[olduhfguy]

I wish I did have official schematics - everything I have on the SX3 is reverse engineered - handwritten notes based on voltage/scope readings, etc. I think someone on this forum may have previously made up some power supply schematics. I know of 3 different versions of SX3 boards, and have seen 2 of them here. Sieg is very paranoid about releasing tech on their boards, and my attempts to get official info via a US dealer have led nowhere, probably because software and hardware piracy is rampant in China.

And yes, I'm the guy that has been repairing C2/X2/X3/SX2,SC2, etc.. machines for the last couple of years. I got into the game when John G. quit the first time, then he started again a few months after I started doing it. As far as I know he's quit for good as of Jan '16. -Pete (olduhfguy.com)

[rwskinner]

It' ashame, doesn't Sieg understand every time a company goes open source their product sales goes thru the roof. Linksys and DJI and everyone else that published code or API's only increase their sales because people feel much better when they can upgrade their own firmware and customize it to fit "their" needs. The only reason that Sieg won't is because they most likely either copied the code from someone else or some examples, or they're too embarrassed by all the elementary mistakes they made by a 13 year old junior programmer.

Come on Sieg, get real, you sort of try to build milling machines, and sort of try and write software. Focus on one or the other and let the real folks fix your screw ups, kind of like we have to do on the rest of the mill !!! For god's sake, ya still haven't fixed all the gib issues being machined to the incorrect angles !!!

Sorry guys, Rant over.
Richard

I wish I did have official schematics - everything I have on the SX3 is reverse engineered - handwritten notes based on voltage/scope readings, etc. I think someone on this forum may have previously made up some power supply schematics. I know of 3 different versions of SX3 boards, and have seen 2 of them here. Sieg is very paranoid about releasing tech on their boards, and my attempts to get official info via a US dealer have led nowhere, probably because software and hardware piracy is rampant in China.

And yes, I'm the guy that has been repairing C2/X2/X3/SX2,SC2, etc.. machines for the last couple of years. I got into the game when John G. quit the first time, then he started again a few months after I started doing it. As far as I know he's quit for good as of Jan '16. -Pete (olduhfguy.com)

[rwskinner]

I forgot to add, they tried, but even their add-on cnc board for the SX3 sucks. Their logic doesn't even come close to the directions. It works, and it works fine, but don't try to follow their documentation. The programmer or document writer was not on the same page. I'm referring to the board sold by LMS.

[olduhfguy]

FWIW I'm in the middle of a project involving the aforementioned interface - The start/stop pin doesn't seem to be working correctly, and I'm waiting on a second board to compare readings. After scoping/documenting it's going to be speaking to a G540 and then hopefully handed back to a customer for use in manufacturing. Fingers crossed....

I forgot to add, they tried, but even their add-on cnc board for the SX3 sucks. Their logic doesn't even come close to the directions. It works, and it works fine, but don't try to follow their documentation. The programmer or document writer was not on the same page. I'm referring to the board sold by LMS.

[rwskinner]

All the boards are the same. Stop Start pin does not work. LMS is very aware of this. It's really not a problem because Mach quits sending a signal on the M5 command and the intercase will still stop. Upon a M3 or M4 the signal starts up again and the controller will start the spindle.

Richard

[olduhfguy]

I made a breakout board to test the signals between the XMT-SK and the motor control board. The problem with the START/STOP function is a missing jumper (See attached photo) that must be installed on the motor control board to activate the start/stop function. With the jumper in place there must be a ground on the START/STOP pin to enable the spindle motor.

Also - There is serial data present on one of the other lines that apparently represents the analog speed input voltage. More tests to follow...... -Pete

All the boards are the same. Stop Start pin does not work. LMS is very aware of this. It's really not a problem because Mach quits sending a signal on the M5 command and the intercase will still stop. Upon a M3 or M4 the signal starts up again and the controller will start the spindle.

Richard

[Screener]

I made a breakout board to test the signals between the XMT-SK and the motor control board. The problem with the START/STOP function is a missing jumper (See attached photo) that must be installed on the motor control board to activate the start/stop function. With the jumper in place there must be a ground on the START/STOP pin to enable the spindle motor.

Also - There is serial data present on one of the other lines that apparently represents the analog speed input voltage. More tests to follow...... -Pete

Pete were you able to get this working? Can you share the solution.

Also, might be a noob question but how can a tach signal be sent back to Mach3 from the SX3?

Screener

[rwskinner]

I forgot to mention, their controller is very linear for the speed input, BUT there top speed using that board is only 1700 RPM instead of 1800 if I remember correctly. The G540, unless they changed the RC network, it had some pretty serious dips in it's output when loaded with that board. I checked Mach3 output and it was fine, the interface board was fine, and the G540 was not fine. I tried 2 new G540's. It can all be compensated for using the speed calibrate function to auto calibrate, if you have an RPM signal coming back into Mach3.

Richard

[olduhfguy]

Interesting, very interesting. Does the start/stop issue exist when the interface is used with the SX2 as well ? Do any signals appear on the controller side of the interface board when the start/stop pin is activated ? I understand that this pin is not necessary to control speed (the analog input will do this), but it exists and should work as advertised. I will investigate further and share with LMS. I'll see if I can come up with, or make a table of analog voltage vs RPM assuming some preset position of the pot on the interface board. I want to stay on the hardware side of things and leave the CNC development to others, but I want to insure that the hardware tools all work as advertised. If this appears to be an issue with Atmel code, my position would be to encourage(?) Sieg to support/update/correct their products or put their code in public domain. -Pete

I forgot to mention, their controller is very linear for the speed input, BUT there top speed using that board is only 1700 RPM instead of 1800 if I remember correctly. The G540, unless they changed the RC network, it had some pretty serious dips in it's output when loaded with that board. I checked Mach3 output and it was fine, the interface board was fine, and the G540 was not fine. I tried 2 new G540's. It can all be compensated for using the speed calibrate function to auto calibrate, if you have an RPM signal coming back into Mach3.

Richard

[rwskinner]

I don't know anything about the SX2. I sold my SX3 last year so I don't have it to look at BUT, they may have changed something because I sure do not remember a trim pot on the board I had.
It's funny that the display would show the correct RPM on the SX3 but a tach showed it to be 100 RPM low. This only occurred at wide open RPM. The tach was pretty much dead on on the rest of the speeds.

It was like they knew it was messed up and faked out the display even tho the actual RPM was way lower.