6040Z controller

Attachment 29001
Attachment 29002
Dummy back in, a new day, so I will try and post some pictures, my questions are
1 can I wire home switches to this pub and if so where
2 corresponding to the hole marked Probe on the back of the case there is some empty holes on the PCB marked Probe, can I solder a socket for one on it and will it work, looking at the underside of the board there is not any tracks from these holes to any components
3 will I need to alter the switches on the units marked XYZ?
Regards Richard

Richard. I think you will need to post a better picture as it seems to be out of focus and for me it is impossible to read anything on it .

Can you post a bigger pic. from the top and bottom?

Just noticed you have started another post this makes it confusing for people to follow please keep all the questions in one place.

Sorry for starting another post but it was the only way I could post a picture, as it does not seem to give me the option of how to post another picture on a reply, I can take a better picture with my camera then transfer to the computer to post it, but can you tell me how to actually post a picture without starting a new thread?

Have you tried the advanced tab?

Re. Clive - Yes, the picture of the top of the board is particularly bad. Also, agreed with post-in-one-place, but we're here now so let's move onwards.

OP: You have to acknowledge the image is difficult to interpret, but we can deduce the following:-

It's a parallel port interface (the big black 25W connector on the left of the image as viewed). That immediately gives us options in terms of a replacement BoB, if necessary, although the board looks to be rather compact - we can't tell if a replacement board would actually physically fit, but we can play with that with a better photo.

If I take my glasses off, the image swims into... less focus... okay, worth a try. But, I have to admit that the connectivity to the board appears just to be power (lower right) followed by 4-axis drivers (the four four-wire interfaces above that). And NOTHING ELSE?! The circuitry around the lower-right connector I would guess to be a local 5V logic supply for the board (hmmm, maybe... pretty heavy duty if it is), and board silkscreen printing appears to show a power jack (not fitted), some jumpers - not fitted (although there's a two-pin jumper fit, but can't read the silkscreening around that). What isn't evident are the usual 5x digital inputs - used for E-Stop/Probe/X-Limit/Y-Limit/Z-Limit (conventionally, although can be used for practically any function). Nor any suggestion of the usual opto-isolated inputs to support these.

We do need a better image and to understand how much you're prepare to play with this. I'm half guessing (through squinted eyes) that the board does not support additional inputs, as would be required for the limit switches. A cheap Chinese BoB will likely work well (if we can work out the pinouts for compatible connectors to the existing wiring looms), and would cost less than a tenner, and give you a more conventional interface. That would work almost as a plug-and-play swap for the existing board - though you'd have to map the new input(s) through onto Mach3/whatever-you-use. It's an option.

For now though - as much as a buggeration as it is - clear photos would really help.

Attachment 29004

Crude arrow pointing to where you attach a photo.

This is about as good as I can get, I hope this works

Attachment 29005
Attachment 29006
Attachment 29007
Attachment 29008

Perfect. However the connectors that you need are not fit to board - just the solder pads for them. That's not bad, it's 10 minutes work to add the connectors if you want to persue this. My question - how's your soldering?

erm, just a point - the 25W connector is missing it's shroud (steel "D" shaped form that surrounds the pins) - is that still attached to the case?

My soldering is near on perfect, I have Two temp controlled, fine tip irons, heat sinks etc., just lacking the electronics capability, but was a white goods and small appliance repair person for 50 years, so I can do as I am advised so long as I have some sort of diagram to follow

The two pin E stop plug is in the loom, I had to unplug it to pull the pcb out

There's some silk-screen printing on the board (first pic) - a box surrounding a 2x3 grid of holes filled with solder, with XYZ printed against these. You'll need a bit of solder wick to clean the solder out of the holes/pads, then get a 2x3 0.1" pitch header, insert into the board and solder in place. Then you need a a cable form to connect into there (many choices, google Dupont connectors) - to make off the cables for the axis sensors. and run these to each of the three axis microswitches.

Something like


Attachment 29009

Is all you need, and could be in the post tomorrow if you can't source them yourself.

Thanks, What about the Probe, I presume I need to get the correct socket for the probe lead, solder that to the three holes and take two wires to the solder pads marked Probe

I have had a look on amazon but there are so many sizes, but cant seem to find anything 0.1 in size, I would like to fit some sort of connecter on the back of the unit so I can actually plug the wires to the limit switches into that

Looks like, from here, a 3.5mm jack socket, or a barrel-jack, something like...

Attachment 29011

But without measuring kinda guessing.

You'd use EITHER that or add another 2-pin connector to the Probe inputs, then take the wires to the probe.

EDIT:

Okay, just read your reply - yeah, it could be a good idea to eat some holes into the case and mount some appropriate chassis connectors, then route these back to this board.

Thanks for your help, sourced the parts I needed and you were spot on with the pitch of the pins,I got all I need from radio spares except the jack socket for the probe, I think I failed to add one to my order and never noticed.I
The six micro switches are all fitted, just need to wire them up, can you tell me the best way to wire them bearing in mind the controller I have and the Mach3 operating software, in parallel or series?

You don't "need" the jack - you could just use a pair of the 0.1" headers and a 2-way socket. But horses for courses.

You don't need independent X/Y/Z inputs - you could wire all microswitches, normally-closed contacts in series. Or, keep it simple and wire each pair for each axis in series.

I would recommend reading the Mach3 manual - it deals with this quite well. In particular read up on homing switches and soft-limits.

Thanks for that, the pcb has three holes for a Jack socket and a hole in the cabinet that lines up with it also marked probe, so I thought I would use it, I have decided to take things one step at a time, however I have been reading older threads dealing with limit switches and Home switches, I am now not sure whether I am doing things correctly, as I initially thought they were the same thing, on the pcb it has a 2x3 pin header marked XYZ is this for home switches or limit switches?

Just re-read your reply now I am confused, limit switches, homing switches and soft limit switches?

Limit switches I think you understand already. Home switches are used to establish a position on an axis. Soft limits are software imposed limits, given a known reference point (eg home position). So with homing sensory/switch and soft limits you don’t “need” limit switches. It’s all in the manual.

The other advantage of soft limits is that mach3 won't let you jog into the limits and slows the machine to a nice controlled stop. It also checks your G-code and if you are going to pass the soft limits warns you.

Home switches are priceless and if you are going to the trouble of fitting limits you'd be silly not use them as home switches as well.

Just to add to Jazz's comment, and possibly to head off the next question, apart from position (limit switches on the extremes of travel, home switches at some arbitrary position within the extremes of travel - possible a limit switch) - the distinction is made within the Mach3 settings - you'll bind an input (Pin 11/12/13 - assume X/Y/Z, according to the silk-screen printing on the board) to a function (limit/home) within the Mach3 inputs, then Mach3 takes over from there.

Thank you both, I have read some of the manual, but was watching some utube clips by the Guru Brew and he explains it really well and I think I am getting to understand things more, re pin numbers and setting up that to mach3, anyway I have fitted the switches and hoping to wire them up this afternoon once I have finished refitting the pcb and the 4pin plug and socket I will start to set it up again, I have forgotten Everything I manager to do in 2016 before my operation stopped me doing anymore hopefully I can refer to the U tube clips to go forward, if I get stuck then I hope I can ask on here again

A quick question about the jack socket, the ring that you screw on to fix it will be ground, as it is part of the connection, now the ground on the pcb is not connectted to the chassis, so if I fix this to the cabinet will it affect anything?
I hope that makes sense

Hmmm, To be honest, I don't know. Chances are it'll be okay, provided that barrel is expected to be the probe "-" line. But, I wouldn't claim that I know.


EDIT: Just a thought - is the steel shroud of the DB25 connector not also connected to the board ground, and is this not bonded to the enclosure?

Not sure what a DB25 connector is

Just call me thick, but I have fitted and wired the micro switches and followed the set up instructions and also watched a utube video of how to configure them as limit and home switches, but it is not operating on the switches.
I got to the part where it says go to the diagnostic page and the three home led's should light up when the switches are operated, they are on permanent and do not even go off when the switch is operated. I have played about with the settings to no avail.
I have tried setting X to pin 10 and Y to pin 11 and Z to pin 12 in configuration that makes no difference so have set them back to pin 10 as per the manual.
I have control of X Y Z on the keyboard so I know that is working
What am I doing wrong?

DB25 -- sorry - that's the connector that you plug the PC into.

Okay, no drama with what you've said so far. I've not used Mach3 for a while so some of this detail may be a bit off (someone will correct me!), but on the Diagnostic page there's indication of the various pins (not necessarily the ones bound to functions like Home - but the input pins 10,11,12,13,14) - observe those with the switches you've added. The silk-screen printing on the board indicates that X is input pin 11, Y=12, Z=13 - just look to see if those change in response to the switch actuation.

If not - pull the sockets from the board and just short the adjacent pins for X (then separately for Y, then Z) - should be evidenced on pins 11/12/13.

If that works then we know the wiring is good, and the rest is just Mach3 settings.

The LED's being on isn't an issue it just means you need to change the Active Hi/Lo for each switch. However, the fact it doesn't go off when you operate the switch shows something is wrong.

What type of switches did you fit and what polarity ie: NO (Normally open) or NC(normally closed). If the LED's didn't change when you changed the switch state then I would suspect your BOB hack isn't working or the wiring is wrong.

Quote:

---

10,11,12,13,14

---

Just for the sake of others this should be 10,11,12,13,15

Not sure what a BOB hack is, anyway I went back out to the garage and started from the begining, only this time the home let's did not even light, so again I am getting in a muddle, I tied to do an auto detect on the switches, that didn't work. I will check out that the pins I soldered on the board where it said XYZ to to, looking at the DB25 which is pin one, I assume it is top left.
I have a manual as well as the configuration guide, but I am having trouble understanding the manual, I need a Mach3 for dummies book :-)
I have put a post on my village Facebook page asking for help, but I doubt it anyone is daft enough to have a cnc machine and also want to get involved :-)
I am getting to think at 71 I may be too old too old for my brain to learn much more
Still tomorrow is another day

The board you soldered the pins to is a break out board BOB hence the BOB hack.

Richard don't get disheartened it will be something simple.

You need to break this down into small pieces.
First you need to verify the wiring is correct so check this first.
Then you need to detemine if the signals are getting through and the BOB Hack worked.

Now Mach3.!

Mach3 or any other controller for that matter all work the same in that they need to communicate with outside world through some external device, in your case the parallel port which is connected to the BOB you messed with. They do this by taking the PIN #'s which are connected to physical devices on the machine and assigning them to functions the controller deals with.

Now Mach3 can be broken down into 4 separate sections which control the working of the machine. INPUTS, OUTPUTS, MOTOR OUTPUTS and SPINDLE.
You are only interested in the INPUTS section because a LIMIT is telling mach3 to DO SOMETHING.

I'm going to give an example just setting up the X axis, just repeat for the other axis and change the PIn #.

So first you need to know which PIN # you connected the X axis Limit switch to. I'm going to use PIN 11 in this example.

So go to the PORTS N PINS / INPUTS section of mach3 and you'll see X++ and X-- enable these with green tick. Next is the port # this will usually be 1 if using parallel port.
Next is the PIN Number, in this example I'm entering 11.

Finally the Active Low.
This is toggled depending on how you wired the switch. ie: NO or NC
If you wired NC (normally closed) switches then you want Mach3 to DO SOMETHING when the switch goes LOW, or put another way when it sees the voltage on PIN11 switch OFF.
If you wired them NO (normally open) then mach would only DO SOMETHING when it sees voltage appear on the PIN. The PIN goes HIGH.

It's that simple and if your BOB is letting the Signals through and the wiring is correct then Mach3 will see them and respond.

HOWEVER if any of these settings is wrong then Mach3 knows nothing and will DO NOTHING. It's common with new users to Blame Mach3 but mach3 only does what YOU tell it so if you give it Duff Info or it doesn't see the Signals getting through then it won't work now matter how much they bitch about it.

If you are sure you have the correct PIN # entered and the Port # and it still doesn't work then it's 99% either the BOB or the Wiring not letting the signal through.

Thank you for all your advice, as long as the boss allows me back out into the garage, :-) I have been hiding in there a lot and ignoring her.
I will see if I can trace the wiring from the BOB to the plug and see if it has linked through to it, if it has I will note the pin number, am I correct in thinking that it goes from left to right from the top row ( the one with the most pins) as to look at the plug. I know that the wiring to the switches is correct as it is wired n/c and I have already checked that.
I did wonder if the BOB was not suitable for the mod, but I will know later this morning I hope :-)
I did try to search for another controller putting 6040S in the search box but nothing came up I was hoping to find one with a connection for switches.
I will get there,

My opinion : The BoB should be suited for the mod.

Squinting at the PCB images, it appears that there's a SIL resistor package that pulls-up the parallel port "inputs" (X/Y/Z/E-STOP) to the onboard 5V, and the pin-pairs allow the connected switches to ground these through to ground. Apart from a failure on the board there's not much to go wrong.

Attachment 29064

Power OFF, disconnect limit switches, disconnect computer cable:

1) Verify the three pads marked "GROUND" have low resistance between each (100% confident they will)
2) Verify continuity between pad marked "11" and pin 11 on the DB25 connector. Yes, the long row are pins 1-13, the short row 14-25. The pins are usually marked in the connector, but at 51 years old I can't read them. Pin 13 is the one closest to the jack socket that you want to add.
3) Verify continuity between pad marked "12" and pin 12.
4) Verify continuity between pad marked "13" and pin 13.
5) Verify no* continuity between pad marked "11" and the adjacent "Ground" pad.
6) Verify no* continuity between pad marked "12" and the adjacent "Ground" pad.
7) Verify no* continuity between pad marked "13" and the adjacent "Ground" pad.

(* : "No" - certainly a lot higher than a few ohms - these signals are pulled to the onboard supply line, so there can be/will be some measurable resistance but would expect this to be >1kR)

8) Verify high resistance between pad marked "11" and "12" (high = at least 2kR, depends on the SIL resistor values)
9) Verify high resistance between pad marked "12" and "13" (high = at least 2kR, depends on the SIL resistor values)
10) Verify high resistance between pad marked "11" and "13 (high = at least 2kR, depends on the SIL resistor values)

If you're prepared to test "powered" - reconnect all power, computer and switches:

11) X-Axis switch "closed" - voltage on pad "11" = 0V (measured, with respect to the ground plane on the board.
12) X-Axis switch "open" (or removed from board) - voltage on pad "11" = 5V.
13) Y-Axis switch "closed" - voltage on pad "12" = 0V (measured, with respect to the ground plane on the board.
14) Y-Axis switch "open" (or removed from board) - voltage on pad "12" = 5V.
15) Z-Axis switch "closed" - voltage on pad "13" = 0V (measured, with respect to the ground plane on the board.
16) Z-Axis switch "open" (or removed from board) - voltage on pad "13" = 5V.

If all these measure okay - and I'm confident that without a failure on the board that they will, then the BoB is okay.

As an suggestion for your experience yesterday, with nothing working, double-check that your supply voltage to the BoB was present - the BoB depends upon the pull-up to the local board supply to get the "logic 1" (switch open) sense level.

Thanks Doddy,. I have taken the BOB out as I was not getting continuity between the XYZ header and the db25, you are correct there is a resister pack, well I think that is what it is, I am going to wait until my neighbours come over to read your post, as honestly I don't understand what you are telling me to do, with regards to resistance values and what scale the meter should be set on.
Can you verify what you mean when you say pad marked 12 & 13 to pin 12 & 13 as there are no pads marked 12&13
So I will wait until then and let you know

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardR

Can you verify what you mean when you say pad marked 12 & 13 to pin 12 & 13 as there are no pads marked 12&13
So I will wait until then and let you know

---

Look at the picture Doddy posted he's marked the pins for you.

You have already pins for limit switches on DB-25 connector:
XLimit - pin11
YLimit - pin12
ZLimit - pin13

For probe, just solder a barrel connector to the board. Central pin is the probe input and it IS connected to the rest of electronics.

Attachment 29069

Thank you Jazzcnc and ZASto I did see the marking that Dodgy did, and I have the probe wiring sorted, I could not work out what size barrel connected to get, so I got wired the pads and brought the wires out to a connected strip on the back of the control box.
With Doddys help we have confirmed the board is working and the limit switches work, unfortunately the switches activate the BOB at regular intervals, due to noise interference, again with Doddy's help we are sorting that out, then the next step will be setting up the home switches, followed by the soft limits then machine coordinates, but I am getting ahead of myself.Thank you all

Good news I have set the limit switches to work, also the home switching on the same switch as well as the soft limits, so with Doddy's help I am hoping to sort out the noise issue which keeps on putting it into emergency stop, then I can try and do some test work.
Regards to all Richard

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardR

Good news I have set the limit switches to work, also the home switching on the same switch as well as the soft limits, so with Doddy's help I am hoping to sort out the noise issue which keeps on putting it into emergency stop, then I can try and do some test work.
Regards to all Richard

---

Hi Richard,

If you want a quick workaround then Mach3 as a debounce option which will filter the noise, it does slow reaction time but will get you going until doddy gives you a electrical method of dealing with noise.

To use it go to General config and in top right corner you'll see Debounce interval, each amount is in 40 milli second blocks so start low with say 1 or 2 and keep increasing until your system becomes stable.

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