[Jim Blackwood]

OK, I've got one servo amp and motor (Zaxis) on the bench, and able to run on the amp in test mode. The enable line is connected. The signal in to the amp is connected. The encoder is connected. Using the Galil 2900 breakout box. I have a jumper on the e-stop. I have mach3 installed on the PC, the Galil plug-in installed and configured correctly I think. The Galil is connected to the PC with an ethernet cable. (I saw a reference asking for a crossover cable but when I used that I got no connect lights)

I've been working on the Mach3 setup and have some questions:

First the Kernel speed. I have a 2.8GHz processor. Does this support 100KHz? It is a dedicated PC but may have an internet connection later for diagnostic work and file transfer. Right now it does not.

Configuring the Motor Output
What is the significance of the step and direction ports and pins when the Galil plug-in converts those signals to an analog output (does it?) and sends the signals over ethernet? Do I still need these assignments? If I do what should they be and how do I determine what numbers to use?

Input port and pin numbers
Same basic question. Don't all my input and output connections go to the Galil instead of the printer port? Then carried over ethernet? How does a printer port number have anything to do with that? If it does, how do I figure out what numbers to use?

Thanks for the help, you guys have been great at helping me figure this out and I really appreciate it. My biggest problem here is ignorance, a lack of knowledge. I'm really glad you guys are willing to share.

Jim

[ger21]

You're probably better off asking this on the Machsupport forum, as the guy who wrote the Galil plugin will answer your questions over there.

[Jmhx2]

You do not need to worry about the kernel speed, as galil is producing the pulse rate. If you read the plugin manual it will walk you through the ports and pins. They are necessary because you are mapping them from mach to the physical pins on galil.

[Al_The_Man]

The servo commands are transmitted through the bus to Galil by instruction, not step/dir, Galil works stand alone to translate the move command to analogue command.
The servo update rate is independent of the PC, this is the reason behind using a dedicated motion card.
BTW, you can download the free S/W from Galil to run/test the motor by using the commands native to the card.
Al.

[Jim Blackwood]

Thanks guys, and I have made some progress. I now have commanded motion from the Galil DMC-2160 using SmartTerm with an ethernet connection and static IP addresses. The servo motor is balanced(but not tuned yet), I get encoder counts, and limit prox indications, all on the bench.

What I do not have yet is Mach3 control. Mach3 starts and the bottom message bar says something about Galil now being connected, with the reset flashing. That may be after opening the config window, configuring and choosing the galil. That message goes away when I push the reset button. Then I've got nothing. No limit switch changes, no encoder counts, no motion, no port or pin numbers. I've tried entering what port and pin numbers I can find, Port #1 and pins 3,11 and 19 for the Z limits and home. Saw no numbers for the e-stop. I thought I saw something over on ArtSoft that said ports and pins were just used with the parallel port, and I'm not using that.

I think I'm probably missing some small configuration step. I hope you guys can just bear with me here, any tips you might think of would be a really big help.

Jim

[Jmhx2]

What version of driver are you running? I seem to remember that happening to me with the latest driver on the galil site. When I went back a version it worked well again.

[Jim Blackwood]

Right now, Galil.dll v4.6.0.0
But I see 3 potential problems here.
1) I have both the serial and ENET connections registered in ST. Maybe this creates confusion when Mach3 opens. Or it just grabs the first one, which would be the serial. I'll try that first.
2) I have only linear interpolation checked in the general config tab.
3) the method I used to install the Galil.dll could have been incorrect. I added a .m3p extension to the galil.dll file and clicked it. Seemed to work, but maybe not.

Jim

[Jim Blackwood]

No change from options 1 and 3 above. Maybe something in the configuration.

Jim

[Jim Blackwood]

Got it. I had overlooked the step of selecting the controller in the plug-in config window. Duh!

Jim

[Jmhx2]

Glad you found it. The manual is really good. I followed it step-by-step and it has been working ever since. When you get your motors installed, tune the PID through galil (they have great education videos on website) and then site your acceleration and velocity in Mach3.