Mach 3 & dampers

[skipper_52]

I'm just about done building a router table with plans from Solsylva and will be ready to fire it up for the 1st time this coming weekend. The steppers are 425 oz. from Xylotex. Does anyone have or know where to find an initial startup routine for Mach 3. Can anyone tell me what weight a damper should be on these steppers or if I need one?
Two pictures of the table are enclosed. Comments are appreciated.

Thanks

[sawmiller]

i dont understand the damper thing.
but i've made 4 cnc routers so far, and you just start with a slow speed on one axis and test, then bring on second axis.
the big thing is getting the wiring and step/direction pins right
dan

[CarveOne]

skipper_52,

I wouldn't worry too much about the dampers. They were an attempt to eliminate the resonances of the 425oz/in steppers. I made a brief foray into making and trying some for my Solsylva machine build. Inconclusive results obtained. Other things got in the way and I quit messing with the dampers.

It seems to me that if they work at all, they would only work within a fairly narrow range of speeds or would need retuning for specific speeds. I also have my doubts as to whether they would stay tuned at a specific speed very long. The springs I used are very likely not ideal either.

David Steele might be able to elaborate more about his final results if asked via email. Construction details and some info are on his website.

Check the Mach3 forum on CNC Zone for the Mach3 initial setup for your equipment. I use EMC2 (which runs on Ubuntu Linux) and has a Xylotex generic setup as a starting point.

CarveOne

[rgoldner]

Dampers work very well when using the Xylotec driver. I increased my speeds from 15ipm to 60 ipm with dampers on 269 oz/inch motors.

However, when using Gecko drives you don't need dampers because, unlike the Xylotec drive, the Gecko drives have electronic control of mid-band resonance.

[CarveOne]

Originally Posted by rgoldner Dampers work very well when using the Xylotec driver. I increased my speeds from 15ipm to 60 ipm with dampers on 269 oz/inch motors. However, when using Gecko drives you don't need dampers because, unlike the Xylotec drive, the Gecko drives have electronic control of mid-band resonance.

It's good to hear that they do something useful. I may have had the springs too tight and never loosened them enough.

I read yesterday that the new Gecko 540 drives will be available in May. I hope they made enough of them. I plan to go Gecko as soon as they are ready.

CarveOne

[rgoldner]

CarveOne:

Take a look at:

http://www.solsylva.com/cnc/damper.html

I believe you are talking about the last damper example. Mine are much closer to the second picture.

[CarveOne]

The one I made was the caster wheel type. I intend to get back to these eventually but I'm not doing much with the machine at present.

Thanks for the info though, as I was wondering if they really worked.

Hopefully, skipper_52 will let us know how it went with his first test run soon.

CarveOne