[airnocker]

It doesn't matter what my requested "S" speed is, the Mach3 indicated RPM is alway between low 300's to about 427 RPM.

Super-PID always matches my requested Mach3 G-code speed on it's display, within a percent or less, and I am very happy with the Super-PID tracking over the 5000-30000 RPM requested range.

I just finish testing pin 12 input signals on both ends of my parallel cable using a break-out box I acquired today. During the test my little Tektronix 213 DMM o-scope died. It was what I used in my initial tests (showing the Tach signal 0v-5v). This o-scope was a recent "gimme" and probably was not fully calibrated.

So I switched to my more reliable Leader LBO-524L scope. One the BOB end, with the Super-PID indicating 10,018 RPM, the scope showed a 6mS waveform cycle or 10,000 RPM. The Leader showed LO= .2v, HI=4.5v, all good TTL levels and was the same on the PC end of the cable.

So it is unquestionably a Mach3 issue. Maybe a have some corruption in the XML config file, so next I will replace it with a backup copy and see what that does.

If you think of anything else, please let me know.

[airnocker]

Yeah, I found the problem. In the course of installing Mach3 V3.043.022 and doing an all new XML setup, I found that on the General Config page I had set the Index Debounce to 1000, changing it to "0" fixed it! DOAH!

I'm sure I did this last year when setting up my first machine's limit switches and defining the Debounce Interval to 1000, didn't know what "Index" was at the time and made them both the same.

Now I get reasonable RPM numbers in the Spindle DRO although they are a bit on the low side but at least in the ballpark. I now feel "intellectually exercised".

Thanks Roman and Reddish.

[RomanLini]

Wow! That is one for the records.

I didn't know there was a separate config for debouncing the RPM "index" input, and that definitely makes sense if the debounce was set too high it would be rejecting the actual "TACH" signal.

Just for discussion, is that "1000 kernel ticks"?? Just guessing if your kernel was 25000 Hz it would reject input frequencies higher than 25000/1000/2 or about 12Hz (about 700 RPM)? That might explain your earlier readings.

OK back to business, the Super-PID LCD tacho is quite accurate so you can use that to calibrate the Mach3 on-screen tacho DRO. Just remember the router speed will fluctuate a fraction of a percent in any one reading due to the fact the motor has poles and is being powered from 60Hz AC (120Hz energy pulses), but you should still be able to get the Mach3 DRO to be a pretty good match to the Super-PID LCD tacho.

And congrats on getting it sorted!

About temperature sensors!

Val said that more than half the new v2 SuperPID purchasers are buying the temperature sensor option, but at this point nobody has said whether they are mounting the temperature sensors on the router or on the SuperPID heatsink, or has shown any photos or discussed any mounting options here in the thread.

If anyone needs tech support for mounting their temperatures sensors or choosing a location please speak up! And of course if anyone already has already done so please feel free to post photos or a description of how you did it.

Personally I would either mount the sensor in the exhaust air flow from the router to measure general motor heat, or clamp it to the bottom metal frame near the bearing to measure a combination of motor heat and bearing heat.

[restless1]

Oh man would be nice to put all these gotchas in a FAQ!

[ger21]

I seem to recall that a debounce of 40 = 1 millisecond? But I could be mistaken.

And for the record, I ran my Porter Cable 690 at 15,000 rpm for 3 hours, and it was cold. There was practically zero load, though, as it was a 3D finishing pass with a .008 stepover.

[ger21]

Actually, I think a debounce of 1000 = 40 milliseconds.

[Reddish]

...changing [Index Debounce] to 1000, to "0" fixed it!

Well, of course!

Restless1: I expect that Roman will have that one somewhere near the end of his much anticipated IAQ.

[airnocker]

Could ANYONE please respond briefly to this post. I need an email test performed that results in CNCZone sending me a email notification that someone replied while I have my email provider tech support on the line.

Thanks

[bobsch]

Could ANYONE please respond briefly to this post. I need an email test performed that results in CNCZone sending me a email notification that someone replied while I have my email provider tech support on the line.

Thanks

Here's a response for you.

[airnocker]

This is truly weird that I do not receive email notices on my subscribed posts and I've got no spam or block lists or filters for cnczone.com.

Anyone got any ideas. The forum admin says "it's not us".

[airnocker]

On to more meaningful forum contributions....

For those interested in converting the Porter Cable Model 890 Series router for use with the Super-PID you may find my following posts of interest on the BuildYourTools Forum.

Build Your Tools • View topic - Super PID

It's a long thread but shows step-by-step-how-to for removing the factory speed controller, mounting the Super-PID IR sensor on the 890, along with setting up Mach3 for PWM control with Super-PID, and circuitry for PWM filter, Charge Pump Enable control line and Tach buffer for the "pid".

Here is my efforts toward making an acrylic enclosure to interface the "pid".

I finally hope to start using the "pid" to do actually work tomorrow.

[RomanLini]

Restless1 and Reddish- (re FAQ) Hmm I remember promising some months ago to do an index of this thread. Gee I'm slack, although I have to admit I've been flat out recently doing other work.

Ger21- Good to see your router running nice and cool. My router runs quite cool too although I mainly do plastics and use endmills under 6mm diameter.

Thanks for the info on the Mach3 TACH index "debounce" time!

The Super-PID acually already outputs a clean debounced square wave "TACH" signal, so based on my understanding of the Mach3 debounce I would run a fairly low value.

As a test procedure, you could run the router at its max speed, (highest TACH frequency) then increase the debounce config until the TACH gets erratic (until it stops working). Then a debounce config value of about 2/3 of that value would be "perfect". But since the SuperPID already sends out a clean TACH signal it's probably fine just to run a very low debounce value.

Airnocker- WOW! That thread you made on the other forum is VERY nice, I can see you have put a lot of work into it and it's very comprehensive, with photos, diagrams and screenshots etc.

That's a nice clear enclosure too, I forgot you can use MEK to melt the acrylic together, basically it makes all the acrylic pieces into one solid unit so it should be pretty strong.

Thank you again for doing the great writeup.

[restless1]

Ok I just went thru hell trying to get my g540..
smoothstepper and mach 3 to work together...

1. To get my tach to mach3 working i found that the only smoothstepper plugin that seems to work with the mach 3 tach DRO is Beta2 version 015ogb config
with that i can read the tach perfectly,,,
Under noise filtering in the plug in put encoder/indexing at 50
then i put spindle frequency at 4mhz (yeah i know it does nothing)
then i put a check on PWM at 50 Hz..pics to follow..

2. I could not calibrate the spindle automatically so I just tried to go to the mdi mach page and type in the S commands manually for speeds..
well guess what with the version of mach i have (r3 43 022)
there is a bug that requires you to press the reset button before you enter a spindle speed value(s value) or your router will sit there and smile at you silently...

3. everything else i had set up with others from here i am within 5 rpm at midpoint and 150 rpm on the bottom and top..

I have saved my xml and am going to bang my head against the wall!

[ger21]

well guess what with the version of mach i have (r3 43 022)
there is a bug

There are other bugs in that version. The M6 macros in my screen cause the PC to freeze up with that version. They fixed it in 3.43.028, but I prefer to use 3.42.020 or 3.42.040. Not sure if they'll work with your smoothstepper plugin, though.

[airnocker]

My default M6 macros work fine with Mach3 R3.043.022.

On one of my previous posts, changing my cnczone email to my Gmail account works fine. I get cnczone.com posting reply email notifications just fine.

Also, performed my first working cuts on my new 2nd generation CNC builds. My Super-PID works wonderfully running my Porter Cable 890 router with Mach3. Mach3 Tach display is accurate to less than 1%, too.

On my Mach3 Spindle Pulley settings for Pulley 4 (the default pulley) I'm using "0" for the minimum speed and "30200" for the maximum speed, ration is "1" of course. My requested Mach3 "S" speeds vs. the Super-PID's displayed speeds are with .2%. That's pretty damn satisfying.

Got a YouTube video processing now showing my first practical Super-PID/Mach3 controlled spindle On/Off/Speed. I will post the link when it is available.

Thanks Roman for the kind words.

Cheers all,

[airnocker]

Here is my YouTube video link:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii9oJOBRibI"]YouTube - CNC Movie 5.mpg[/nomedia]

I wished I had remembered to check focus on the camera, but it was set to "Auto Focus" and I forgot that with moving "thangs" that isn't a guarantee.

I'll do better next time.

[restless1]

Well i have one more switch to rewire,,,,
my router turns on when i close the mach program so i must wire an output through a relay to make the superpid run input fail-safe
after that i will backup my xml and clone my hard drive then play with different versions of mach...
I am doing a rebuild of my control panel with the superpid and g540 and smoothstepper on it so its in the house while i test otherwise i would of waited for warmer weather...
its just a bit frustrating when you can not differentiate between when its a software issue or a hardware issue seems like almost all of this stuff is beta blah...oh well guess i am still a little frustrated with all the time i spent on it..
hope it helps someone out..
Airnocker yes after all this it is still worth it..
just a joy to sit back and have it do what you would normally have to set manually..
Ger i will try those different versions after all my backups and see if there's any room for improvements for now i am just glad it works
Oh an the accuracy is so nice.. 0.6% over the total range 0-32500
same pulley
I am using port 3 on the smooth stepper for tach and probe (it has a terminal strip with 6 inputs for LPT port3 )...
it works... also since i was running out of inputs i gave that a try works good (now that i learned about the right plugin)

[ger21]

My default M6 macros work fine with Mach3 R3.043.022.

Yes, the default ones work. But when I reported the bug, people doing some testing found that replacing the default macro with even a single line msgbox() would lock up the PC.
Some macros worked. Some didn't. But they all work again in 3.43.028. And they all worked in older versions.

[RomanLini]

Restless1- Good to see you are getting nice RPM accuracy with your speed control.

Airnocker- You too! It's good to know you are happy with the speed control and PC890 setup.

I watched your video, that's a nice neat small moving-gantry build.

Restless1-

... my router turns on when i close the mach program so i must wire an output through a relay to make the superpid run input fail-safe ...

Which version SuperPID do you have? You might just be able to add a resistor on your Smoothstepper output (or input) to make it default to STOP mode.

[restless1]

The output is off the G540(output 5) and goes straight to the run status on the superpid....
are you thinking i need some sort of pullup/down resister..
i will look into it on the g540 documentation!


Oh i have the very first version of the super pid with the newer 1.5 firmware chip!

Also I could take it off the smooth stepper output but the g540 when it faults would be independent of the pc running and the USB communication like the smoothersteper is that's why I want it off the g540 output pin..
So if the pc screws up the critical triggers would all be on the g540!