Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
Thinking about rebuilding my mill turn spindle soon to get more rpm out of it. Right now it's geared 1 to 1 with a 1.8kw dmm servo using a timing belt which gives me a bit under 3k rpm. I'd like to get closer to 4k. Since im geared 1 to 1 right now, I'm able to just use the z pulse from the servo drive for both homing and index pulse when turning. Once I gear it up 1 to 1.3 or so, z pulse will obviously no longer work for home when switching back and forth from turning and 4 axis indexing.
So what type of switch is gonna give me the best repeatability for homing? Mechanical switch is ruled out since it needs to turn continuously. I've heard optical switches are very accurate but not used often on cnc since a small chip can trigger it, but the belt and sprockets on my mill turn are completely enclosed so I don't think that will be an issue. Is an optical switch gonna be the most accurate choice? Any recommendations for a specific kind? This is run on mach3 and I will be writing a custom homing macro for best speed and accuracy for homing. 2 or 3 stage. First home at high speed, then back off and home again at very low speed, possibly again a third time at ultra low speed. Not sure how exactly these sensors work, but I'd like it to sense out on the edge of my disk brake which is 7 inch diameter. To get the accuracy I want, it needs to be able to repeat within less than a thou, preferably 5 tenths out at this diameter.
Also to make things more complicated, I might want to use these to improve accuracy on 90 degree indexing. Right now 90 degree indexing accuracy is only as good as about 0.1 degrees because of belt backlash, belt variance, and encoder error. So aside from home, I want it to reference a switch for each 90 degree index. I already edited my post processor to handle the disk brake automatically before and after each A axis move, so I should be able to implement something in the macro used to lock the brake after a move. Before locking, it can back up a couple degrees and index to the switch, then lock. This would require either multiple switches, or multiple pick ups. Either way, each point needs to be adjustable and it needs to know which is home. I'm thinking maybe 2 switches, one of them only sees one pick up for home, the other switch can be at a slightly different radius with 4 90 degree pick ups.
So really I'm just curious what would be the best choice of switch for this application, how to use it, and what kind of repeatability i can expect.
Re: Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
I don't think you'll have a problem with chips. I would take a look at Automation Direct's fork sensors. The laser ones have an advertised repeatability of 0.0004''
https://www.automationdirect.com/adc...ensors#start=0
Another option might be to use an encoder, attached to the spindle, driven by a belt at 1:1. This is way my lathe is set up.
Re: Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
Not sure if the advertised encoder was typo'ed but 16bits will give you a 0.005deg accuracy, if your servo is also 16bits (or more preferably).
Re: Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
Yeah, without closed loop feedback it is a bit more complicated.
I'm getting ready to add a C axis to my lathe. Will be using a DMM 1.8KW servo, but will be closing the loop at the controller using the spindle encoder. Going to clutch the servo in and out as needed using an automotive air conditioner clutch.
Re: Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
Quote:
Originally Posted by
QuinnSjoblom
16 bit gives you 0.005 degree resolution, not 0.005 degree accuracy. Basically that means there are 65536 steps that are all very repeatable, but it is not perfectly linear. It's limited by the positional accuracy of the encoder. If I'm at zero position and command a 180 degree move, it will will be sitting at encoder position 32768, but it's not necessarily an exactly 180 degree move. In my case with my servo, I'm measuring about 0.1 degree of error on thecservo shaft which is a pretty significant amount. At 90 and 270 position there are different amounts of error in a different direction. All these positions are very repeatable, but not accurate angle wise. If I had a screw mapping function for my A axis, i could dial it in to be very accurate, but I don't. Also this is just error at the servo shaft. After that point, there is error from backlash in the drive belt as well as slight belt variance along it's length. These errors are not repeatable and could not be dialed out even if I did have screw mapping. The lighter duty fine pitch belt driving a separate encoder directly off spindle would mostly solve the non repeatable errors, but I would still be left with the encoder error without having a screw mapping fuction. Mach3 does have screw mapping, but doesn't seem to work for rotary axis.
But for homing it should not matter as long as it is always in the same place which it is when using the index pulse ( Z pulse ) this will be the same place on the encoder every time you home the axes it can not change
That is why for any type of servo for a rotary Axes the more bits you can find the better Dmm will have there 20Bit by around the end of the year they have a 32Bit for robots which may work well also for Rotary Axes builds
Re: Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
Quote:
Originally Posted by
QuinnSjoblom
Nice! Couple things I've learned from that exact configuration, a brake is definitely needed to get good rigid holding for index machining. The belt and servo have excellent torque capability, more than enough, but The servo just can't respond fast enough to give a rigid hold. Since you're clutching it out, are you gonna gear it down? Imagine that would help a lot with the rigidity issue, but still limited to the belt rigidity. If you are using a brake, I'm sure you could use a much smaller servo than the 1.8kw and gear it down a healthy amount. I had to go with the brute 1.8kw and geared 1 to 1 simply because it also drives the lathe for turning so I need good hp and high rpm. If I was clutching a separate servo for C axis, i would go 750w at the very most and gear it like 5 to 1. Maybe even the 400 watt
Unless you use a Megatorque servo motor which are either built into the spindle or bolted to the spindle you always need a brake of some kind for a rotary axes, there are no exceptions
Re: Most accurate home switch for rotary axis
Quote:
Originally Posted by
QuinnSjoblom
Nice! Couple things I've learned from that exact configuration, a brake is definitely needed to get good rigid holding for index machining. The belt and servo have excellent torque capability, more than enough, but The servo just can't respond fast enough to give a rigid hold. Since you're clutching it out, are you gonna gear it down? Imagine that would help a lot with the rigidity issue, but still limited to the belt rigidity. If you are using a brake, I'm sure you could use a much smaller servo than the 1.8kw and gear it down a healthy amount. I had to go with the brute 1.8kw and geared 1 to 1 simply because it also drives the lathe for turning so I need good hp and high rpm. If I was clutching a separate servo for C axis, i would go 750w at the very most and gear it like 5 to 1. Maybe even the 400 watt
I do have a brake. The reason I'm going with a 1.8KW is because the other 4 servos on the machine are 1.8KW, just keeps all of the hardware the same for interchangeability if needed.
I may gear it down, haven't gotten that far into the design yet. I could add a gearbox of some type between the servo and clutch. But my inclination is to go with a near 1:1 just because of the poly-V pulley size on the stock air conditioner pump, keeps it simple. It's about 5 inch diameter and a mating pulley of that size will fit the spindle motor pulley hub quite nicely, just enough room for it. I don't think there is enough room on the spindle itself for another pulley. Just using what I have on the shelf :)