[Troncatore]

Hi cd_edwards
..sorry wich screen set are you using? Do You know if mach3 blue screen probing set works well under W10?
Tanks

[widgitmaster]

Well, I've made my decision! It's time for another upgrade, eliminating the PC completely! I have visited a cabinet factory with seven large CNC routers, all capable of working on a 4-ft x 8-ft sheet! Each machine had its own 4-axis DSP (Digital Signal Processor) pendant!
I cant imagine a factory with several machines stopping to fix a PC problem like this on a daily basis, it would be a colossal wast of time!
So I found on Amazon the same DSP they were using, it's a DM500 4-Axis Pendant.
Should be arriving today, and from what I've read it replaces the breakout board and connects to the drive controllers & spindle!
Now Big Red has a bunch of LED's and E-Stop buttons, so I'll have to do some creative wiring! I'm not sure how long the DSP's cable is, so I may need to put a plug in the front of the machine!
Nothing else changes, as the G-Code will be generated on my laptop, and written to a USB stick, then plugged into the DSP!
I've been told, that a program can easily be paused at any point, and restarted from that point! That's a nice feature!

The race is on, many projects waiting for me :cheers:

[handlewanker]

So....without a PC and monitor (laptop) you won't be seeing the Mach 3 screen?......isn't that like driving your car in the dark with the lights off ……..and you can't see the road?

I thought a pendant was an extension of the keyboard to get closer to the machine as opposed to standing far back at the PC.

I suppose that will work as you won't need to see the Mach 3 screen once the program is verified trouble free, in the USB stick and running on the machine...…..I'm new to CNC but getting there.
Ian.

[widgitmaster]

So....without a PC and monitor (laptop) you won't be seeing the Mach 3 screen?......isn't that like driving your car in the dark with the lights off ……..and you can't see the road?

I thought a pendant was an extension of the keyboard to get closer to the machine as opposed to standing far back at the PC.

I suppose that will work as you won't need to see the Mach 3 screen once the program is verified trouble free, in the USB stick and running on the machine...…..I'm new to CNC but getting there.
Ian.

In some ways your correct!
As a career machinist, I operated many machines without a CRT monitor or display. This pendant has a small LCD that shows line by line the code being processed, and assists in tooling, offsets, and homing. The stuff on Mach3 is nice but unnecessary!
The machine is either running code or its not! It runs directly off the USB stick!
Also, there is no need for drip-feeding code as USB devices have excellent storage space!

I do not know if there's an ability to manually enter each tool's lengths, this will be dealt with later!

[cd_edwards]

Hi cd_edwards
..sorry wich screen set are you using? Do You know if mach3 blue screen probing set works well under W10?
Tanks

I'm using Ger21's 2010 screenset and have probing working.

[bill south]

I've installed pathpilot on my novakon pro and never looked back. Also, I've never seen a real cnc operation so I'll watch this upgrade with interest. Good luck Widgit! Oh yeah, how's the foot these days. Been awhile since I've seen an update!
Bill

[widgitmaster]

Oh Man, I'm loosing my patience with all this!
Big red is dead, and my small router is not moving because Warp9's SmoothStepper for USB documentation doesn't exist!
They wont let me on their Forum, and I've tried everything to get my username & password to work!

So I'm ready to put all this S***T on the curb and call it quits!
I have thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in each of these machines and all they are is scrap metal!

ARGGGGGGGGG!

[breezy1849]

Try a MASSO by Hind Technology it's a CNC controller. No PC required! Connects directly to stepper drivers and VFD.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[widgitmaster]

There must be an easier way to do this!


Big Red is still dead, No one can figure out any of the hookups to the Chinese DSP, its a total loss! Don't waste your money on one!


The smaller router is having noise issues with the USB SmoothStepper!
After the Holidays, I'm going to collect all the PC on the curbs, hopefully I'll find one with XP or Win-7 still running!
As of today, I've spent over $1000 on PC's, SmoothSteppers, and DSP's!
None of them have made my machine run!

Currently, the Win-10 PC has connected to the USB SmoothStepper, it gives me motion on all 3-axis, E-stops, but no spindle control!
Warp9 says its noise from the inverter & cables, but I've been unable to shield it completely!

Does the Ethernet SmoothStepper have the same issue with noise?


As for the MASSO, I've not seen them for sale anywhere!

[breezy1849]

There must be an easier way to do this!

As for the MASSO, I've not seen them for sale anywhere!

Available in the USA from

CNC4PC

www.cnc4pc.com
[email protected]
+1 772 237 0867




Details on the MASSO are here
https://masso.com.au/

Regards,
Arie.

[Bubba]

Widgetmaser,
Tried to send you a pvt message, but your box is full. Don't want to start a war on the forum, but here goes anyway.

Probably sticking my foot in your mouth, but I would beware of the Masso. Do a search here on the zone as I seem to remember a few that have been disappointed with the system and have indicated that it "may not be ready for prime time". Have seen similar comments on other sites also.

Just my .02 worth and hope you find a good solution.

As for "used" PCs, why not try Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. As you may find something useful there???

Good luck my friend.

[bill south]

Hey Widgit;
I'm using windows 10 with a smooth stepper and have not had issues with noise. And..... your machine (Big Red) is built a hell of a lot better than mine. What kind of problems are you having with the Smooth Stepper? I apologize if I have not read this whole thread but in my experience, putting as much info on this forum as you can muster will be beneficial.
let these folks help if possible.
Love to see you back up and running with some of your amazing work for us vets!
Bill

[breezy1849]

Widgetmaser,
Probably sticking my foot in your mouth, but I would beware of the Masso. Do a search here on the zone as I seem to remember a few that have been disappointed with the system and have indicated that it "may not be ready for prime time". Have seen similar comments on other sites also.

Just my .02 worth and hope you find a good solution.
.

Not starting a war here either.
But I'm using a MASSO G2 on a 3DTEK CNC router. The G2 has now been superseded by the G3. There were problems with features missing in the early firmware, that has been resolved.
Current problems with the G3 are incorrect/incomplete setup by the user. As the same physical MASSO is able to be used on MILLS, LATHES and PLASMA, for these diverse applications to work requires different firmware and the documentation hasn't caught up to the differences in the features.
There are alot of knowable people on the MASSO forum who help to solve problems that users are having.

Regards,
Arie.

[widgitmaster]

Hey Widgit;
I'm using windows 10 with a smooth stepper and have not had issues with noise. And..... your machine (Big Red) is built a hell of a lot better than mine. What kind of problems are you having with the Smooth Stepper? I apologize if I have not read this whole thread but in my experience, putting as much info on this forum as you can muster will be beneficial.
let these folks help if possible.
Love to see you back up and running with some of your amazing work for us vets!
Bill

Thanks Bill!
I'm using the USS SmoothStepper (USB), and according to Warp9 they are really sensitive to electronic noise!
They have told me the ESS SmoothStepper (Ethernet) is much more cooperative to setup!
Funds are holding me back too!


Now Mach3 has me spoiled, as it gives me the ability to pre-measure all tool lengths!
The DSP requires each tool be measured after a tool change! That's adding a much slower procedure, on 2-hour long carving with 7-tools!
Don't know anything about the Messo, but I suspect its the same!

I have a GEEK friend who's trying to setup LINUX with LInuxCNC installed, so eliminating the evil Microsoft NIGHTMARE is looking like a preferred choice!
Windows was constantly crashing, damaging cutters and scrapping my projects!
Also, I've heard nothing good about Win-10, or its future!

This holiday season would have been very busy, if it wasn't distorted by Microsoft's "Planned Obsolescence"

[breezy1849]

Now Mach3 has me spoiled, as it gives me the ability to pre-measure all tool lengths!
The DSP requires each tool be measured after a tool change! That's adding a much slower procedure, on 2-hour long carving with 7-tools!
Don't know anything about the Messo, but I suspect its the same!

If you can guarantee that when you change tools that they inserted into the same "position" then you can enter tool details into the tools table and measure after change is not required.
But if you run collet spindle like I do, where the tool can be inserted at different lengths MASSO provides a Auto Tool Zero function which operates after the tool change.

Have a look at the MASSO documentation and see if it meets your requirements.

Regards,
Arie.

[CNCMAN172]

Widget
Get yourself a Centroid Acorn they are rock solid. They handle the VFD and up to four axis of motion

Russ

[widgitmaster]

Widget
Get yourself a Centroid Acorn they are rock solid. They handle the VFD and up to four axis of motion

Russ

Wow Russ!
That's impressive!
Wish I knew about that when I built Big Red!

Thanks!

[widgitmaster]

OK, I've made much progress on the little machine! Big RED is still waiting on a good PC or other controller.
So far I've replaced a bunch of shielded cables because the shields were not grounded properly.
I now have a functional PC running XP, there are dual parallel ports and all thee axis & limits are working!
The problem is the machine will not HOME when I connect the Touch Probe wires to port-2, pins 15 & 16 on the PMDX-126!
In order for the probe to work, the machines ground needs to be connected, but that's conflicting with the PC's ground.

Any suggestions?

[epineh]

Well my 2c regarding Big Red, keep pestering your geek friend who is trying to setup LiinuxCNC, if your setup is using step/dir then the setup is a lot easier than servo feedback to the controller using the built in wizards.
Having said that for getting decent step rates you will need a MESA card, I haven't looked into what is available these days, they seem to release really cool stuff just after I buy something. They make ethernet based designs now so the old parallel port issues are gone.
Something to consider anyway, and you get rid of Windows altogether. It is a fair learning curve but not the end of the world, here is a link to using the configuration wizard PNCCONF for MESA cards...

Mesa Configuration Wizard

I used that setup and got my servo based machine 95% running, the only time I had to manually edit the config file was to include a servo fault.

I would imagine the PC you already have will be ample for running LinuxCNC.

For the probe issue, I am unfamiliar with the PMDX-126, but you may be able to add some sort of optoisolation to the probe, I would think a seperate power supply from a wall plug pack and a couple of components, I will try find the wiring diagrams of the board and see if that can be made to work. PC grounds always make things interesting and I suspect are the cause of a lot of noise problems that people have.

Russell.

[epineh]

So I had a quick look at the manual, they advise not to connect the PC ground to the machine, is it possible to remove that connection ? I've never used the hardware you have so I don't know if removing the PC ground will cause more issues.