Conqueror M401

[Zerovis]

Hi Dave ,
I have just taken one off a Contour minor, working on converting it to run off a motion control card, because when I got the mill it did not come with a license for the software
I don't think that the card is fully functioning, there may be a problem with the firmware and the guys that installed it did not use diodes on the relay for the spindle so I that the output is faulty
on the plus side all the chips are socket mounted

Diarmuid

[davethesteam]

Hi Dave ,
I have just taken one off a Contour minor, working on converting it to run off a motion control card, because when I got the mill it did not come with a license for the software
I don't think that the card is fully functioning, there may be a problem with the firmware and the guys that installed it did not use diodes on the relay for the spindle so I that the output is faulty
on the plus side all the chips are socket mounted

Diarmuid

Hello Diarmuid,

I am using Hyperterminal to talk to mine, I have found a lot of other bits of software which seem to do the same job, sometimes there is no 3d view but that can be done in another bit of software. I have not had time to play with these yet.

My board is fine apart from the CPU, so if there is only some damage to the peripheral bits it won't be a problem and will get me out of trouble.

I will PM you with some details, but if you are willing to let it go I will try swapping the processor.

I would be interested in what you are doing with the motion controller, I have a Boxford mill I was going to convert using Conqueror's Atom board, but that's down the drain now. I have bought an Arduino to run GRBL as a temporary measure but it won't do everything I want.

Regards
David

[Zerovis]

Hi David,
I took the M$)! our and replaced it with a NVUM motion control card , it will run mach 3 over a usb so no looking for older PC's with a serial port although I have one at the moment
I think you should look at this as it will allow you to replace the control card in the future without much hastle

[davethesteam]

Hello Diarmuid
I had a look at you link, looks good, there is also an ethernet version. Do you know if it will work with LinuxCNC? I have looked at LinuxCNC and Mach3 and am a bit worried about running a machine under Windows, Linux is supposed to be better. ��
David

[Zerovis]

Hi David ,
I am not sure about that , there are controllers that will , Mach 3 seems to be reliable epically now that the serial port os no longer needed ,
I suppose its limitations is that the processing is done on your PC and sent to the card so a slow Pc could be a problem , where as on the CDE the steps are generated by the card ,
Having said that , I have seen mach 3 running on a Pentium through a serial port to a router , so far the only thing it doesn't do well is a particular type of helical spiral cut but this could be the stepper driver cant keep up , its an old machine he rescued from a skip.

Do you have any idea how to set the steps on the CDE Step1 cards , I have the setting for 400 and 800 steps per rev, but the motors I have are 200 ,
I can use either as Mach3 will send what I tell it to , so if I set to 400 I send roughly half the 800 I want to try them at 200 to see how accuracy is affected
Diarmuid

[davethesteam]

Hi David ,
I am not sure about that , there are controllers that will , Mach 3 seems to be reliable epically now that the serial port os no longer needed ,
I suppose its limitations is that the processing is done on your PC and sent to the card so a slow Pc could be a problem , where as on the CDE the steps are generated by the card ,
Having said that , I have seen mach 3 running on a Pentium through a serial port to a router , so far the only thing it doesn't do well is a particular type of helical spiral cut but this could be the stepper driver cant keep up , its an old machine he rescued from a skip.

Do you have any idea how to set the steps on the CDE Step1 cards , I have the setting for 400 and 800 steps per rev, but the motors I have are 200 ,
I can use either as Mach3 will send what I tell it to , so if I set to 400 I send roughly half the 800 I want to try them at 200 to see how accuracy is affected
Diarmuid

Hello Diarmuid,
I think I have all of the CDE CNC documentation apart from the latest stepper drive board, the one without the heatsink. If I can send an attachment with a PM I will send the PDF I have, Otherwise it's email or Dropbox, except my Dropbox account needs sorting. :-)

Mach3 not coping with things like the spiral cut are why I went for the CDE system, but this decision was made 10 years ago, things have changed a lot over the last 10 years. I have read it does not matter much about the speed of the machine, it's the Windows background tasks which muck things up by pausing Mach3 at inopportune times. Apologies if i am telling you stuff you know. :-)

The Step 1 cards can be set for loads of steps, the motor may be 200 steps per rev but the card can microstep up to 1600 steps per rev. Alex Mackinnon was brilliant with stepper drives. You would just have to tell the controller the actual number of steps per rev.

I'll try PMing the PDF shortly.

Regards
David