[JFettig]

I ordered everything on there from ebay, the encoder is a 1000 line encoder.
momentary switches, and I will be making a different handwheel, I plan on using an o-ring in the end to keep it from free spinning but still have smooth action. Rather than using a 100 detent system, I will go with the o-ring so I can turn it less than that without a problem. it should work ok, I would like to get some real 100 detent wheels, I sent an e-mail to a company who makes them, hopefully to hear back soon.

I wasnt actually gonna make the final peice out of wood, but it might not be so bad. I can always re-make it.

Jon

[NeoMoses]

Lookin' good, Jon. I'd love to see a video when it's all done and running your machine.

[ynneb]

Nice job.
You told me you had no money. Those buttons dont look so cheap.

[JFettig]

Thanks, I hit a few good deals from time to time (hint: those buttons are plastic) 20 costed me $15.

Im about to start my job, then maybe Ill make a non wood pendant

Jon

[JFettig]

I did a little work, made a hand wheel(still to make the nob that I did decide to make) and wired up all the buttons, hooked it up and did a little configuring of keygrabber and have it running mach3 on my server. I need to get me a little solderable parallel port hookup for the MPG and I still have to enclose the whole thing, I have some wood to cut still

Jon

[JFettig]

I got it all hooked up to my mill, sorry I forgot to take pics, remind me later

anyway, I am running mach2, and it doesnt have mpg velocity jog, and that is quite annoying. Is there a way to get velocity in mach 2 working?
The reason I ask is because mach3 makes my computer crassh, everything freeses!
or is there a reason it would run mach2 flawlessly and not mach3 at all?

Jon

[JavaDog]

I find that the head from an old VCR makes an excellent heavy hand-wheel.

Nice work, looks very good!

[JFettig]

I made my handle the way I did kinda for a reason, partly becuase if I didnt have some kind of friction, it would spin a million miles an hour, and the shaft is 1" long, I felt that I had to cover it all up, that and I was nearly out of material, that stuff on there is just scrap I found to use.

Too bad the only vcr I have is my brothers...I shouldnt tear that appart

Jon

[DieGuy]

late model car radios have a detented pulse generator on the volume control.

[JFettig]

Well, I was messing with the cnc while setting up my 4th axis, I went to jog the machine and it either didnt move much or moved for longer than I had pressed the buttons(using keyboard jog at full speed, 210ipm) so I shut off the drives and jogged and the dro would skip a ton. I disabled the other parallel port and everything worked fine.

So my second parallel port is messing with my first one or messing with something, and I do not know why.
Does anyone know a fix to this? its the only way I can use the MPG. It would sure be nice to have mach3 work on this machine and even fix the problem I have.

Jon

[DieGuy]

Make sure the interupts and the port addreses are different for both parallel ports. On late model computers the bios splash screens will tell this info, If you are using an add in card, move it to a different slot and the bios may reassign the port/interrupt properly.

[JFettig]

DieGuy, all that stuff was different, tried a diff pci slot too and no go.

Jon

[DieGuy]

DieGuy, all that stuff was different, tried a diff pci slot too and no go.

Jon

What kind of PC Jon? You could try to move it to the very end slot, Lots of them have split PCI busses. (multiple channels)

[JFettig]

Die guy, it was a computer I put together with spare parts, its an intel motherboard, celeron processor socket 370. I sent art an e-mail, and he had asked me about the pulse rate I am running and computer speed, it is very likely that it just cannot keep up.
It can feed 45khz to one parallel port, but not both.

Jon

[JFettig]

A few things I have learned in my little experience so far:
To make a MPG do a good job, to use the velocity mode, An encoder(MPG) needs to be hooked up to the parallel port, I havent successfully actually gotten my MPG working through keygrabber, and even if it did, it would be no different than jogging incrementally with the aarow keys, each pulse is going to be like you pressed the aarow once. Try pressing the aarow keys multiple times really fast, it only goes so fast.

The problem with the extra parallel port in my situation seems to be that I am running this thing at its maximum ability, it cannot in any way handle 45Khz out of both ports, that is what is messing things up. I actually contemplated using just the parallel port rather than an I-Pac to hook up switches which would have worked just fine except I had a few more switches than inputs on it.

Right now, I have to have 2 cords from the machine to my pendant, one for the MPG and one for the I-Pac, its not really a problem, but it adds to the mess of cords, cables and whatever else I have there.

I think what I will end up doing is removing the MPG from the pendant(make a new one actually) and just have aarow keys on it for jogging and a shift modifier for fast jog same as if I was jogging with the keyboard.

I like having a start and stop and all the other controlls right at hand, makes it kind of easy to run rather than navigating the keyboard.

I just figured I would give my input on puting together a pendant for others to see, may find it useful.

Jon

[ger21]

Are you really using over 25Khz? If not, there is no advantage to setting it faster. Are you using servos?

[ynneb]

Good thread Jon.
Whe you say you have two paralell ports I presume you have configured Mach2 to know about them?
Are you now suggesting to do a keyboard hack for your MPG? That sounds like a good idea if you are.

[JFettig]

ger21, I am currently running at 35Khz, 210ipm on my mini mill, steppers, so yes, I am using most of it, I will give it a shot at 35Khz a little later, I have to prepare for finals this week.

ynneb, yes, configured in Mach2 and everything. and no, I really dont know what to suggest, either way I am not having much luck. Using keygrabber, I really havent gotten anything, and from what others have been getting, its like incrementally jogging with a keyboard. It requires screen editing and everything I guess from what I have been told.


Jon

[JFettig]

I turned it down to 25Khz and still even yet it wont work any better.

I was messing with the speeds, all it takes to stall an axis is for the coolant to clean off the way oil and its done. I slowed it back down for safety reasons.

Jon