the stepper motor drive signals. They show how the opto isolator is connected,
    to the output of the PMDX -122 and to the input of the SMD board.
    Pic 3 shows the buffer and opto isolator section of the original Bridgeport controller. The 7407 IC is the buffers, and the MCT271 ICs are the opto isolators.

    I have tried it on the bench driving one of the actual SMD cards. I fed 24vdc to the SMD board. I then fed a 5 volt amplitude
    square wave into the input of the opto isolator . I then looked at various points on the SMD board with an oscilloscope. I'm not an expert, but I think its working.

    Steve also mentioned that for Mach 3 you need to have a computer with a 32 bit operating system. I ordered a computer off ebay with Windows 7- 32 bit, and a parallel port for $100.

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?-dsc02260-jpg   Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?-dsc02261-jpg   Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?-dsc02262-jpg  


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    Default Re: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr m

    I finally accomplished my goal of getting the Bridgeport BOSS 5 CNC mill to work with Mach3. I used the original Stepper Drives, Power Supplies etc.
    I used a PMDX-122 breakout board.
    Total cost was maybe $250 including the computer. I will still need to spend $175 for the Mach3 license, if I want to run programs with more than 500 lines of G code.
    It was harder than I expected, but it seems worth it now that it's working.
    I may give more details later on the things I went through.
    One thing that I learned is that Windows XP is the best versions of windows to use for running Mach3.
    If anyone has any questions about it let me know and I will try to answer them.

    Rob



  5. #5

    Default Re: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr m

    Fayette, I'm looking at possibly installing Mach 3 onto my Bridgeport Explorer Rigid ram knee mill. I have a computer with Windows XP on it. Do you know what I would all have to do for the conversion swap? I have the original SEM DC brushed servo motors.



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    Default Re: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr m

    Hi Mopar1rules,
    I wish I could help, but I doubt I will be able to. I'm definitely not an expert at this. It took a lot of thought to finally make mine work and from what I can tell in your post I think your situation is different. You mention having servo motors, and my setup has stepper motors.
    I think the best thing to do would be for you to call me and we could discuss it a little more and see if I can be of any help . I'm pretty unfamiliar with how CNCzone works but maybe there is a way you can send me a private message and we could go from there. If I end up being some help to you then I could post it here for other people to see. Maybe other people will chime in here with ideas. My machine is still working well and I think it was really worth doing. Rob



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    Default Re: Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr m

    Mopar......Can you post some pictures of your control panel and the wiring diagram for your Explorer mill?



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Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?

Upgrade to Mach3, on Bridgeport BOSS mill using original drive boards and stepr mtrs?