Help! 8 Axis? I can't even get to 6!

[kash4kev]

Help - I am trying to build a system using three of your boards - the KFlop, the KAnalog and the KStep board, but there is so many gotchas, I can't figure out what I should connect to what.

I originally started with KFlop and had four Step/Dir motors hooked up just fine. Everything worked - I had all my motors stepping, and their encoders formed the feedback. All was good. Unfortunately, my design was not complete and I needed more I/O, specifically Analog inputs to control my system. Since there were none on the KFlop board, I added a KAnalog board to our design.

Since the KAnalog board robbed me of JP7, all the encoder info for my system now had to come through the KAnalog board instead - specifically JP1 on the KAnalog and then to the KFlop board. So far, good. I now had all the analog inputs I needed. With luck, there's other digital inputs available as needed since I lost my 5v tolerant JP7 inputs. I also had to move my step/direction outputs to JP4 & JP6. Since I'm using the basic Open Collector mode for these lines, I'm restricted to only two channels as all the other I/O pins are internally tied to a 150 ohm resistor making OC unavailable for two of my four step/dir motors. No problem, right? I can use JP5 for the two motors I just lost! It's only a RJ45 connector, but I can splice into it and find my missing two step/dir lines! Yay! I have four motors all working!

But this has maxed out the two boards I now own - the KFlop and the Kanalog. And I only have 4 of the 6 motors I need for my project. Time to add the final two motors.

I hand't decided on what type of motors to use for the last two axis, but since I'm using Step/Dir for the the first four axis, I'll use Steppers for the final two. But I don't have any more outputs, so we introduced a single KStep board to the design to control the type-23 motors we chose. Excellent, we thought. We have all the I/O we need, and 6 motors to boot! We just didn't have any wiring examples anywhere on the Dynomotion site to follow, so we've had to learn how to do this by a lot of trial and error. Actually, too much error.

Here's the circuit diagram we finally decided upon after may reads through all the manuals:



We think we've figured out all the gotchas and proceeded to implement and test this latest incarnation. But here's where we ran into another unpublished problem:

Our initialization code includes the line "KStepPresent = TRUE;" This has the undesired effect of making the Encoder A1 & B1 lines outputs! We're not exactly sure why.

So I think our question is this: Is there any example schematics showing the following:

a) A simple KFlop connected to 8 motors (or as many as possible),
b) A KFlop and a KAnalog connected to 8 motors,
c) A KFlop, a KAnalog and a KStep connected to 8 motors,
and d) A KFlop, a KAnalog, and a KStep connected to 8 motors

I'm not sure of what happens if I were to try and incorporate a Konnect or a SnapAmp into the equation, but some examples of those configurations would be wonderful too.

We've been impressed with the Dynomotion product line, and plan on using it for our builds, we just wish we didn't have to try and build our system through having to rebuild it from scratch each time we've expanded our systems requirements.

Thanks in advance for your advice in this matter - Kev

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[TomKerekes]

Hi Kash4Kev,

Our initialization code includes the line "KStepPresent = TRUE;" This has the undesired effect of making the Encoder A1 & B1 lines outputs! We're not exactly sure why.

All that should be required is to not include the KStepPresent = TRUE; statement. It is not required to use KStep as a simple Step/Dir drive. It is only required when KStep is connected to JP7 for the multiplexed opto Isolated inputs to function.

Hopefully our phone conversation resolved most of your other issues. Sorry you are having such a hard time.

Regards