Servo drive Allen Bradley

[efrem]

Did someone have some allen bradley servo drive controled by Mach3 ? I m not able to get any motion without the programmation cable . Any solution ?

[Halfnutz]

Need more info, what model drive? Is it a newer 139X or 2XXX series or "Ultra" Digital Drive? Is it set up for step & direction inputs? How do you have Mach3 set up? If it is a newer digital drive with step & direction inputs it should work fine, if it's set up correctly. An analog input drive will need a step&dir. to +/- 5, 10 0r 20 Volt converter. It is possible to connect just about any type of servo with encoder feedback and correct drive to Mach3, if its done right. The exception is a DeviceNet or dedicated network only drive.

Is the programming cable missing or are you talking about a serial DeviceNet type of control? That is a different story, Mach3 will not send serial data commands to the drive, only step&direction, which can be converted to analog.

If the programming intertface ( either the digital operator, front panel or computer cable and software) is missing, it is unlikely you will be able to get it running. You must be able to somehow adjust the parameter settings.

Its hard to help with no information. Get some more details.......

[efrem]

My drives are 1398-DDM-009 and 1398-DDM-019 ultra100. They are configured to get command by step/dir. I can get all the moves that I want when the programation cable "that plug into the serial port of the computer so you can use UltraMaster" is connected to the drive. If I unplug it, the motor wont move anymore.

The other interesting thing is when the programming cable is plugged ( the serial cable ) I dont need any wire connected to pins dir- and step- of the drive. I just plug the dir+ and step+ directly to the parallel port and it works. Am I suppose to connect dir- and step- to common of the parallel port to make this works ?

Does Mach3 can use an encoder feedback to take into consideration the real movement of the motor ?

Thanks

[DennisCNC]

Did you connect the external 12V power supply? Did you short the ENABLE (20) and FOLLOW (32) pin to common?
I have the same drives but I only spent a few hours messing with them. You can connect the two neg wire to the PPort 25 pin.
Mach does not have real time feedback or position.
You can PM this member: aggiestevo, he got his working with step/dir

[unterhaus]

Those drives take differential step/dir signals. What this means is that you have to be pretty careful setting them up with the single ended signals that most of us have. They give a circuit to drive step/dir with a single-ended circuit, but don't recommend it. The manual is easily available. I believe that you are going to need a good breakout board.

Getting it moving with the serial port is at least half the problem though, you probably will be successful.

[Halfnutz]

I think whats happening is that your programming cable is providing alogic ground to the computer and when disconnected the drive has nothing to reference its logic levels to. You may just need a logical ground to the -Dir and -Step.

On my Yaskawa drives I have to pull +Dir and +Step up with a +5V signal through a 1K resistor on each and the -Dir and -Step to the 5V supply ground as well as the computer ground (Pin 18). MAKE SURE THAT THE 5V SUPPLY IS COMPLETELY ISOLATED FROM CHASSIS GROUND. In other words the 5V logic supply ground is not neccesarily the same as the chassis ground which can be the motor ground, or power output ground and a ground loop can occur.

The yaskawa drives are one of three types: Line driver (what I have described above), or true differential with a selector in the parameter settings (older style). Only line driver or differential (not as common), or the newer models with auto detecting which will work with either and with no parameter setting.

READ YOUR MANUAL! CALL ALLEN BRADLEY!

Your safest bet is to use a breakout board with isolation and its own 5 volt supply and built in pull up resistors. Set the inputs to line driver (TTL) if they are selectable. These work for me every time, otherwise I have the same problem, they just act crazy and dont seem to follow any logic. Sometimes connecting the -Step and -Dir to ground works but not allways without the +5V and pull up resistors. The breakout board fixed my problems as well as the explanation above, but some one told me the method with pull up resistors does not provide the same degree of protection, although I have a system working that way.

PLEASE BE CAREFULL, YOUR SAFEST BET IS THE BREAKOUT BOARD, I have gotten them to work with a power supply and pull-up resistors but I would not reccomend that solution without some type of isolation which the breakout board provides.

You may want to keep asking' maybe someone that understands this may give you a more thorough explanation, but it sounds like your logic is just floating. Maybe Allen Bradley could help, although the people at Yaskawa were clueless when I called them. They are used to controllers that are designed to work specifically with the drives.

I would reccomend a breakout board. It is by far the safest and simplest solution. +Dir and +Step go to the signal output pins and -Dir and -Step connect to ground.

[unterhaus]

Halfnutz, I have a suspicion that these drives were actually designed by Yaskawa. They look the same other than the plastic of the front panel. What breakout board do you use? Most breakout boards don't have isolated outputs since the majority of them are driving geckodrives that have isolated inputs. You are probably right about the serial cable supplying ground.

Figure 6.33, page 6.114 shows pins 2 and 4 of the drive connected to the PC ground. Pin 16 and 14 connected to the step/dir, and pins 17 and 15 are not connected.

PC parallel ports are horrible at driving things, efrem should get a breakout board.

[Halfnutz]

Originally Posted by unterhaus Halfnutz, I have a suspicion that these drives were actually designed by Yaskawa. They look the same other than the plastic of the front panel. What breakout board do you use? Most breakout boards don't have isolated outputs since the majority of them are driving geckodrives that have isolated inputs. You are probably right about the serial cable supplying ground. Figure 6.33, page 6.114 shows pins 2 and 4 of the drive connected to the PC ground. Pin 16 and 14 connected to the step/dir, and pins 17 and 15 are not connected. PC parallel ports are horrible at driving things, efrem should get a breakout board.

I just use any breakout board that provides additional current, ie a place for a wall transformer, I geusse some have a transformer on board but the ones Ive used were both from that Hubble's CNC on eBay, theyre only 25 bucks.

You probably have a variation of SDGM or SDGH amp, the Sigma 2, I think Yaskawa makes them for everyone. On it I think I had to reverse the signals for some reason, no I just checked one, just + Step & Dir to the Step & Dir outputs of the PC and then ground the other ones, pins 15 and 17 I bet need grounded, try changing logic in the control software from negative to positive logic also or vs/vr.
Yes, its negative logic on the one I'm looking at. There is no parameter change on the newer ones, it should work if you have enough current from the LPT or brkout brd. On one I had it would work fine by itself but with others connected it wouldn't work without the added current.

[unterhaus]

http://cgi.ebay.com/PRINTER-PORT-PRO...QQcmdZViewItem
Is it that one?

[Halfnutz]

Sorry, I thought it was Hubbard but it is this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Parallel-Port-Br...QQcmdZViewItem

Its got the isolation and ground pins.

[efrem]

I know that the parallel port is not the best way to control a cnc but I m just in the test phase. I wish to uses in futur a Grex but for now, the firmware of the grex is not finished, so I m waiting ...

[Halfnutz]

I would love to get the grex, but for now I'm stuck low budget, really I'd like a Haas VMC and a nice rotary table...dream on, huh...