[JFettig]

no, the breakout boards arent just for signal, you get the indexer card and hook it to an input, it sends pulses for rpm feedback.
I got the 8amp motor drive from the same place JR did, these motors are 'continuous' at 1.5hp(right around where mine is) and 'treadmill duty' at 2.5hp.

I havent gotten my optoisolators yet, mouser ran out, the decided to upgrade my shipping for free but didnt give me the part I really needed.

Jon

[miljnor]

I am sorry your the one who gave the link at surpluss center for the motor drivers. did you by that one or the minark controler?

what manufacture is the motor from?

I have a star trac treadmill motor its rated at 2.5hp 3500rpm 130volts continuous duty. Its a monster PM motor made for PWM.

The controler that you gave the link to is a 115vac-130vdc 8amp motor controler but the manufacturer is Icon health and fitness.

[miljnor]

I finaly got the damn thing working but had to switch optos from the 3220 to a nte3041 and had to eliminate the R2 resistor.

I would realy like to know the treadmill motor that your using jroque. I have a source for all things fitness wise, and I would love to have a motor that spins to 6700 much less 8200!

[JFettig]

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.as...783-A&catname=
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.as...tname=electric
Theres the motor and controller that I am using, I think his motor is the same as mine but he uses a different controller which is basicly a higher current controller. With the controller I have you can get the motor going 7500rpm but thats where it starts crapping out and overloading. I run mine at about 6200rpm now.

Jon

[cncadmin]

I like what your doing but for me I want feed back so that the motor will maintain the set RPM. I plan on using a servo driver and a encoder to maintain the RPM of the motor.

[JFettig]

cncadmin, take a look at cnc4pc.com with mach2 and turbocnc they use a 1 line encoder and thats what I use with my motor. It should maintain the speed, I cant wait to give it a try in a couple weeks when they finally get my backordered optoisolators.

Jon

[cncadmin]

I like his stuff, I just wish he would answer his emails!

[miljnor]

the motor you listed is an 18.5amp motor!

do you think you'll have any problem with the 8amp controler???

and that is the controler I am using, and I had to use an NTE3041 Opto because the other one Had too high and internal resistance with the amount of signal that mach2 was giving it.

I am not the most svelt person in electronics so maybe the fault was mine but I try about a hundered different ways to make the other one work and it was a no go.

The 3041 hooks up the same way although I removed R2 from the previous diag. and it worked like a champ!

If there is any flaw with my mod I hope someone with more electronic knowledge will clue me in .

[JRoque]

Hi. Let me make a few comments on the recent postings.

Michael: increasing the resistance on the pot should reduce the voltage entering the controller input and slow the spindle, this is normal. A high resistance level on the pot is analogous to the LED on the opto being off. If your setup with the opto is somehow reversed so when you increase the speed in Mach2 the spindle slows down, go to the setup screen and uncheck the "Active Low" checkbox on the spindle speed pin. This option maybe confusing and you might think you are enabling the pin when in reality you are selecting a feature.

I think I posted this before but the motor I'm using does 8200 RPM and the controller outputs 12A @ 130V DC. These are maximums I've measured and I doubt can be sustained for long.

Referring to the posted circuit, R1 and R2 are current limiting resistors. Depending on your controller, R2 can be changed to a lower value or bypassed.

A higher current motor connected to a lower output controller won't cause problems other than the motor not running at it's full potential.

Jon, you can call Mouser and change your order to a comparable optoisolator. The NTE part its a generic replacement itself so many other will also work. The PS2502-2 works too. Keep in mind that I just pulled out my optoisolator bin and picked one. The one I chose is even a dual optoisolator which is not necessary in this application - a single, 4 pin one can work.

JR

[JFettig]

I got some of the optos that miljnor said he used and got working, I found them in minneapolis when i was up there today. They are a little different than the ones you use and have drawings for, they have 6 pins instead of 8, Ill take a look for the scematic and stuff.

miljnor, how exactly did you hook it up and have it working?
-edit- It has a base also and one pin thats not connected
Jon

[miljnor]

I dont have any drawing programs for circuits so i will discribe it.

on the opto that i sugested. the input side is the same as on jroques two top pins w/ r1 resistor. the other side i did w/o the r2 resistor looking from the top down p1 on the uper left. the two pins on the lower right are the pins you need Look to your wiring diag. for the chip. the connections as per your controler the H, and W connecters are used and no others.

no remember I am not an electronics person, this is just what worked on the bench. It worked VERY well on the bench.

KEEP in mind that the controler is an 8 amp controller and the motor is rated at 17.5amps peek.

[JFettig]

well, I milled my pcb(my design of the same thing) and soldered it all up and I shut off everything and went to hook it up and I hooked it up to my breakout board, then I went to hook it to the motor controller and POOF! I cannot figure out what blew and why. I metered everthing out before I went to install it, Duck tape isnt conductive is it? even then, wheres the current comming from?
I cant pinpoint this to anything, its like it was directly on the bottom of the board and nothing really blew?
-edit- wow it looks like the copper from this pin arced to something when it poofed, it was sitting ontop of a roll of duck tape and ontop of my monitor. the diode is dead, no current across it
I woudl have a better pic but I borrowed my camera to my dad for his trip.

Jon

[miljnor]

oh and you have to do what jroque said and set the output to high for the controler to spin up or down with the spindle commands.

[JFettig]

miljnor Im not really sure, do you think you could draw this up in paint?
Here is what I made, I had a 5 pin terminal to use. Are you saying that I only need to hook up 2 wires to the controller?

[JRoque]

Hey Jon, I see you discovered the "poof" factor of a non-isolated controller. I too dropped circuit on the frame and saw some sparks. All of my wiring is done through Ground Fault Interruption (GFI) circuit breakers and that tripped immediately. thankfully.

Hard to tell but masking tape should not be conductive; duct tape can be. It sounds like miswiring. Below's the circuit using Michael's opto.

L8er,
JR

[JFettig]

Thats about how I had it hooked up, I still dont know why it popped, I later turned it on without the pot and it really popped, really screwed up the controller. The new one should be here thursday, I dont think Im going to mess with the pwm controll for a while, untill we get this thing working, I had like 10 parts I needed to make today too.

Do you have any idea why it popped again? without the pot? Wouldnt it do the same thing with the optoisolator? I am quite confused about this whole thing and why it is doing what it is.

Jon

[miljnor]

as per our pm jon, I think the motor drew too much amperage on start up (which is a high load situation) for the controler. It is after all an 8 amp controler with a 17.5 amp motor, and if the motor is in poor shape it could be drawing over 8amps in start up.

which is probably how you got your fireworks!

I would recomend a beter motor controler like the one jroque is using (although this is underpowered as well).

I am currently working on a DYI mosfet h-bridge motor controler, but I am electronicaly challenged and the learning curve will take awhile to overcome.

Unless of coarse one of the electronic gurus here want to chime in a throw us a bone.

anyone? ------ phil? ---- bob? ---- tekno?

[JFettig]

Correct me if Im wrong, but isnt this how you had it hooked up and working?
(miljnor)

[miljnor]

yeppers. thats it!

and it still would be but for my SCR trial and error that blew up my optos!

[JRoque]

Bummer Jon, that sucks. I checked the circuit drawing you posted and it looks fine (its upside-down and mirrored, right?). Are you positive that the PCB lines were properly isolated from surrounding copper? You might've said this before but what is the make/model of your controller? I'll see if the manual is available and if it says anything about how to interface.

Michael, my experience building my own motor controller is that it's nearly more expensive to buy the components than to buy already made from surplus. I built an IGBT based one I spec'd for 15 amps @ 170 VDC, microcontroller driven with a USB interface. Below's a pic of the high voltage board prototype. It worked fine but the surplus one I got is plenty good for what I need.

JR