[Farmers Machine]

I dont know if it is Gallil, Servo Dynamics, Cam Soft or Just how it is.
Cam Soft Pro, pos Vista computer, Galil 1842, Servo Vista Ruby Drive. Brush type DC servo motors. When you power up the computer and click on the CNC control icon, at the very moment that the control screen comes up all of the axis motors jump, shaking the entire gantry. the other day the X slave motor moved about 2" then backed up to its normal spot but alarm came on screen, " motor off cannot move". powered down and restarted, this time only the brief jerk. when you load program to run from memory the machine jumps at the exact moment you click on the job name. after that it will cut the part over and over. I can live with the jumping machine but I dont think it is normal for it to do this. and about 1 in 5 start ups the X slave motor will move and stall out causing you to have to restart.

[HuFlungDung]

What have you got in your startup.fil?

I have a fairly large startup.fil (for 2 axis lathe) because I've included my homing routines within it. However, these are my first few lines, and I cannot even recall why I put them in, as they command native Galil commands to accomplish something But if you do some research on them, maybe you will figure out why they are in there, and how to modify them for your usage. I have not had any problems with startup motor jumps or anything like that.

COMMAND OE 1,1,0
POSERROR ON;2000
COMMAND VT 0.8,0.8
COMMAND IT 0.8,0.8

[Karl_T]

You tripped my memory from about six years ago. My Mazak lathe did this. So, I wired an output (79 in my case) into the Estop circuit. You can't give the machine a reset without the control up and running. Then just do #79=1 in startup.fil and #79=0 in shutdown.fil.

Karl

[HuFlungDung]

I don't understand why the motors would jump when merely loading in a new program, because by then, the power is all on, the encoders are all providing feedback, the system is up.

Camsoft software does a pre-read of the nc program when it loads it, but of course, nothing should actually move when that happens. I wonder what logic files get read at this stage?

[Karl_T]

I don't understand why the motors would jump when merely loading in a new program, because by then, the power is all on, the encoders are all providing feedback, the system is up...

My suggestion doesn't address this. Ask Camsoft and let us know what you learn.

Karl

[Farmers Machine]

To Karl
is 1 on or off? remember I am new to this. I understand on your lathe, that the drives are held in the E stop state until the control comes up. we changed a chip in the breakout box because the machine would start moving when you shut off the control and powered down the computer. the drives were hooked to seperate input power, changing the chip stopped the runaway. in the Ruby drive set up software there is ? for high or low enable, wondering if this may be culprit. I know now why people are scared to learn something new!! The more you learn about it the more you realize what you dont know. If you keep your rows short you can plow straight. the bigger your field gets the more chance you have to make a crooked row.
Plowin in circles
Thanks The Farmer

[Karl_T]

To Karl
is 1 on or off? remember I am new to this. I understand on your lathe, that the drives are held in the E stop state until the control comes up. we changed a chip in the breakout box because the machine would start moving when you shut off the control and powered down the computer. the drives were hooked to seperate input power, changing the chip stopped the runaway. in the Ruby drive set up software there is ? for high or low enable, wondering if this may be culprit. I know now why people are scared to learn something new!! The more you learn about it the more you realize what you dont know. If you keep your rows short you can plow straight. the bigger your field gets the more chance you have to make a crooked row.
Plowin in circles
Thanks The Farmer

1 is on. The drives on my lathe are held in Estop untl the control is up and then the operator can press the reset button. The machine goes into estop the second you hit shutdown.

I've always set my machines up hi for drive enable. that way they can't be enabled with the control down. Or if something breaks, they default to not enabled.

Karl

[Al_The_Man]

I don't understand why the motors would jump when merely loading in a new program, because by then, the power is all on, the encoders are all providing feedback, the system is up.

I am not sure how this applies to Camsoft, but Galil have an app note that addresses the condition where the motor/encoder phasing is done by Galil command rather than hardware change.
In other words if the phasing is wrong and the motor/drives are enabled off the bat, then until the CE or other phasing and tuning correction is made, the motor control condition is uncertain.
The motors and drives should be shut off using software and hardware conditions until the card has been initialized.
Al.

[Farmers Machine]

Is it possible to have a Galil card from E Bay purchase that will work but might have one small tiny problem or are they all the way good or nothin?
Moral to this question is NEVER GET IN A HURRY!!!!!!! On the second day that I had the gantry moving, I ran over the power cord with the gantry and the machine was not grounded. You cannot believe what 40 amps will do to those little black square things on the green boards in a computer including the Galil board, encoders, 2900 breakout box ect. lucky for me my friend had one of everything that had previous experence and we were able to make it go again. but it does goofy things that cant be repeated kinda like a ghost in the special smoke. another thing that proved helpful was to buy extended warranty on computer at Best Buy. the girls at the counter dont require explanation for what roasted it you just pick out a new one. Galil is a good company, I sent parts in for repair, they fixed the 2900 and offered a new 1842 for half price. they wanted the old one to display" most parts exploded with out catching on fire and melting into a blob" it is slowly starting to make sense how it all comes together and what does what. I really appreciate the time and effort you all provide to me in my learning experience.
Thank You
The Farmer

[Karl_T]

Is it possible to have a Galil card from E Bay purchase that will work but might have one small tiny problem or are they all the way good or nothin?
Moral to this question is NEVER GET IN A HURRY!!!!!!! On the second day that I had the gantry moving, I ran over the power cord with the gantry and the machine was not grounded. You cannot believe what 40 amps will do to those little black square things on the green boards in a computer including
...
The Farmer

You violated the first rule of electricity. NEVER let the magic smoke out.

I've got all my galil cards off ebay. i won't buy one without a 7 day return warranty. You need to know how to wipe out the card back to defaults and install new firmware. Then test with native galil commands. takes a bit of time and study. I guess it comes down to the age old question, "You got more time or money?"

I suggest you get a complete computer with galil card and IO cards all set and ready to go. Next time you let the smoke out, you can be running again in 15 minutes.

karl