Swap Mach 3/ESS for UCCNC/UC300ETH-5LPT on CRP PRO with Plug and Play Electronics

[RCaffin]

The Enable signals in Mach3 are a trap for the unwary. They are NOT Output pins. They are meant to be used to enable the motor drivers, but I suspect few ever use them for that. They jiggle up and down when the eStop is activated, and I found them unusable in practice myself.

Cheers
Roger

[skrap853]

The Enable signals in Mach3 are a trap for the unwary. They are NOT Output pins. They are meant to be used to enable the motor drivers, but I suspect few ever use them for that. They jiggle up and down when the eStop is activated, and I found them unusable in practice myself.

Cheers
Roger

Good to know. It doesn't look like CRP uses them in their PnP.

[ger21]

The Enable signals in Mach3 are a trap for the unwary. They are NOT Output pins.

They are, but they are controlled by the Estop State. Their purpose is to enable the drives when not in Estop, and disable them when in Estop.

[A_Camera]

They are, but they are controlled by the Estop State. Their purpose is to enable the drives when not in Estop, and disable them when in Estop.

That's the way I use it, but I have heard about people who always have the drivers enabled and control the enable signal manually. I don't think that's a good idea, but it's their decision...

[A_Camera]

The Enable signals in Mach3 are a trap for the unwary. They are NOT Output pins. They are meant to be used to enable the motor drivers, but I suspect few ever use them for that. They jiggle up and down when the eStop is activated, and I found them unusable in practice myself.

Cheers
Roger

Must be something wrong there... My Enable is stable, low or high, depending on the state of Estop.

[RCaffin]

Well, when I said they 'jiggle', I was exaggerating slightly. You, the USER, do not have full control over them as the state of the eStop affects them, and they change state during power-up. This is as A_Camera says.

The big problem with them in my real situation is that they are not compatible with the Gecko 203V servo drives. The Enable input on the Gecko is also the Fault output, so you can't just push it Hi or Lo. You have to sense it as well as driving it. In most cases today it may be best to just ignore them imho.

Cheers
Roger

[ger21]

Changing state on power up is an issue with the parallel port, no?

[RCaffin]

Changing state on power up is an issue with the parallel port, no?
I'll plead ignorance there as I have never used the PP - although I am sure you are right.

Cheers
Roger

[skrap853]

I plan to use fusion360 for CAD/CAM. There are UCCNC, Mach3Mill, and CNC Router Parts (Mach3Mill) posts created. The UCCNC is a 'nc' extension while Mach3Mill is a 'tap' extension. The CRP parts post is not much different than the Mach3Mill.

Does anyone know which option is correct to use - generic UCCNC, changing the extension of the CRP (Mach3Mill), or having a CNC Router Parts (UCCNC) developed?

[ger21]

The UCCNC post has been updated several times in the last few weeks, so it's probably the most up to date.

[skrap853]

The UCCNC post has been updated several times in the last few weeks, so it's probably the most up to date.

I noticed in the CNC Router Parts post that a function was added to control a dustcollector. I didn't see that in the UCCNC code. Is that something that needs to be added?

[skrap853]

All of my parts except the Z-Axis came in this week. I was able to put everything together and try UCCNC with UC300ETH. All of the limit switches work and I can move X and Y around reliably.

I can't test the Z-Axis yet, so not able to do any cuts. I'll be using a router so not able to test spindle speed control.

I'll report as I'm able to test more.

[A_Camera]

I noticed in the CNC Router Parts post that a function was added to control a dustcollector. I didn't see that in the UCCNC code. Is that something that needs to be added?

I start my vacuum cleaner manually. Why would you want to control that via UCCNC? Of course you could do that if you wanted to but why?

[skrap853]

I start my vacuum cleaner manually. Why would you want to control that via UCCNC? Of course you could do that if you wanted to but why?

Why wouldn't I want an automated machine to start and STOP everything?

This project is as much about learning as it is making things. I plan to tailor my own post for fusion360 as I know what my needs are.

When I have the confidence to run long unattended jobs I'd prefer the dust collection to shut off when the machine does.

[ger21]

Why wouldn't I want an automated machine to start and STOP everything?

Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.

It's probably better for the dust collector to run continuously, that to start and stop it all the time.

[skrap853]

It's probably better for the dust collector to run continuously, that to start and stop it all the time.

I'll have to look back at the fusion360 post for Mach3 and CRP and see how the dust collector function is used. My intent is for this to be a drop in replacement for other CRP users.

In the future I'll decide what works best for me. At a minimum I want the dust collector to start when the job starts, and stop when the job ends. I'll have to see how I feel later, but for now having the dust collector shut off for tool changes seems to make sense.

[jfong]

I use a shopvac which is dedicated to the gantry, it's pretty loud. I awhile back I purchased a Opto22 solid state relay (125v 25amp) to turn on/off the shopvac. I haven't hooked it up yet but it's would be similar to turning on/off coolant or the spindle.

Right now I use a remote keyfob switch to operate the shopvac. It works great but sometimes I misplace the keyfob. I figure it would be easier to just let the cnc controller do it instead.

[A_Camera]

Why wouldn't I want an automated machine to start and STOP everything?

This project is as much about learning as it is making things. I plan to tailor my own post for fusion360 as I know what my needs are.

When I have the confidence to run long unattended jobs I'd prefer the dust collection to shut off when the machine does.

Of course, you can do as you like. I also had the idea to start the vac automatically, but then I realized I won't always start it, especially not if I just want to test something or test mill, or milling air... and so on.

[dgage]

I'm in the camp of being able to control those things too. If I run a long job, I may not be right there to turn off the dust collector so I'd at least like the ability to turn off the dust collector when a job is done.

[skrap853]

Of course, you can do as you like. I also had the idea to start the vac automatically, but then I realized I won't always start it, especially not if I just want to test something or test mill, or milling air... and so on.

Fusion 360 has properties listed in the screen before you post. If you create a custom post with a 'use_dust_collector' property you could turn it off before you generate gcode.