So on to the wiring and programming updates. Wiring was pretty straight-forward...route the cables through the cable chains long, trim to length, crimp on terminals per the ClearPath manual, fill the connector body, double check, plug in to the motor, dress with zip-ties and close up the cable chains. Really not much to it, except for time and attention to detail.
One thing I may improve at some point...I purchased the sensor cables for the prox sensors through FineLine. These are all about 4 meters in length, which means that all of them are longer than really necessary. I have the excess coiled up, but that is not ideal. Eventually, I may buy some new connectors and trim them to the right length.
After getting the wiring in place, I realized that I forgot to route the spindle cable (doh!!)...Open up the cable chain again and get that in place. I still need to trim that cable to length and re-attach it to the VFD. I also need to ground the shield inside the cabinet. Forgot to drill that hole (doh!!).
With all the motors installed and wired, it was time to get them all programmed an running. I copied the tuning configuration from the first Y-axis motor to the second one and made sure to set the direction signal to the opposite for that motor so the motors wouldn't fight each other. Tried to use UCCNC to jog...no dice. Hmmm what's going on there? It worked on the single motor. Long story short, I forgot to set the motors to "Step and Direction" mode using the ClearPath software.
I then Auto-Tuned the Z-axis and X-axis. Both managed to tune pretty nicely, the Ball screw on the Z-axis was definitely a smoother process, but both axes feel nice an stiff and have a nice acceleration profile. I have not checked the accuracy on them yet, but will do that when I have a chance.
The Y-axis motors are definitely not as quiet as the X-axis. The tuning may be a little too stiff at this point. I may try to adjust it, but I have to be careful to change both motors at the same time or it could get a little dicey.
I still need to install the Y-axis limit switches, but after that, I will be working on sensor adjustment, squaring the gantry (through sensor adjustment), tramming the spindle, and installing the spoil board.
I did discover a small challenge that I just need to figure out...I triggered the Z-axis limit switch a few times today and was not able to recover gracefully. I had to rotate the motor coupling by hand to get move the axis off the sensor before I could get UCCNC to reset. I'm sure that there is a way to deal with that better, I just need to figure out what it is in my software config or wiring that causes the problem.
-Robert