[Elsa]

Hello all,

First of all, I apologize for my poor English (and even poorer technical English). I'm from France, and I'm helping a friend who is a CNC newbie : he has recently acquired a secondhand robotic arm BOSCH Turbo Scara SR60 and is having a hard time making it work. I thank you in advance for any help/comment! I am voicing his questions, but I might not be very clear because I don't know anything about CNC, so please ask me if I what I say doesn't make sense. :-)

His current problem is the following : for the time being, he has been able to make the 4 axis of his machine move, using Mach3. But the motion is very sloooooow and jerky.Besides, the motors (all 4 of them) make a stalling noise. I have filmed a video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKcQ...yl95B5-4CInBcw

The configuration is as follows (I have attached all the pictures to this message):

• MotorZebotronic Type SM86 1 18 SRF 1,6 NM Amp Ph 1,6 ohm/ph3 1,8°

• MotorNanotec Type 4T5618L 5208 4,8V 2A 1,8°

• MotorSanyo Type 103H7123-0740

• MotorSchrittmotor Type HS 200 2221-0210 1X04 1,8°

• Controler Card GWR Elecktronik SM44PCV5 parallel port.

• Power supply 5V, 12V and 24V.

The Robot is a Bosch Turbo Scara SR60, which he controls with Mach3 via a Dell Latitude D830 laptop .

He has read the Mach3 manual, but still doesn't find out where the problem might come from. What do you think he should set the speed/acceleration so that the motors would work correctly (faster) and smoothly? Is the problem coming from Mach3 or from elsewhere, in your opinion?

Thank you very much in advance for any help!!! :wave:

Elsa.

[awerby]

Laptops aren't recommended for running Mach3. They have power-saving features that tend to interfere with CNC operations, and the voltage of their parallel ports is often too low for consistent control of a CNC machine. See if you can find a desktop PC with a parallel port which can operate in EPP-only mode, and try again. Of course, there could be other problems, like acceleration, pulse width or kernel frequency issues, but try that first.

[Elsa]

Thank you for your answer. We have changed for a desktop (Dell Optiplex GX270), and now nothing moves at all. It juste make a noise as though it's going to start moving and then nothing at all. :-( Do you think it has to do with the Mach3 settings? How comes it would move (even so slowly) with the laptop and not at all with the same parameters when we use a desktop?

Thank you for any answer!
Elsa

[awerby]

Mach3 might not be your best choice for running a SCARA robot arm. You might look at LinuxCNC (EMC) which is better at handling odd kinematics, or a proprietary solution like HalterCNC How it works - Halter CNC or Rhinorobotics: Rhino Robotics Ltd. Mark III Controller

[Elsa]

Do you have any clue as to why it's working with the laptop and not with the desktop? Could it be a driver or parallel port address issue?

[awerby]

Did you go into the BIOS and make sure the parallel port is running in EPP mode?

[Elsa]

Thank you for your answer, it was in ECP mode, I set it to EPP, but still not moving an inch...