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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    hey guys ok I bought a Chinese stand alone controller because I really want to get away from running my cnc control on the PC as I have with mach 3 so far, and a stand alone controller was really the way I wanted to go here for a lot of reasons. I wish I could afford to buy a real deal Fanuc controller but thats just not in the cards for me right now so I bought one of the many versions out there of the SZGH 990MDb Chinese controller despite the fact that there are almost no real examples out there of people actually successfully using these and very little info in general out there about actually setting up these things

    the instructions, if you could even call them that, are pretty crappy Chinglish and barely decipherable but I have actually managed to get it all hooked up dialed in and calibrated and working perfect on my CNC router table. everything works as it should so far with one huge exception, when actually running a program the Z axis winds up becoming reversed...

    now I know there are tons of threads out there with guys who have there configurations wrong and have reversed axis' but that is NOT the case here, when I use the handwheel everything is as it should be, moving the spindle down goes in the negative direction, MDI inputs all work exactly as they should, it's only when actually hitting cycle start and actually running a G code program that the Z acts completely flipped, Z positive moves become down and negative becomes up. once I end the program and exit running te code it reverts back to how it should normally work. I have went through every parameter and setting I can find and nothing solves this problem, I even tried a full system reset and even then with the bone stock factory configuration it is still the same. of course I can flip the Z axis in the parameters, but that just makes it work wrong all the time except when running a program, it already IS actually configured and working correctly right now, right up until the point I load some g code and hit cycle start

    now I have already somewhat solved the issue by editing the post processor and adding a -1 to flip the output from the processor in the VAR Z_POSITION= line and I can now post out code and run and cut parts no problem, so really in a sense I have kinda already solved the problem, but this really is bugging me as to why?? has anyone seen any kind of controllers that would intensionally require a ...|-1] to flip the Z axis in the post processor like this? I have actually found only one other post processor out there of everyone I have looked at, and I have looked at a whole lot of processors, the only one I have found that inverts the Z normally in the PP like this is a Multicam classic mm post processor, so this has me thinking maybe this is not so completely unheard of or abnormal after all, and maybe as long as it is posting correctly and working correctly I should just not worry about it, but this is really bugging me. I have spent many hours searching and researching just to get to the point I am now with everything working as it should and I really can't find any kind of explanation or much info at all for this anywhere so I just thought to ask here as maybe someone can shed some light on the subject here. any input would be greatly appreciated... should I just be satisfied that I was able to make a post processor that is working fine or should I really do some more digging? I have really just about run out of places to dig at this point though



  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    ok so I have put in an inquiry with the manufacturer for this weird Z issue and they are requesting a video to show them the problem, I will try to see where I can get with that. in case anyone is wondering about this controller it is manufactured by a company called newker and is then sold by a few different distributors including SZGH, so SZGH is not actually the manufacturer of there controllers they are just a reseller.

    if anyone ever has any questions about setting up a controller like this I'd be happy to try to help where I can. a controller like this may seem a bit expensive at first glance but once you take into account that it replaces a PC with display, CNC control software, motion control hardware, and a BOB it's actually a fairly reasonable cost, and the functionality of a stand alone dedicated controller has many benefits over using a hobby level PC based emulated controller and all of the problems and instabilities that come along with that. this thing goes from powered off to ready for motion in around 20 seconds with the hit of the power switch and is actually pretty dang sweet once you get past all of the figuring out how to actually install and use it it has made my CNC router go from feeling like a hobby level toy to feeling much more like a real deal CNC machining center, I just really would like to get a handle on this weird Z issue :P

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    wow ok well I solved this weird Z issue finally, I honestly can't say exactly where the problem lied exactly but it was def something in the configuration files from when i set it up the first time, i think it had something to do with how I had the soft limits set up, I'm not 100% sure exactly but something in the first setup was causing the Z axis to flip opposite when running code from how it ran when just jogging, but this time after restoring all parameters to factory default and setting up my limits correctly it is now working as it should. drove me crazy for a few days but finally solved sorry for this now useless thread.

    eventually when I get some use under my belt with this thing I'll put up a thread here detailing everything about this controller, I honestly believe it to be such a dramatic upgrade from most hobby based PC solutions, I'm surprised we don't see more guys using stuff like this. maybe it's because of there being so little info out there in the first place and honestly it did take a real leap of faith to buy this thing hoping I'd be able to figure it all out on my own, but now after I have I can say that it's a damn fine solution imho,

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Posts
    45

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    I was thinking of getting one but then it turns out you need one for the mill and another one for the lathe.
    That's just to much money.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    1186

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    I'm on the fence about getting there VMC 5 axis controller NEW1000Micb-5 along with absolute servos and drives. I have a quote with shipping but like you have not found much in the way of reviews or experience. That seems to be a major point of contention with people giving them any thought.

    I'm glad I tried another search and found your post, would you mind passing up some video of using it on your machine? I have a build thread for a matinee I purchased in the " uncategorized metal working machines", it's up near the top as I just posted about wrestling with the decision to purchase one of the Newer controllers. Any insights you have would be greatly appreciated!!

    Thanks in advance!

    Chris

    Sent from my QTAIR7 using Tapatalk

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    Chris I answered you in PM about my thoughts on this controller but I am going to copy my answer to you here in hopes it may help others:

    "honestly I think it is an awesome alternative to most pc based solutions out there but there are 2 drawbacks, 1 is it takes a lot of balls at this stage of the game to buy one and hope you can get it all figured out, hooked up and working because there is just so little help and support out there for it and 2nd is directly related which is trying to do stuff that is simple to do in other pc based solutions with a huge user base sharing community like tool touch off routines and stuff becomes a little bit of a headache because there is no one writing and sharing macros and stuff that...

    the biggest drawback is no user community really but it is an awesome controller even despite that. I am going to start a thread here and try to build up some kind of community for these things but I won't be holding my breath to get too much help and input tbh... right now I don't miss mach 3 one bit with the sole exception of auto tool touch off macros that someone shared for mach so I have to go back to older ways of setting up 0's on my axis's, other than that it is better in every way, it has made my router go from feeling like a hobby toy to feeling more like a real deal CNC machine plain and simple, it's really pretty damn sweet tbh, boots in 21 seconds from power switch to motion and absolutely no glitches or other pc based quirks, it works like an appliance not like a computer if you know what I mean, it just works 100% of the time like I would imagine a real deal machine like a Haas or something does... hope this helps "

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    oh and liefer yes you are correct it is either a dedicated mill or dedicated lathe controller. I actually bought 2 of them, one for my lathe and one for my mill, still haven't set the lathe up yet though but will be doing that soon

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Posts
    45

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    I bought the DDCSV 1.1 4 axis with MPG a while ago and I'm slowly getting the hang of it.
    Found out to late it doesn't do lathe threading. Buying the 2 controllers you have would cost me $ 1500.00 canadian after exchange rate, duty and taxes.
    I'm still thinking about it.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    1186

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    Quote Originally Posted by turbocad6 View Post
    Chris I answered you in PM about my thoughts on this controller but I am going to copy my answer to you here in hopes it may help others:

    "honestly I think it is an awesome alternative to most pc based solutions out there but there are 2 drawbacks, 1 is it takes a lot of balls at this stage of the game to buy one and hope you can get it all figured out, hooked up and working because there is just so little help and support out there for it and 2nd is directly related which is trying to do stuff that is simple to do in other pc based solutions with a huge user base sharing community like tool touch off routines and stuff becomes a little bit of a headache because there is no one writing and sharing macros and stuff that...

    the biggest drawback is no user community really but it is an awesome controller even despite that. I am going to start a thread here and try to build up some kind of community for these things but I won't be holding my breath to get too much help and input tbh... right now I don't miss mach 3 one bit with the sole exception of auto tool touch off macros that someone shared for mach so I have to go back to older ways of setting up 0's on my axis's, other than that it is better in every way, it has made my router go from feeling like a hobby toy to feeling more like a real deal CNC machine plain and simple, it's really pretty damn sweet tbh, boots in 21 seconds from power switch to motion and absolutely no glitches or other pc based quirks, it works like an appliance not like a computer if you know what I mean, it just works 100% of the time like I would imagine a real deal machine like a Haas or something does... hope this helps "
    Great information!! I am still trying to decide myself if this is the right direction for me.. I'm really hesitant to give up my probing functionally of the PC based system, if that were somehow m more clearly defined in how to integrate and cost to integrate, I would not be stalling on my decision.

    I have asked 3 times for details on probing and newkers response is " yes friend trust me it's ok with input to the controller". Not exactly the warm fuzzy feeling and I know better than to rely on a sales persons remarks with seeing diagrams and functionality for the actual routine integration method. It's a shame the communications break down is so bad, I've tried explaining to them that they are m missing a huge market by having such limited media available about their product.

    I also have learned in my dealings with Chinese companies that their great on the English language is directly proportional to their needs at the time..lol. If you have technical questions, post sales support or issues with shipping, their product, or warranty, It is very poor, if you are asking them how to pay they are English lit professors..lol

    I know that macros are an option but I'm not completely clear on how to use them with this controller. I suppose I needed more research into it!

    Chris

    Sent from my QTAIR7 using Tapatalk

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    3

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    Hello,

    I'm also in the process of selecting a control system for a machine I'm building at the moment, been quite intrigued by stand-alone controllers from China, and, apparently like many people, desperately looking for feedback from people who have actually used one :wee:

    Having spent some years between HK and China, I know that anything can be expected, from the outstanding to the really ugly, and I know next to nothing about industrial control and automation.

    So, at the moment, I'm trying to figure out what makes the difference between a great / good / acceptable / crappy controller. From the specs I've found for some of these machines, things look quite OK : lots of I/O, frequency is OK, MPG's etc.., lots of stuff that seem to be extra on other systems are included, and the price of course is good. But then, I'm wondering about other parameters that are not quite so easy to measure and spec, such as the quality of the interpolation computed by the unit, ease of use and so on.

    What's your take ?
    Thank you for your help

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    so far I have been extremely happy with this controller. I have already run over 800 cycles on this thing in it's first production run without a hiccup or a glitch and it has worked flawlessly. there are a few things that are maybe less than ideal like some of the poorly translated broken English used in some of the menu's and pop up windows but most are easy enough to figure out what they are really trying to say. about the only complaint I have is not knowing exactly how to use some of the more advanced features that this controller is capable of but poorly documented. stuff like knowing how to use the built in macro's or figuring out how to do tool probing, stuff like that.

    honestly if these things were well documented I think that there would be no comparison to any of the other hobby type solutions that are out there, it's just the lack of documentation and instruction that is holding these things back, it really is an awesome piece of equipment and so much better than any pc based solution in all areas except documentation and technical support. I am now starting to communicate with the manufacturer with some of my questions and so far I am emailing back and forth with someone who communicates very well in English and I am hopeful that I can get some more answers that will help me set up probing and even a tool changer. even without this I still say this controller is the best thing I ever did, but if I can get my head wrapped around some of the more advanced functionality available here too that would be really awesome. I will start a thread her soon dedicated to this controller in hopes of eventually gaining some more user inputs and community support

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    3

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    Hi,

    Thank you for your feedback. I think that the inadequate documentation issue is compounded by the 'unusual' distribution network that makes it difficult to establish direct contact with the people who actually develop and support these systems. It's great that you have been able to do this, and found a good communication channel. I myself am trying to figure out who does what in the maze of companies selling this stuff on Alibaba, Ebay etc... Not so easy !

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    32

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    ok after an hour or so skyping back and forth with a tech from newker I think I have learned how to set up a tool changing probe to reset the tool length with each tool change. I have also discussed setting up a linear magazine for automatic tool changing and he tells me that is no problem he will help me with setting that up too.... as much as I liked this controller before now I am really excited about it, the support was the only missing piece of the puzzle here but now it seems I may have established a link for that too it will take a lot of work to establish the documentation and support necessary for these to really be usable by the average guy but with that these things are just a killer solution that I am a believer in for sure

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Posts
    3
    I have bought same control. Would like to commiserate, my email :[email protected] , thanks Greg.
    Quote Originally Posted by turbocad6 View Post
    hey guys ok I bought a Chinese stand alone controller because I really want to get away from running my cnc control on the PC as I have with mach 3 so far, and a stand alone controller was really the way I wanted to go here for a lot of reasons. I wish I could afford to buy a real deal Fanuc controller but thats just not in the cards for me right now so I bought one of the many versions out there of the SZGH 990MDb Chinese controller despite the fact that there are almost no real examples out there of people actually successfully using these and very little info in general out there about actually setting up these things

    the instructions, if you could even call them that, are pretty crappy Chinglish and barely decipherable but I have actually managed to get it all hooked up dialed in and calibrated and working perfect on my CNC router table. everything works as it should so far with one huge exception, when actually running a program the Z axis winds up becoming reversed...

    now I know there are tons of threads out there with guys who have there configurations wrong and have reversed axis' but that is NOT the case here, when I use the handwheel everything is as it should be, moving the spindle down goes in the negative direction, MDI inputs all work exactly as they should, it's only when actually hitting cycle start and actually running a G code program that the Z acts completely flipped, Z positive moves become down and negative becomes up. once I end the program and exit running te code it reverts back to how it should normally work. I have went through every parameter and setting I can find and nothing solves this problem, I even tried a full system reset and even then with the bone stock factory configuration it is still the same. of course I can flip the Z axis in the parameters, but that just makes it work wrong all the time except when running a program, it already IS actually configured and working correctly right now, right up until the point I load some g code and hit cycle start

    now I have already somewhat solved the issue by editing the post processor and adding a -1 to flip the output from the processor in the VAR Z_POSITION= line and I can now post out code and run and cut parts no problem, so really in a sense I have kinda already solved the problem, but this really is bugging me as to why?? has anyone seen any kind of controllers that would intensionally require a ...|-1] to flip the Z axis in the post processor like this? I have actually found only one other post processor out there of everyone I have looked at, and I have looked at a whole lot of processors, the only one I have found that inverts the Z normally in the PP like this is a Multicam classic mm post processor, so this has me thinking maybe this is not so completely unheard of or abnormal after all, and maybe as long as it is posting correctly and working correctly I should just not worry about it, but this is really bugging me. I have spent many hours searching and researching just to get to the point I am now with everything working as it should and I really can't find any kind of explanation or much info at all for this anywhere so I just thought to ask here as maybe someone can shed some light on the subject here. any input would be greatly appreciated... should I just be satisfied that I was able to make a post processor that is working fine or should I really do some more digging? I have really just about run out of places to dig at this point though



  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    24

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    Hi, also looking at these controls, seems hard to find a website with specs etc, this would be for a replacement on an AB 8400 control. Ned to know, will it do step and direction or 0 to 10 V type control? Options?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    832

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    They are Step/Direction.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    24
    Quote Originally Posted by Hood View Post
    They are Step/Direction.
    Ohh thanks, that helps.. my AB8400 drives work fine so ill use those with the Chinese control i think, but will replace them if they give trouble. Not sure how accurate they are though

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    832

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    The controls are very accurate or at least mine is. Mine is a different model, CNC1000TdC, and is a Lathe version.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    43

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    Good day Turbocad

    It is a while now that you have your NEWKER control. Are you still happy with it. I bought myself one , but it is a 5 axis mill with RTCP for CNC router I'm building.
    My first question is how do you transfer your files to the control, with RS232, USB or with WIFI? I bought the USB WIFI dongle that they suggest but I can't get it to work.
    Do you use G31 for setting up a job centre? Where do you wire your probe and where do you wire your tool length touch censor?
    Attachment 447746
    Attachment 447748

    Many thanks

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    152

    Re: Chinese stand alone controller weird Z issue

    turbocad6, if your still around, who are you talking to at Newker?

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