6040Z controller

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Originally Posted by RichardR

Thanks I have already found the debounce setting and even set on 1000 it still drops out, however the time it takes to do that has enabled me to play with the settings, I am now going to wire the switches with screened cable, also I am going to earth bond all the axis on the machine

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Well, earth the chassis / spindle of the machine at least. Then we'll introduce opto-coupler isolation on the limit switches, and take it from there. Listening to Richard, and his neighbour on the phone, I think things are starting to fall into place a little and their understanding and navigation around Mach3 is reassuring - gives me some confidence that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Experiments with debouncing made it quite clear the controller/PC is rather susceptible to noise (even without motors/spindle) - I think this does need to be belts-and-braced.

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Originally Posted by RichardR

I am now going to wire the switches with screened cable, also I am going to earth bond all the axis on the machine

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Careful with the earthing as you can easily introduce ground loops, I'm sure Doddy will have mentioned this but make sure you take all earths back to a single ground point.

No I was not aware of that, so I need to take all the earths separately to a connection on the back of the machine, choc strip, then one wire to the bolt on the control box?
While I am on I wonder if you can help with the amount of travel of the Axis, for instance the machine is set up for mm however the actual movement on the axis's do not correspond with the amount that was inputted. I presume that if I enter G0 X10 then it should move 10 centimetres but it only moves approx. 6 centimetres. Am I correct in thinking that if I enter a code of G0 X0.05 then it should move 5mm. I get very confused with Metric but I have a feeling that the 6040 has a metric screw thread, although I cannot find any information on it now.

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Originally Posted by RichardR

No I was not aware of that, so I need to take all the earths separately to a connection on the back of the machine, choc strip, then one wire to the bolt on the control box?
While I am on I wonder if you can help with the amount of travel of the Axis, for instance the machine is set up for mm however the actual movement on the axis's do not correspond with the amount that was inputted. I presume that if I enter G0 X10 then it should move 10 centimetres but it only moves approx. 6 centimetres. Am I correct in thinking that if I enter a code of G0 X0.05 then it should move 5mm. I get very confused with Metric but I have a feeling that the 6040 has a metric screw thread, although I cannot find any information on it now.

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Ok I'll start with the Earths first.

Only earth one end of the screen on each cable to the single Gnd point in the control box. Likewise, any other earths should be taken or run from this single point.

Now the movement. Any commands like G0 X10 are in MM's not Cm's so G0 X10 would move 10mm.
If you are not moving the correct distance this will be because your Steps Per setting is wrong in the Motor tuning section.
The steps per amount is a calculation based on the amount of Micro stepping used in the drives and the pitch and if used any ratio applied.
So lets say you have 1600 micro steps set on the drives and the ballscrew pitch is 5mm and the motor is direct drive so no ratio the Step per calculation would 1600/5=320 steps per mm.

Now you probably don't know the Micro steps and if your not sure about the ball screw pitch then Mach3 does have feature where it will calculate the steps per based on distance travelled.
Go to the Settings tab and just above the red Reset button you'll see a button that says Set steps Per Unit. Click this and it will ask which axis to calibrate, then it will ask you to enter a distance to move in mm's, enter a distance and when you click enter the machine will move, then it ask you to enter the actual distance the machine moved, from this it will caculate the steps per unit.
So before doing this make a reference mark some where on the machine or the bed which you can acurately measure from. For a first try I suggest you enter a small amount just in case your settings are way off target and measure the distance it moved. Then repeat this over the longest distance you can accurately measure, the secret is accuracy in your measuring. A tape measure is NOT accurate enough, If you have a digital vernier gauge then you can use this by opening it up wide and zeroing it out, then let the machine shove it to see how far it moves. ie: 150mm vernier then opens wide and set the distance to 100mm and see what it actually measures. Enter this value into the steps per calculator when it asks for distance travelled.

Do this for each axis.

Thanks I will play with that tomorrow, I have a digital defined so can be accurate

Just for clarity - the conversation on the phone as I recall was related to exporting an earth to the machine, not to provide shielding (after all, we're providing galvanic isolation with the opto-isolator board). For this (and broadly aligned with Jazz's advice), provide an earth line back from the machine to a central earth point on the control box connected to the protective earth provided through the IEC (mains) connector.

Screens (rather than earths) I'm not going to get excited about.

I did what you said for the Y and X axis and that was ok but it would not move on the Z axis but mach 3 asked how far it moved, also it is now not operating on the G code I put in G0 Y20 X20 also when I tried a manual jog it moved a minute distance but only every time I pressed the keyboard jog button. I had a look around mach 3 but could not find what the problem is

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Originally Posted by RichardR

I did what you said for the Y and X axis and that was ok but it would not move on the Z axis but mach 3 asked how far it moved, also it is now not operating on the G code I put in G0 Y20 X20 also when I tried a manual jog it moved a minute distance but only every time I pressed the keyboard jog button. I had a look around mach 3 but could not find what the problem is

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Ok regards the Z axis then you need to enter a negative number, all Z moves are usually negative moves. So try something like -20. If you don't enter a value after it moves then Mach3 will default back to what was entered before.

I'm not clear on what your saying regards it not moving.? I think your saying it's NOT moving when you enter g0 Y20 X20 into the MDI.? If this is the case then make sure you are not at those coordinates already as this about the only reason I can think of why it wouldn't move.!

Best thing to do is ZERO each axis then enter G0 Y20 X20. If it doesn't move then I can't imagine why not as just setting the steps per with the calibration tool shouldn't stop it moving unless something went badly wrong. What are the numbers entered into the Steps Per for each axis.?

Regards the tiny move distance then make sure you haven't accidentally put it into Step Mode. Click the TAB key and the Jog tab will come out from the side. In there you will see JOG MODE button which will cycle between Step and continous Mode.

I don't know what I did but I got it all moving on the manual jog , then realised that it was a negative movement, so all working, I checked the amount it moved after my G code input and it was within a 0.??mmm I guess that due to the pitch on the screw thread it is as near as possible, or should I change to inches and try that?

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Originally Posted by RichardR

I don't know what I did but I got it all moving on the manual jog , then realised that it was a negative movement, so all working, I checked the amount it moved after my G code input and it was within a 0.??mmm I guess that due to the pitch on the screw thread it is as near as possible, or should I change to inches and try that?

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You can work in mm or inches by using G21 or G20 at the top of the gcode.

How near is 0.??mm. Now you have it running cut a square out and measure the square with a vernier
Also you can measure the diagonals to see if the gantry is out of square.

Edit: Joking aside you have coma a long way from spitting the dummy out. :joker: :applouse: