excitron motors and g code

[cstmwrks]

Im looking for some input, I have a production tool that uses two stepper motors made by excitron. The tool is a custom built machine with only one weak spot, both of the motors have to run there profiles one right after the other, some short time delays between movements.. anyhow the "off the shelf" control system has each motor conected to a PC via a serial port and each port is connected to windows Hypertermanel. This works but I have to start each program for each motor manualy and if timing gets out of synch then product gets damaged.
I have spoke with the folks at excitron, and as helpful as they are I have not gotten a good answer as to how best to solve what I think should be a very simple issue. I want ONE program to control both motors. The basic task is simple, one motor moves a gantry, the other motor moves a lift. I run about 35 profiles to make one part. With only a few exceptions the steps and velocities remain the same.
Any one else use these motors? Does G-code in of itself allow one to select only one motor to run at a time? allow time delays of several minutes between running one motor then selecting the next?

Bill

[Al_The_Man]

It sounds from this and your other post that you have a dedicated system using two controllers? And you download a program to each axis controller?
It also sounds like you have a system that does not really need G code programming in a way because of the repetitive motions, which are the same apart from the motion rate.
But it look like you would benefit from having either a dedicated controller that combines both axis, if this is the case, or going to a parallel port G code program like Mach3 etc.
If you are looking to change the hardware, The way I would use is pick up a stand alone galil motion card from ebay and use a simple interface like a Maple systems unit for speed change etc, this requires a bit more programming/engineering skills.
To sum up the options:
1/Stand-alone control like you have now but two axis.
2/ Mach3 or similar, requires stepper amps as well (G code).
3/ Galil motion card, using Galil native language.
Al.

[cstmwrks]

Al,
Any details extra details you can spill on the Mach3 software? Most CNC programs that I have looked at are for 3D router work and the like. Having no CNC experiance or having used any type of CAM program. I guess what I'm wondering is if Mach3 can speak to two motors that have there own controller. I'll check the web and see what I can find on my own.
Thanks.
Bill

[cstmwrks]

Al,
Thanks for the hints..I looked at the Galil web pages. Am going to contact Excitron about this gem and get some input from them.

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by cstmwrks Al, Any details extra details you can spill on the Mach3 software? Most CNC programs that I have looked at are for 3D router work and the like. I guess what I'm wondering is if Mach3 can speak to two motors that have there own controller.l

This is the problem with intelligent stand-alone controllers, although the Mach3 software does talk to individual drives, they usually input a step and dir. signal directly, I assume your controllers accept a down-loaded program and then set to run. This would have worked for you probabally with out any need for Mach3 etc, if you had had one 2 axis controller.
It also sounds like you don't need interpolated moves, which G code programming offers, this is the synchronized positioning control of two or more axis.
Al.

[cstmwrks]

Al,
The basic stand alone controls allow for 24 motion profiles to be saved to memory. Once saved I use hyperterminel to either call up a single profile like P05 then G to run it. Or I select a number of profiles and run them with Q02 09.. this will start the motor running the selected profiles in a none stop loop starting the instant the 9 key is touched and will run 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 02 03 untill you give the @ command to stop the motor. It is slick in of its own, but for two motors its a bit of a pain.
This is why I am trying to understand G-code more. These motors can be assigned an address and hooked in simple serial bus mode. It would be great If I could just paste a G-code file in hypertermanil and hit the "go" command but I suspect there is more needed. I imagine G-code is the instuction file, another software has to "put" the file info tothe motor as needed to run. This would be somewhat like the servo command mode that I use now, the motor always " listens" to the connection to hyperteminel and reponds only to commands it recognises.

bill

[Al_The_Man]

If you indeed have two separate controllers, it seems the stumbling block is to syncronize the two?
As it looks like you don't need interpolated motion, if indeed one move after the other, then if these units have semi inteligence, including some simple I/O, it may be possible to operate one off of the other in the form of input/output handshake in order to synchronize the operation. Unless the serial communication also allows for communication to each control as well as to the host PC.
Al.

[cstmwrks]

It is an issue, each motor has an internal clock, even two motors running the same profile sets will fall out of sync over time. The current on board software does not allow for my needs.

[Al_The_Man]

Which ever way you cut it the answer seems to be you need a 2 axis control of some kind.
If you want to go the G code way, which is a bit of overkill but will certainly give you what you want, you could go with Mach3, you would probabally need step and direction drives however, but you operate right out of the PC.
If as you mention in your first post that there is a considerable time delay involved between moves, Then this could be taken care of with an external timer if it exceeded the limit of any software timer limitation. Or it could wait for a signal input indicating the completion of the first task.
I would have done this originally with a Galil 1500 standalone 2 axis controller, with simple LCD/keyboard interface.
Al.

[cstmwrks]

Al,
I'll look into the details of the Galil 1500. As for time delays most of them are in the 60 to three minute range. One has a 30 minute delay however future changes will reduce that to under 10 minutes.

Bill