Need Help!- Yaskawa CACR-PR-02-AC3-FR Help please.

[ercdave]

Yaskawa CACR-PR-02-AC3-FR Help please.

I am in need of guidence from the bright minds in this forum. I have an older pick and place machine with a useles computer, the manufacturer is out of bussines and no support is available. it has 2 Yaskawa servopack that i would like to connect to a pc and be able to run with Mach 3 and program it to perform the pick and place functions. the electronics will be removed and i will have to connect the servopacks directly to the pc but I need help with the pinout betwen the RS422 and the PC's serial port. I assume that the serial port will be the best option for this task.
the tought of converting it to stepper motors has crossed my mind since i do not have a clear understanding of servos.

I look on the archives and posts because i did not want to ask for something that is been answered before but i had no luck.

does anyone have any idea how to connect the servopack to the pc?


Thank you for your help.

[spoiledbrat]

Wash your mouth out with soap... steppers... lol. Well, just kidding.

I am looking for your documentation, and this is the closest I can find so far:
http://www.yaskawa.com/site/dmservo.nsf/link2/CFRO-5RRM9T/$file/CACR-%28SR%29%28PR%29_AA%20%28TSE-S800-2.5D%29.pdf
See page 17.
It appears that your drive is specifically position control ( not 100% sure), and this is what we want. If that is the case, we need to get a CN1 connector (this could take further research, phone calls, and an order from digikey), and the step/direction signals from your parallel port will get fed there.

Puls and Sign = Step and direction. Dont forget the 0V wires, this thing needs a ground signal too.

Page 34-35 briefly covers the dividing ratio. This is now known as electronic gear, and will be necessary to run this from mach. To set my drives (newer yaskawa drives), I set it to where 10000 pulses = 1 inch. Not quite clear how this is set on yours, but the feature is there.

Keep those servos, and give them a shot.

Rob

[ercdave]

Thank you for the reply, i have the connectorfor CN1 the connector has soldered wires so i just cut the wires just in case i for some reason need to connect it back i will know where they go. i looked at the diagram on page 17 of the manual you indicated and it is the information for the CON1 on the servopack, but ho do i know what is the corresponding pin on the serial port? and which ones do i need for the servo motor to run? also how do i get the 2 servos to work? do i need 2 serial ports on the pc?

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, i am just trying to get my machine to work again, i played with steppers but have always been intimidated by servos and never tried them.

thank you for your time and help is deeply appreciated.

[spoiledbrat]

Forget the serial port, friend. You need a parallel port (DB-25. not found on newer computers). This can be had on a 200 dollar old computer. Otherwise, think about using a smooth stepper from Warp9 Tech. Design - Home of the SmoothStepper - Home . This will get your computer to control up to 6 motors in stepper mode. The documentation from mach and/or warp 9 will explain where to send the step/direction from the parallel port / or the smoothstepper to your servo drives.

Mach 3 will drive the parallel port directly to your drives, or mach can drive the smoothstepper, via usb, to send pulses to your drives. For the extra speed, you may want the smoothstepper.

Sounds like a fun project. Good mechanicals, no skate bearings. Very straightforward.

Good luck!

Rob

[ercdave]

Rob, thank you for the advise, i will look into Mach documentation i have a computer with paralell and serial ports that i will use for this.

David

[spoiledbrat]

David,

something else to think about: for your servo-on circuit, you will need 24VDC. This is not available from the computer, so you will need a small power supply to handle that, and a relay. The relay will be controlled by Mach, via the parallel port, and should be set to apply 24VDC between terminals 7 and 8 on the CN1.
If you still have the original controller, you probably still have the 24V power supply somewhere in there.
I would apply 24VDC directly to pin 7, and apply the other side (0 VDC) through the relay to pin 8 on the CN1.

Other than the Servo On signal, you only have to worry about puls and sign. You should not have to use any of the other signals in the CN1 connector.

The parallel port can drive 6 motors just using mach. If you want more speed, go with the smoothstepper.

[ercdave]

Yes i have the power supply and the origina cables. i will connect the power as you sugested and will let you know. i have one more question? i need to be able to control 3 more relays for vacuum pump, actuator down and a part aligment claws on the machine. do i need another paralell port on the PC?

[spoiledbrat]

I think the mach documentation will tell you how many outputs you get from one parallel port.
I may be wrong here, but you do have 12 outputs (From 1 parallel port). You must configure 4 of these for your servo drives (2 ea step and direction, for your two drives). This leaves 8 outputs that can be configured to drive relays. At least one for the amp enable (servo on, both drives sharing the same relay). This leaves 7 more.

Hopefully, someone will step in here and verify the output availability.

Also, not sure how you will generate code to run this thing. Hopefully, you are willing to hand write the code, as I know of no software to generate this for you. Your outputs will be configured in the ports and pins dialog, and can be called however you like using the Gcode.

Rob

[spoiledbrat]

I wanted to clarify the electronic gearing on the servo drives.

I have newer yaskawa drives, and they work like this:
I set parameter p210 and p20E to "travel distance per shaft revolution" (in reference units, i.e. 0.0001") and "encoder resolution" respectively. Once this is done, if I command 10,000 pulses, the shaft will rotate such that the load moves 1 inch.

Yours is set with dip switches, and is a little more limited. You may not be able to use simple units (i.e. 0.001", etc), and may have to put a strange number is the motor tuning dialog, cts per inch (i.e. 2531, vs my setting of 10000). This will require you to thoroughly understand the manual, and carefully calculate the steps per inch or mm for your motor tuning settings. And by motor tuning, I am only referring to the "motor tuning" dialog box in mach, not the servo tuning done on the drive.

Happy reading, and good luck!

BTW, post a picture of that machine, and let us know what you are doing with it, if you don't mind. Keeps us all motivated!

Rob

[ercdave]

what i am planning on doing is run the machine with Mach 3, the machine has 2 heads and each head needs 2 vacuum pumps one to lower the placing nozzle and one to lift the nozle, when the nozzle reaches the up position it closes the aligment claws, this claws are interchangeable and it has four of them. the machine used to do the changes automatically but i will have to manually. since the machine has 2 heads i could have 2 different claw configuration and use the two heads. the machine has feeder ports on the back and front of the machine and i have enough mechanical feeders to populate 59 on each side. I will have to find out the coordinated of each feeder position and input that information for each program. then by cad or manually enter the placing position. i believe by using relays to control the vacuum pumps i will be able to place some parts. the machine did not have vision and it has a camera used to asist the teaching, i am planning on using for the same purpose.

i hope it works like i am planning to do.

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08859.JPG

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08851.JPG

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08854.JPG

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08855.JPG

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08856.JPG

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08857.JPG

http://www.ercpcb.com/pnp/DSC08858.JPG

[spoiledbrat]

Are those bullet casings in the last photo? Is this a high tech bullet loader???

Partially kidding. I have seen videos of these assembling circuitboard stuff. Is that what you are going to do?

Rob

[ercdave]

yes thats what i will hopefully have after i am done. i am not looking to place very small components but faster than by hand. i will post pictures of the progress.