King Rich KRV-2000 Knee Mill CNC Conversion

[BMSTECH]

Dimitris,
Welcome to CNC Zone and I am pleased my thread attracked your first post.
This is my first attempt at CNC as well. Could I suggest that you start your own build thread and post some pictures of your motors and drives so that I, and others here, can get a better idea of your specific wiring problems. I will subscribe to your thread and be happy to respond quickly with my limited knowledge. I would imagine that most of the wiring that I have worked out is specific to my Mill, Drives and Servos. I am sure we can all learn something from each other. I sourced my cables from Farnell, (now called Element 4), details on previous pages. They were ordered from Farnell Australia but shipped from the UK. Good price and service. Try them online.
Cheers,
John

[BMSTECH]

My latest wiring challenge is to establish communication between my laptop and my Samsung Drive using the Smartjog software. I have wired a 3 wire serial cable as per the Drive Manual. Just RX=>TX and TX=>RX and pin5<=>pin5. I am using a Targus USB to serial adaptor on my laptop which installed as COM7. 9600 baud no parity 1stop as per the drive manual. The TX and RX LEDs on the adaptor flash breifly before the error message to check the cable and the power appears. I have tried many various configurations, with no joy. Question? Is there something odd about these drive's serial interface? Do these USB to serial adaptors work?

[Desertrunner]

Hi John,
My experiance with USB to serial converter cable is that they are a pain in the ass, you problem will most likly be with the cable. I have had cables work on 10 different jobs and then you get the one that doesn't and you need to try a different type.
My suggestion is look for a higher quaility one, even look for a different or later driver for the cable. Given what you say about the lights its in the hand shanking between the two, could be board rate, parity.
Not much help thats my 2 cents worth.
Tony

[BMSTECH]

I have been down the coast at the shack playing with bits on the kitchen table. When I get back to town in about a weeks time I shall have access to a desktop PC with a normal serial port. I will worry about it then if it doesn't work. Will go fishing (or drinking) in the mean time. Happy New Year.
John

[BMSTECH]

The USB to Serial adapter was the problem. As soon as a real serial port on a desktop was used all was good. I have now found a laptop with a real port and it works as well. The video shows the motor test run in the Jog mode using the Smartjog software. All my fabricated cables are working to my relief!


[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9hO7FkMWrg"]YouTube - Samsung Servo Jog Test Run[/nomedia]

[Stewey]

That's good.
Does the laptop have a real serial port, or is it a newer laptop, with a serial port in a pcmcia card that plugs in the side, like these on ebay:
Laptop Notebook Serial 9 Pin DB9 RS232 I/O PCMCIA Card (eBay item 260714140216 end time 29-Jan-11 21:10:59 AEDST) : Computers

Thanks!

[BMSTECH]

Stewey,
My daughters Toshiba laptop is a Tecra M10 which has a serial port as standard. The PCMCIA card Serial ports maybe better than the USB type. I'm not needing to find out fortunately. I just wanted a portable machine so that I can continue to play on the kitchen table away at the shack. She will want it back soon for Facebook. I've got about 3 days. I expect I will ultimately need a desktop machine to run my mill as I like the idea of EMC2 and Mesa card interface. I am playing with Mach3 and a parallel interface card emulating stepper motor Pulse and Direction control to get basic operation first.

Those PCMCIA cards are cheap enough and free postage.

Cheers,

John

[Stewey]

Thanks-I was wondering if anyone might have tried one of those cards, that's all, & whether the serial port shows up as such on the PC, so that the software can find it to send the data via it.. or whether it shows up as a plug-in card with 'something' instead.

Where in Oz are you based- not muddy Qld?

(edited to add OK, I see from your first post it's 'sunny' Adelaide!)

[BMSTECH]

Basic control of the Servo drive by Mach3 has been achieved. It has been useful to be able to monitor what is happening realtime in the drive using the Smartjog utility. I now need to set pulse rates, scaling, encoder ratios, etc.


[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTPmdcC83sg"]YouTube - Mach3 and Smartjog Monitor[/nomedia]

[BMSTECH]

Tony,

My drives have a "Prohibit Forward Rotation" input and a "Prohibit Reverse Rotation" input. I was thinking that the KR limit switches would be best used for operating this function for safety reasons. I then thought that the unused Normally open contact on the KR limit switches could be used to trigger Mach3 for home and travel limits. What do you or others think of this idea? Your drives have similar inputs as well? I will use the Estop and the Servo Alarm to Kill power as per the earlier post.

[BMSTECH]

No need to change the KR limit switch cables. The Common terminals of the 2 micro switches are both 0V and can be looped via the green wire. The Normally Open terminals are both connected to the Mach3 input and can be looped via the red wire. The 2 Normally Closed terminals remain connected with the Yellow and Black wires. Pic shows initial switch configuration.

[BMSTECH]

Rewired my Interface and drive cables with DB15HD connectors and half VGA cables to utilize more of the functionality supported by the Drives. Mounted extra terminals to help tidy up the birds nest.