Another sPID, G540, and Mach wiring question for the wiring challenged..

A couple more questions for those of you with experience wiring the G540, MACH and the sPID..

sPID questions

1 - If wiring the TACH signal from the sPID using a v1.5, G540 and MACH I believe I read that it requires a 47K resistor in parallel, is this still the case? ( CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net! Over 300,000 members and growing.)

2 - If using the TACH signal does that mean that both the sPID and MACH will display the RPM?

3 - What pin on the Parallel port and G540 should they be wired to? I've not found anything on the 177 page sPID thread..

4 - Are people using the TACH from sPID and viewing it in MACH or just reading the output on the sPID screen?

G540 questions

1 - Is it advisable to power off the power supply when when hitting an E-STOP? I was considering the need to shutdown the power source in case of an emergency, thoughts?

2 - Pin 10 is labeled as "Disable input (E-STOP)" is this actually a ground leg that is opened and shorted when an E-STOP occurs?


Thanks as usual for any help and guidance you can give... I have a feeling there may be some more coming.

Adam,

I have a router using the G540, Mach3 and the SuperPID. Considering there are only 4 inputs, I did not see a need to feed the rpm into Mach. I calibrated the rpm of Mach to the display on the SPID using the pulley setting. My experience is that the actual rpm will be within 20 to 40 rpm of that set in Mach. I set the rpm in my CAM program (CAMBAM, by the way).

Here is a short vid that may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x75SQLxLNv4

Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adam_m

A couple more questions for those of you with experience wiring the G540, MACH and the sPID..





G540 questions

1 - Is it advisable to power off the power supply when when hitting an E-STOP? I was considering the need to shutdown the power source in case of an emergency, thoughts?

2 - Pin 10 is labeled as "Disable input (E-STOP)" is this actually a ground leg that is opened and shorted when an E-STOP occurs?


Thanks as usual for any help and guidance you can give... I have a feeling there may be some more coming.

Adam,

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Question 1. If I leave the router unattended for a a bit, I will press the e-stop button. I haven't quite build up my trust of it yet. When I am ready to run something, I will disengage the e-stop and clear the e-stop error in Mach.

Question 2. The e-stop is engaged when pin 10 is not grounded (ie open). So to run Mach using the G540, pin 10 needs to be grounded or you will get a e-stop error in Mach and the red fault light will be lit on the G540.

Thanks Rick for the reply's, I've seen your video before and will be helpful when I get to the MACH settings.

Any ideas on the sPID questions??

Adam,

Merry Christmas!

You might want to look at the latest discussion on the Spid thread. It seems relevant to your questions.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/router...ml#post1404406

OK, I thought I was ready to go... but... no. :-(

I think I've got the MACH settings correct with a bunch of help, I'll post them for others and for review.

So, essentially this is what happened, taking baby steps I plugged in the G540 to the parallel port with the Estop in place and enabled, powered on the G540 and was greeted by a solid red light as expected. I disabled the Estop and the G540 light turned green, I assume that means the Estop is wired correctly.

Next I powered it back off and plugged in the X axis, powered it up, G540 is still solid green, I go to the "Diagnostics" tab in MACH and the "Emergency" light is flashing....

I power off the G540 and remove the X axis from the G540, power it back up and go to the "Diagnostics" tab again in MACH, "Emergency" light is still flashing...errr, stuck already??? man that was quick...

So, what is the flashing "Emergency" light telling me? besides I'm an idiot..

Adam,

When you first power up and go into Mach it starts off with that message. Did you press the reset button in Mach?
Should clear and be ready to go at that point.



Steve

Yes, it won't come out of "Reset".

Looks like your estop may not be correct. Did not see the ports and pins settings for that.


Steve

Here's the config screen also...

"ChargePump on in Estop" is checked.



EDIT - added the EStop..

Not sure how you estop is setup but may try un-checking the active low.
That is how mine is setup.
Hard to tell in the diagnostics if the estop/emergency is on or off.


Steve

That looks like it got it..

Strange, the config file (.xml) is from Gecko and made those settings.

From G540 manual:

"The only required connections for the G540 to run are a power supply and a normally closed emergency stop. If you
get a fault at any time that will not clear, you can safely disconnect all wires but these and get a green LED with the
charge pump turned off."


My EStop is NC which I thought was the correct setting.. now the setting in MACH is "Active High" meaning exactly what?

Is the EStop working the opposite of how it should be, should it be Normal Open?

Adam,

The way you did it is the best method based on what I have read.
Active low using a NC switch with common to the input.
Using NO and active high would mean that if a wire is broken the machine still thinks it is ok.
Not positive but it might be what Mach has defined as the active state of estop in their dialog box.

Edit.
Sorry, just read what I posted and it sounds contradictory to what works. The main point is using a NC estop, since a broken wired will be detected and not allow the machine to run.


Steve

So I'm still having some issues with the inputs and ports, I think.

Essentially Input 1 and 2 are being used and are mapped that way but when I run a Diagnostic it shows that Input 1 and Input 4 are being used??? Input 4, where is this coming from..

The pin number being used is Pin11, not Pin13.. where is it reading that from?

Adam,

I think it is correct. Not sure where you are seeing input 1&4? Are the lights going off and on when you manually trip your switches?


Steve

I went down and grabbed some images of my setup.
Here is my ports and pins. I am only using 3 switches presently.
X home, Y home, X--,Y-- all share the same input.
Slave axis A has its own input.
Attachment 216536

Here is the result when I trip X or Y switch.
Attachment 216538
And the slave axis A tripped.
Attachment 216540


Steve

Thanks Steve for the pics.

There are 3 things that really have me stumped:

1) The Limit switch settings, they seem to be the opposite of what is described for an "ActiveLow" scenario with a "NC" switch used to achieve an "ActiveLow" setting. But in my case even though I'm using "NC" switches they only work when the Input Signals are set to "ActiveHigh". In all the documentation and everything that I have read on the forum and Internet it says that in order to use an "ActiveHigh" setting you have to be supplying voltage to the Limit switches, and I'm not.

2) Diagnostics Screen, what exactly does the "Input 1-4" represent? From what I can tell it's not the same as the Input on the G540 because I don't even have Input 4 wired up.. Input 4 in my case seems to be related to the Slave Axis, the A Axis but I'm not certain and I don't see any documentation on it. Logically you would think they mean the same thing..

3) The "Soft Max", "Soft Min", "Slow Zone" and "Home Off"
- Are the "Soft Max/Min" set from the distance of the Limit switch or Home switch?
- Is the "Slow Zone" the distance before it hits the Limit switch or the Home switch?
- Is the "Home Off". used to set a distance from the physical Home switch?


Adam,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adam_m

Thanks Steve for the pics.

There are 3 things that really have me stumped:

1) The Limit switch settings, they seem to be the opposite of what is described for an "ActiveLow" scenario with a "NC" switch used to achieve an "ActiveLow" setting. But in my case even though I'm using "NC" switches they only work when the Input Signals are set to "ActiveHigh". In all the documentation and everything that I have read on the forum and Internet it says that in order to use an "ActiveHigh" setting you have to be supplying voltage to the Limit switches, and I'm not.

2) Diagnostics Screen, what exactly does the "Input 1-4" represent? From what I can tell it's not the same as the Input on the G540 because I don't even have Input 4 wired up.. Input 4 in my case seems to be related to the Slave Axis, the A Axis but I'm not certain and I don't see any documentation on it. Logically you would think they mean the same thing..

3) The "Soft Max", "Soft Min", "Slow Zone" and "Home Off"
- Are the "Soft Max/Min" set from the distance of the Limit switch or Home switch?
- Is the "Slow Zone" the distance before it hits the Limit switch or the Home switch?
- Is the "Home Off". used to set a distance from the physical Home switch?


Adam,

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I will do my best to answer based on my limited knowledge.

1. On the g540 inputs the normal state is high, so a NC switch (connected to common) is pulling this low making the inactive state low and when the switch is tripped the active state would be high as the switch is now open.
2. As you are seeing the Mach screens sometimes do not utilize the same labels as other areas. They definitely are not the same as the G540. In the G540 documentation it list the parallel port and pins designation for each of their pins.
I usually just make sure the ports and pins are correct and ignore some of the labels applied in Mach.
3. Home off will allow you to create a zero elsewhere besides where the home switch is located. Mine are set to zero the center of my tooling plate.
Soft max min are for adding software limits, typically before they might hit an actual limit switch. These have to also be enabled on other screens.
I have not used the slow zone, so without researching not sure what it does.


Steve