ES-DH2306 Drive with UC300ETH Motion Control Board

[Andrew22]

Has anyone worked with this combination of driver and motion controller before? The UC300 is a 5 axis motion controller with 5 digital ports with 26 pins each. The connection I need to make to CN1 on the leadshine driver is a 44 pin D sub connector. I haven't been able to find any premade cables that would work, and I doubt such a thing would even exist as it is such an oddball connection. The best I think I can do is to make a 25 pin to 44 pin adapter myself. Has anyone done this before or is there a better solution. I want to keep things as simple as possible for the inevitable troubleshooting that will be required, and electronics is not my area of expertise.

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[ger21]

I would not make a 25 pin to 44 pin adapter.
There are only 8 pins used out of the 44.
If you don't need the enable or alarm pins, there are only 4.
So, you can buy the connectors for $5 each, and use a 4 conductor wire, and wire them directly to your breakout board.

44-pin Control Signal Connector for Leadshine Servo/Stepper Drives

[Andrew22]

I've got the 25 pin and 44 pin connectors already, and you're right that I will only have 8 working pins so I won't need to wire up extra useless pins. I'd feel better having the alarm and enable pins functional, although I'm not sure how I can make that work as there aren't enough output pins on ports 1, 4 and 5 to allow enable to function. Is there a workaround for this? Seems odd that the motion control board would be set up without a way to make this work.

[ger21]

Are you already using all 24 outputs on ports 2 and 3?

[islaww]

Andrew...
I feel your pain. I solder up a few sets of those HD44 connectors a month and they take time. They are, in fact the reason I learned to solder under a magnifying glass. I do not use the enable function as it will not reset the drive, but do use the alarm. Here is a board that went out last week using 6 conductor shielded data cables.

I do recommend using the alarm as I have seen a case where one motor on a dual drive gantry hit an obstacle (user placed) and the rest of the axes kept going.

[Andrew22]

Hi Gary,

Nice job with the wiring. Those leadshine drivers look familiar, although it looks like your motion control board is quite a bit bigger than mine with lots of screw in terminals. I'm beginning to wish the UC300 had screw terminals instead of pins as it would potentially make my job easier. I definitely want to keep the alarms as I have a dual drive gantry and my easy servos would probably do a lot of damage if they got out of sync. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but if you don't use the enable function, what would you use to trigger an emergency shut off?

Gerry, you make a good point about there being lots of outputs on ports 2 and 3, and I would definitely have enough outputs to connect to all 4 drivers, however I'm not sure how I would go about splitting wires from a bundled cable into multiple connectors without creating a chaotic wiring job. My initial idea was to assign each driver its own port (which is kinda wasteful) but it would make it harder to mix up which wire goes to what pin. Since I'm a relative newbie to the electrical side of things I'm trying to minimize the possibility of me making errors I'll have difficulty tracking down.

[ger21]

Basically, just like Gary shows.
It looks like his cables are above his board, and he removes the jacket and leaves a foot or more of the wires, so they can easily be directed to where they need to go.

I'm beginning to wish the UC300 had screw terminals instead of pins as it would potentially make my job easier.

That's what breakout boards are for. I just ordered this one:
MB2 ESS ethernet smooth stepper BOB breakout out board [MB2]
It's made for the Smoothstepper, but should work fine with the UC300.

[islaww]

Andrew....
Thanks, I try to do a neat job with my control systems.

First, this is a WinCNC system and their CN1/2 I/O board. YMMV Each of the alarm wires go to an individual input. (yellow wires, top left) When one of these inputs goes active they function as an "all motion stop", and depending on the other parameters set in that macro, will kill the spindle, power to the drives and will force a G28 rehome on all axes. I do it this way because toggling the enable power will not reset the drive when a fault occurs, a power cycle is required. This may or may not be the case on your system or with your drives.

Those header connections would not be a problem for me as I have a Molex header crimper and hundreds of header blocks, as I do a lot of interconnectivity work.

Gerry is spot on as to the use of the data cables.

Here is a shot of my Bridgeport Mill where a number of header type connections are used

[Andrew22]

Things are starting to make a little more sense to me now, although I wish I had thought about ordering a breakout board back when I got my UC300. When I was doing my research I got the impression that these boards were used to control the drivers directly from a computer, and didn't think they'd be necessary in addition to a motion control board.

Gerry, that looks like a nice unit, although it costs almost as much as a motion control board. In doing some more research, pricing seems to be all over the place for these boards, from a cheap $10 board with less terminals to well over $100. Are the extra features of these expensive boards necessary? My current impression is that I would be using this as a fancy adapter with a 25 pin input and screw terminal outputs to make hooking up wires easier.

Another possibly dumb question, as I'm looking at the config menu in the UCCNC software is that each axis allocates only 1 step and 1 direction pin, yet the leadshine driver allocates 2 pins for each, both + and -. They also mention the driver can run in single or double pulse mode. Would this mean that I only use 1 pin from the UC300 and split into 2 wires going to the + and - pins on the drivers? If the software can only define 1 pin for step and one for direction I'm not really sure how else this would work.

[Andrew22]

Things are starting to make a little more sense to me now, although I wish I had thought about ordering a breakout board back when I got my UC300. When I was doing my research I got the impression that these boards were used to control the drivers directly from a computer, and didn't think they'd be necessary in addition to a motion control board.

Gerry, that looks like a nice unit, although it costs almost as much as a motion control board. In doing some more research, pricing seems to be all over the place for these boards, from a cheap $10 board with less terminals to well over $100. Are the extra features of these expensive boards necessary? My current impression is that I would be using this as a fancy adapter with a 25 pin input and screw terminal outputs to make hooking up wires easier.

Another possibly dumb question, as I'm looking at the config menu in the UCCNC software is that each axis allocates only 1 step and 1 direction pin, yet the leadshine driver allocates 2 pins for each, both + and -. They also mention the driver can run in single or double pulse mode. Would this mean that I only use 1 pin from the UC300 and split into 2 wires going to the + and - pins on the drivers? If the software can only define 1 pin for step and one for direction I'm not really sure how else this would work.

[islaww]

Andrew...
A few comments:
"pricing seems to be all over the place for these boards, from a cheap $10 board with less terminals to well over $100."

I show 2 I/O boards above, the first and larger is $490 and the second on the Bridgeport is $300 but has a $50 4 channel output relay added. So, coming from a position of building systems for professional users that depend on the product for their income, having $500 in a properly opto-isolated I/O system is a small part of the system. The price for industrial grade, top of the line proprietary controller I/O will be in the thousands. What makes them so good, or worth the money, is that they are produced and SUPPORTED by the controller mfgr and are guaranteed compatible. Something that seldom exists in the low budget DIY world.


Are the extra features of these expensive boards necessary? It depends, do you wish to work ON your machine or worth WITH it? The most expensive one that I show above does not cost one days down time at normal shop rate. Only you can decide that.

For example: both boards I show above have 6 terminals for step and direction. This ensures that no matter which signal type the drives require the board can be wired to accommodate them.

[ger21]

The UC300 is designed for use with breakout boards, and you shouldn't be wiring your drives directly to the UC300 motherboard.. Those 5 ports are for plugging breakout boards into them.

Many people find that the $5 boards work very good.

Generally, the more you spend, the more features you get, and the better the quality and support.
I chose that board because I wanted something with 24V inputs and outputs, and there aren't many options that meet those needs.

Another possibly dumb question, as I'm looking at the config menu in the UCCNC software is that each axis allocates only 1 step and 1 direction pin, yet the leadshine driver allocates 2 pins for each, both + and -.

I don't have time to look right now, but depending on your breakout board, in some cases you connect two pins to either ground, or 5V, in addition to the step and direction pins.

Would this mean that I only use 1 pin from the UC300 and split into 2 wires going to the + and - pins on the drivers?

NO.

If you're not sure how to wire it, ask, or you'll end up with expensive paperweights.

[ger21]

These might make your life a bit easier.
https://cnc4pc.com/motion-control/br...dh-driver.html

Especially if you get one of their breakout boars with RJ45 connectors, where you just plug it in to the breakout board.

[Andrew22]

Andrew...
A few comments:
"pricing seems to be all over the place for these boards, from a cheap $10 board with less terminals to well over $100."

I show 2 I/O boards above, the first and larger is $490 and the second on the Bridgeport is $300 but has a $50 4 channel output relay added. So, coming from a position of building systems for professional users that depend on the product for their income, having $500 in a properly opto-isolated I/O system is a small part of the system. The price for industrial grade, top of the line proprietary controller I/O will be in the thousands. What makes them so good, or worth the money, is that they are produced and SUPPORTED by the controller mfgr and are guaranteed compatible. Something that seldom exists in the low budget DIY world.


Are the extra features of these expensive boards necessary? It depends, do you wish to work ON your machine or worth WITH it? The most expensive one that I show above does not cost one days down time at normal shop rate. Only you can decide that.

For example: both boards I show above have 6 terminals for step and direction. This ensures that no matter which signal type the drives require the board can be wired to accommodate them.

You make a good point about quality and support, although since I'm piecing this system together from a couple different vendors I wonder if I've negated any chance of useful support. While I'm trying to work with a relatively small budget, I don't want to cripple my electrical system because of skimping on a breakout board. I'm more irritated that I didn't learn this info back when I was ordering the drivers. It sounds like it would have saved me some headaches if either Leadshine or CNCdrive had tried to sell me a compatible breakout board. Instead I made the mistake of thinking one would plug right into the other, but at least this hang up may have saved me from making some expensive paper weights. Hopefully my lack of experience with electrons is obvious by now and you'll forgive some more dumb questions as I try to educate myself a bit.

Ger21, I'm glad I asked that stupid question, as I almost convinced myself that could be a viable solution. I'm still left with the question of how to wire this as the software only allows 1 pin to output the step signal for each axis, and the driver pin assignment requires 2 pins. Is this something that can be accomplished with a decent breakout board?

As far as features go, I was initially thinking all that was necessary was a 25 pin input and screw terminal outputs, but as I educate myself more, I can see that there may be some useful features I want to look for in a breakout board. When you mention the 6 terminal outputs for step and direction on those breakout boards, does that require 6 outputs coming from the motion controller, or is there circuitry there to direct the signal to the right terminal depending on other variables? Not to get too far ahead of myself here, but I'd like to learn more about the capabilities of breakout boards and what features I should look for to make sure my CNC functions as planned.

[ger21]

Ger21, I'm glad I asked that stupid question, as I almost convinced myself that could be a viable solution. I'm still left with the question of how to wire this as the software only allows 1 pin to output the step signal for each axis, and the driver pin assignment requires 2 pins. Is this something that can be accomplished with a decent breakout board?

Actually, all stepper drives are controlled with 1 output pin for the step signal, and 1 output pin for the Direction signal. Your drives do not require 2 pins.

You would typically wire it as shown on page 5 of this manual, with the Step+ and Dir+ wired to 5V from the breakout board.
http://leadshineusa.com/UploadFile/D...Hhm_V0.0.1.pdf

Some boards support differential connections as shown on page 6. I think this is what you are referring to when you say 2 pins per signal.

but I'd like to learn more about the capabilities of breakout boards and what features I should look for to make sure my CNC functions as planned.

The features you need depend on what you want to do, and what you want to connect to it. Do you need to control a VFD? Then you may want a board with a relay and analog speed control.

You probably should start by making a list of every electrical component you'll be using, and then see what you need to connect them all.

[Andrew22]

So far the things I would need to control would be

- 4 easy servo drivers (2 for the x axis)
- 1 vfd
- 4 proximity sensors
- solenoid for coolant mister (could be manual)
- control for vacuum pump (could be manual)
- probe
- touch pad for tool setting

Future upgrades that I'd like to plan for would also include

- 4th and possible 5th axis
- laser for engraving/ light cutting
- extruder for 3D printing attachment, which means 1 more stepper, input for a thermistor, high amp relay to control heater cartridge
- auto tool change

I think that should just about cover everything I want to accomplish with this machine

[Andrew22]

Thanks for clearing that up. I think I have a decent handle on how to wire the pins with + getting 5V and - going to ground. I'm still a little unsure of what to do with the alarm pins, as there is no alarm pin in the setup for each axis, and only 1 pin for an E-stop. Would it be advisable to route all alarm signals to a single pin, or would it be better to configure them another way?

Doing a bit of research I've come across this https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01...SKOWQ5H6&psc=1 or this https://cnc4pc.com/motion-control/br...out-board.html or this https://cnc4pc.com/motion-control/br...r-control.html. Am I on the right track or should I be looking at something different?

[islaww]

Andrew...
I would wire the alarms to inputs in the way that your control can best deal with them. With WinCNC, I wire separately so that each can have a discreet message telling me which drive faulted. Then they do the stop dump. Other controls may have different options. Each of your input pins will require sink or source signal to go active. You will have to wire the drives alarm pins to be compatible with that. Its all in the Leadshine manual.

I prefer to monitor a lot of functions on my systems. In the first one above if you look close you can see that I am using 20 inputs, monitoring most every function, 5v, 24v, VFD, rpm, limits, etc, etc. Also, since this is an ATC system, 11 outputs. And I have barely used half of the available I/O.

Looks like you are on the right path.

[ger21]

Electronics are not my area of expertise, so I'm not going to recommend any one board for you.

I think that what Gary is doing is wiring each alarm to it's own input, and using a macro in the control software to monitor the inputs, and stop the machine if a fault occurs.
This could be done with the Macropump in Mach3, or a Macroloop in UCCNC.
Which software did you plan on using?
You could also configure them to use the limit switch pin assignments. Not sure if it's safe to wire them all together.

You'll likely want to use either two separate boards, or a dual port breakout board, in order to get enough inputs and outputs.
One issue with separate boards is that you might end up with duplicate functionality.

If you buy a chinese board like that one from Amazon, you likely won't get a manual, or any support. So if you'll need assistance, I'd steer clear of those.

[Andrew22]

I'm planning on using UCCNC, although I also have a copy of Mach3 I can fall back on if necessary. I like the layout of UCCNC much better though, so I'd like to try and stick with it. I've got no experience writing macros, but I'm willing to learn if my brain doesn't overload in the process. Duplicate functionality might not be such a bad thing with two separate boards. It sounds like my analogue inputs and outputs would be taken up by the VFD, and a second set would be useful for controlling a 3D printer extruder, as I'll need at least one input for a thermistor, and a relay to control power to the heater cartridge.