Servo as spindle in mach3

[Tobitoibsen]

Hey guys,
Me and my dad tried a lot to make a chinese servo (90st-m02430) work as spindle with mach3, but we dont succeed. I really need some help as beginner.
Mach3 is running already, the steppers on my router work for x,y,z.
Also the servo is running, when we control it from the controller itself. But it doesn't work with mach3.
The mach3 board is a chinese red usb board.

I guess the pins and maybe ports are incorrect. Maybe also other settings, but i dont know what. Also we don't find much information for this topic.
We tried the same settings like in the follwoing video, which didn't work for us

I would appreciate some advice here

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[joeavaerage]

Hi,
most servos, and I'm assuming yours is an example, can run in multiple modes. The two modes of potential use as a spindle are analog velocity mode and position mode.
Of the two analog velocity mode is the easiest to understand and implement in Mach3.

If you program your servo drive to analog voltage mode then the servo rpm will be linear from CW velocity max to CCW velocity max with an analog input voltage from +10VDC
to -10VDC. If you already use Mach3 then you probably have a relay to turn the spindle on or off. Use this relay contact to Enable or Disable the servo drive. The PWM output
of the controller is likely 0-10VDC, or you need to make it so, and that would give you linear speed control of your servo from 0 rpm to velocity max.
Your servo now behaves like a regular VFD controlled spindle. Easy.

I have a 1.8kW AC Allen Bradley servo as a spindle motor and I use it in this manner a lot. It has so much more torque than my normal 800W 24000rpm spindle so I can use it with larger tools,
say 16mm diameter, in steel and stainless.

Occasionally I use the Allen Bradley in position mode, ie Step/Dir. This means that the spindle is a C axis and can be coordinated with the remaining axes and in particular I can do
rigid tapping. I thought I was being real clever when I dreamed this up, and it does work, its just that I don't use it that often. When I do use the Allen Bradley spindle 99% of the time
I use it as a free running spindle, ie analog velocity mode.

May I suggest that to start with you try running the servo in velocity mode, it is the easiest solution with most Mach3 hardware. Once you get that working properly then you might start thinking
about position mode and a genuine C axis.

Craig

[T-C-M]

Can you have a servo spindle working as a full Axis with positional control while using one of those mach 3 chinese control boards?

[mactec54]

Hey guys,
Me and my dad tried a lot to make a chinese servo (90st-m02430) work as spindle with mach3, but we dont succeed. I really need some help as beginner.
Mach3 is running already, the steppers on my router work for x,y,z.
Also the servo is running, when we control it from the controller itself. But it doesn't work with mach3.
The mach3 board is a chinese red usb board.

I guess the pins and maybe ports are incorrect. Maybe also other settings, but i dont know what. Also we don't find much information for this topic.
We tried the same settings like in the follwoing video, which didn't work for us

I would appreciate some advice here

You have given the Servo Motor part number, what is the Servo Drive model numbers / name

Breakout Board manufacturers name and model number

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

Can you have a servo spindle working as a full Axis with positional control while using one of those mach 3 chinese control boards?

Most if not all AC servos are position cable, either Step/Dir, CW/CCW or quadrature. Thus any motion control that can produce one of these signal streams could
control the servo, be it a linear axis, like X or Y, or a rotary axis like A, B or C axis.

Whether your particular controller has such a spare channel only you can answer.

Most rotary axes like A or B are point to point axes, ie not free running. They are intended to move from say -210.56⁰ to 73564.00⁰ then stop.
I believe Mach3 has the opportunity to treat a rotary axis as free running, but I however have not tried. I use Mach4 and have done for some years.

With Mach4 the numeric data to a rotary axis is a 32 bit integer, where each count is one step. Thus if your rotary axis has 10,000 counts/rev, then the step size would
10,000/360=27.77 steps/degree. Thus if you wish to rotate the axis 4 turns then Mach would issue 4 x 360 x27.77 =40,000 pulses, so from the current location, which is say
1342678 to1382678.

The maximum size of a 32 bit integer is 4294967296, so with our theoretical axis 4294967295 / 27.77=154662128 degrees or 429617 revolutions, or seven minutes at 1000rpm.
Unless you do something a bit clever with the accumulating position then a rotary axis has a finite time in which it can rotate before the position location overflows.

For this reason I use my AC servo powered spindle in velocity mode, ie free running, with no time limit, and only ever use position mode when I need it, and I never need
420000 revolutions to complete a thread!

Craig

[mactec54]

Can you have a servo spindle working as a full Axis with positional control while using one of those mach 3 chinese control boards?

Yes you can if you have a spare axis output