Help identify stepper board and get proper EMC2 settings

[m_elias]

Here is a pic on one of my stepper boards. It comes out of a chinese CNC mill, appears to be called a Tonsen CNC. It came with very poor setup instructions for Mach3 but I'm using EMC2. I'd like to find out the proper step time, step space, direction hold and direction setup times (in ns). I have been using 2000/2000/25000/25000 respectively. The actual switching chip is a Toshiba TA8435 but I can't get much info on it. Or do I need to look at the input board for that info?

I'd also like to know if it's reasonably possible to add more inputs for homing and/or movement limits. Right now I only have EMC2 configured for an eStop input.

I'm pretty sure there are a few other guys using this mill, thanks for taking the time to read this over.

Matt

[doorknob]

I don't actually have one of those drivers, and my EMC2 experience is minimal at best.

Having said that, looking at the TA8435 datasheet found at http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/data.../373762_DS.pdf does not give a whole lot to go on, but inasmuch as the minimum clock pulse width is shown as 1 us (in the table on page 12), it looks to me as though the 2000 ns settings should be fine. My best guess is that the 25000 ns settings for direction setup and hold are overly generous (the waveform example shown on page 22 does not appear to require anywhere near such a large setup or hold time), but shouldn't hurt anything.

[aarggh]

That IC is the same as those used for the Sable-2015, although it kinda looks like a Yoocnc board to me. Although it's for a multi axis board, the settings described in this auction for EMC might be pretty much what your after:

Sable-2015 CNC ROUTER / ENGRAVER-mill,PCB's,engraving | eBay

Hope it helps at least somewhat.

Cheers,
Ian

[m_elias]

Thanks for the help so far! I took a look at the settings shown on that ebay auction, I have been using 5000/5000/25000/25000 because that's what I deduced from my seller's Chinese Mach3 screenshots (diff ver of Mach3) so I can't be sure that I have it right. It's working pretty good but I'm so green at this that I don't know what settings all affect max speed and accel.

How about the rest of the unit and the parallel port io board? Is there a group/msg board for owners of this type of unit? I'd like to figure out what it takes to add a 4th axis and add more inputs for limits etc.