smooth motion...

[howling60]

hey again all..

so, i just got my cincinatti retrofit back on track after sploding some of it's parts, and finally realizing that my amps were in velocity mode, not torque mode (no wonder i couldn't tune the things out.. argh...)

now that i'm almost back up & going, i went to do some programmed moves, as opposed to just jogging around, and am running into some nasty issues with smooth stops/transistions in G01 moves. Previously we had the machine doing great transistions & such, but as the tuning wasn't good @ all, the motion was very grainy. Now, when i command a G01 move, at say 100 ipm, and then do another move at 200 ipm, the machine "hammers" in between the moves. I've tried playing with the blending option, and the nextmove, and the slowdown. but it seems no matter what i do the machine is still coming to a very abrupt halt at the end of each move. I don't want to put a decelstop into the G01 code, as that's going to leave a nasty finish on the parts we cut.

If anyone has any good ideas, i'd REALLY appreciate it! thanks!

-nate

[HillBilly]

G64 works, but have you read the stipulations for using it?

Darek

[intrusion]

G64 may be too much fire power, but he should still read up on FASTMODE to judge. Also look at the SMOOTH command using G8/G9.

The BLEND parameter you spoke about I think works best around a setting of -25 to -100

[camsoft]

Hello Howling60

You're in our database so you're more than welcomed to contact us directly for a quick answer or follow up to this.

Normally, when someone as yourself posted here we feel we should allow the others to answer. However, to circumvent a lot trial and error on your part, since you almost had the solution at hand, we thought that a little further information would nudge you in the correct direction.

Keep in mind that the default settings keep the tool path traveling at the commanded feedrate along the tool path to maintain a constant un-changing vector velocity. There are several methods to override these settings. All in all your desire is to slow down gracefully at the last moment before the change in travel direction. Most machines can handle the inertia and desire a constant velocity, but many heavy machine such as yours require a DECELSTOP or at least a slow down. On some machines such as lasers and other burning machines to slow down would be bad thing, but on large heavy machines like yours consider one of the 3 following choices.

Browse through the "Search for Solution" to refer to Questions #99 & #112 for more info. Plus also consider the command NEXT & SLOWDOWN or even the SMARTPATH option if need be.

The suggestions regarding G64 and BLEND do have merit. However, while these 2 features do solve high speed machining smoothness they are more for small very short moves strung together such as a 3D spline. The suggestions while valid for this scenario would work well, we wanted to step in and say they would lead you away from the root problem of machine inertia and weight.

Tech Support
CamSoft Corp.
(951) 674-8100
support@camsoftcorp.com
www.cnccontrols.com

[howling60]

I do appreciate the assistance, and would have contacted you directly, but i enjoy input from many sources, as often it will trigger new thoughts in my own head about how i might like to approach a problem. Just one of the ways i work, nothing against you guys..

after checking those questions, I know i've read them, over and over.. i think i managed to "read" them.. but not actually absorb what they were saying :P

I'll dive back into the machine in a few minutes here, and see what i can see, and hopefully will get this all straightened out. Just very frustrating, as i KNOW i had the machine running with smooth transitions between feedrates/directions.. now to just figure out what i did to mess that up heh.

thanks again all, will post back in & report on what i found out!

-nate

[howling60]

[QUOTE=camsoft
the root problem of machine inertia and weight.

[/QUOTE]

yeah.. you're not kiddin when you say that's the root problem.. this machine does NOT like to get up & go... but once she is truckin.. there's no stopping her!

pretty impressive (for me anyway) to see it really ripping along though when things are all tuned!

-nate

[boomer187um]

sounds like my problem, still no fix...yes im still here
got a tech out here and he tells me its my galil card - camsoft combo, so buy his... (NO HELP AT ALL!!!)

[Al_The_Man]

If it is an inertia match problem i.e motor to load inertia ratio, it is not the fault of the card or software, did you use any tuning software from Galil?
Al.

[HillBilly]

Al,

I believe they are refering to the blending between lines of code. I don't think you really get the use of the Galil VM command without using CamSoft G64.

Darek

[boomer187um]

yes and no, i've tinkered around with the diff apps, ultraware, dmc and servo design.
and have wanted to change things, but am un-sure, so i do not, because the machine will cut at SUPER slow speeds, but i CANNOT be totally out of production.
i will tune it again to be sure in the AM, any way to check the card and its settings?

[boomer187um]

got started this morning and my pump pretty much blew up (hydraulic seal), so was doing a rebuild and catching up the rest of my day.
sure would be nice to have 2 jets up 100%
But i did get errors -galil diagnostics said system overdamped, and controller diagnostics outputs the following in my logfile.fil...

Report for Axis #1
Doing coordinated move test with error checking.
Notice, your CPU is running 14629% faster than a 800mhz
Notice, FEED variable \73 scales all FeedRates by 59%
Notice, Slowdown= 75
Notice, Blend=-100
10:31:12
_Stopped (6)
_Stopped at: 7.874016E-05, 0

Notice, Your Tolerance is set very loose
Notice, Servo Type 1
Warning, Servo is not Stable
Immediate correction needed

i got the same for axis 2, only diff's being numbers, which i ASSume is location
and the notice above about "FEED" was scaled by 100% -is that ok/correct?
also should i use galil diagnostics, the controller, or RW/AB ultraware to tune my drives?
and whats the thing about tolerance? its set to .02, id like it to be .002 but it wouldnt take for some reason

[Karl_T]

I remember the same issue with tolerance when starting another machine. I just increased it a thou at a time to find the minimum number the control would take. I just scanned "search for solutions". Look at these questions: 130, 196, 204

I found Galil WSDK to be a wonderful easy to use servo tuning package. Read my recent thread on this to get both Galil and Camsoft installed on your computer.

Good luck

Karl