Yet another Denford for the collection (Triac Retrofit thread)

[andy_con]

Hi, Do you still have the motion control card (electronics) you stripped off the machine. Precisely, I need a working “baldor D281 motion control card for a TRIAC P. C., red 7-segment LED display type".

If I was a mod on this forum Id ban you for spamming

[Tommy]

What makes you think i am spamming. Why would i be spamming a CNC forum, is it that I dont have any job to do?

I am only posting in numerous threads that I believe are relevant to my need, which is to obtain a working denford controller card

The post by "m_c" shows an image of the card (which you might no longer be used) and that is why i replied to "m_c"'s post

So i still ask, do you still have the Triac controller card that is shown in that picture in that post. Cheers.

[Tommy]

If I was a mod on this forum Id ban you for spamming

What makes you think i am spamming. Why would i be spamming a CNC forum, is it that I dont have any job to do?

I am only posting in numerous threads that I believe are relevant to my need, which is to obtain a working denford controller card

The post by "m_c" shows an image of the card (which you might no longer be used) and that is why i replied to "m_c"'s post

So i still ask, do you still have the Triac controller card that is shown in that picture in that post. Cheers.

[andy_con]

Cos any normal person would go into the wanted section and make a single post asking what they wanted.

It's the whole point of a wanted section

Like I say lucky I'm not a mod

[Tommy]

Cos any normal person would go into the wanted section and make a single post asking what they wanted.

It's the whole point of a wanted section

Like I say lucky I'm not a mod

Pls just stop with the insults. May be that is why you are not a mod. I a new to the forum, never knew there is a wanted section. May be you should tell the moderators not to allow newbies to post until they have gone thru an "intro". Just chill and pls just get off my back, unless you have the card I am looking for.

[John S]

For F*ck's sake Tommy give it a rest.
You have posted on every web site known to man including the stray cats website.
If anyone has one of these boards they will be severely tempted to throw it in the skip just so you can't get yours hands on it.

[Tommy]

For F*ck's sake Tommy give it a rest.
You have posted on every web site known to man including the stray cats website.
If anyone has one of these boards they will be severely tempted to throw it in the skip just so you can't get yours hands on it.

My sincere apologies to John S.

[John S]

Graciously accepted.

[andy_con]

For F*ck's sake Tommy give it a rest.
You have posted on every web site known to man including the stray cats website.
If anyone has one of these boards they will be severely tempted to throw it in the skip just so you can't get yours hands on it.

Piss my shit

[m_c]

So dragging this back on topic, I'll quickly cover the seemingly mysterious world of configuring a KFlop to do the basics.

There is no denying the KFlop can appear very complex, but it's not that much more complex than using any other controller. The key thing is, whereas programs like Mach have configuration options spread over various screens which create/update your machine configuration file, you have to create the equivalent KFlop configuration file yourself. However, the included KMotion software has various screens/functions to help you create the needed parameters, and several example files are included.

I'll start with the basic file I used to get basic motion.

#include "KMotionDef.h"

main()
{
	
	ch1->InputMode=NO_INPUT_MODE;
	ch1->OutputMode=STEP_DIR_MODE;
	ch1->Vel=40000;
	ch1->Accel=400000;
	ch1->Jerk=4e+06;
	ch1->P=0;
	ch1->I=0.01;
	ch1->D=0;
	ch1->FFAccel=0;
	ch1->FFVel=0;
	ch1->MaxI=200;
	ch1->MaxErr=1e+06;
	ch1->MaxOutput=200;
	ch1->DeadBandGain=1;
	ch1->DeadBandRange=0;
	ch1->InputChan0=1;
	ch1->InputChan1=0;
	ch1->OutputChan0=13;
	ch1->OutputChan1=0;
	ch1->MasterAxis=-1;
	ch1->LimitSwitchOptions=0x100;
	ch1->LimitSwitchNegBit=0;
	ch1->LimitSwitchPosBit=0;
	ch1->SoftLimitPos=1e+09;
	ch1->SoftLimitNeg=-1e+09;
	ch1->InputGain0=1;
	ch1->InputGain1=1;
	ch1->InputOffset0=0;
	ch1->InputOffset1=0;
	ch1->OutputGain=1;
	ch1->OutputOffset=0;
	ch1->SlaveGain=1;
	ch1->BacklashMode=BACKLASH_OFF;
	ch1->BacklashAmount=0;
	ch1->BacklashRate=0;
	ch1->invDistPerCycle=1;
	ch1->Lead=0;
	ch1->MaxFollowingError=1000000000;
	ch1->StepperAmplitude=20;

	ch1->iir[0].B0=1;
	ch1->iir[0].B1=0;
	ch1->iir[0].B2=0;
	ch1->iir[0].A1=0;
	ch1->iir[0].A2=0;

	ch1->iir[1].B0=1;
	ch1->iir[1].B1=0;
	ch1->iir[1].B2=0;
	ch1->iir[1].A1=0;
	ch1->iir[1].A2=0;

	ch1->iir[2].B0=0.000769;
	ch1->iir[2].B1=0.001538;
	ch1->iir[2].B2=0.000769;
	ch1->iir[2].A1=1.92081;
	ch1->iir[2].A2=-0.923885;
	
	ch2->InputMode=NO_INPUT_MODE;
	ch2->OutputMode=STEP_DIR_MODE;
	ch2->Vel=40000;
	ch2->Accel=400000;
	ch2->Jerk=4e+06;
	ch2->P=0;
	ch2->I=0.01;
	ch2->D=0;
	ch2->FFAccel=0;
	ch2->FFVel=0;
	ch2->MaxI=200;
	ch2->MaxErr=1e+06;
	ch2->MaxOutput=200;
	ch2->DeadBandGain=1;
	ch2->DeadBandRange=0;
	ch2->InputChan0=2;
	ch2->InputChan1=0;
	ch2->OutputChan0=14;
	ch2->OutputChan1=0;
	ch2->MasterAxis=-1;
	ch2->LimitSwitchOptions=0x100;
	ch2->LimitSwitchNegBit=0;
	ch2->LimitSwitchPosBit=0;
	ch2->SoftLimitPos=1e+09;
	ch2->SoftLimitNeg=-1e+09;
	ch2->InputGain0=1;
	ch2->InputGain1=1;
	ch2->InputOffset0=0;
	ch2->InputOffset1=0;
	ch2->OutputGain=-1;
	ch2->OutputOffset=0;
	ch2->SlaveGain=1;
	ch2->BacklashMode=BACKLASH_OFF;
	ch2->BacklashAmount=0;
	ch2->BacklashRate=0;
	ch2->invDistPerCycle=1;
	ch2->Lead=0;
	ch2->MaxFollowingError=1000000000;
	ch2->StepperAmplitude=20;

	ch2->iir[0].B0=1;
	ch2->iir[0].B1=0;
	ch2->iir[0].B2=0;
	ch2->iir[0].A1=0;
	ch2->iir[0].A2=0;

	ch2->iir[1].B0=1;
	ch2->iir[1].B1=0;
	ch2->iir[1].B2=0;
	ch2->iir[1].A1=0;
	ch2->iir[1].A2=0;

	ch2->iir[2].B0=0.000769;
	ch2->iir[2].B1=0.001538;
	ch2->iir[2].B2=0.000769;
	ch2->iir[2].A1=1.92081;
	ch2->iir[2].A2=-0.923885;

	EnableAxis(0);
	EnableAxis(1);
	EnableAxis(2);
	
	FPGA(STEP_PULSE_LENGTH_ADD)=63;  // set the pulse time to ~ 5.xus
	DefineCoordSystem(0,1,2,-1);
	
	InitAux();

	AddKonnect(0,&VirtualBitsEx,VirtualBitsEx+1);

    return 0;

}

It looks complex, but I'll break it down.
You have three sets of channel configuration data (one for each axis in this case). These set all the possible parameters for each channel.
To create this information, within the Config function in KMotion, you use the various dropdown boxes and boxes to select/enter the information. You can then download the information to the KFlop to test (this can be done on the fly), and then once you're happy, you can copy the information to the clipboard, and paste it into your init.c file (init.c is the generic name used to reference your initialisation file - the file can be called whatever you want, but for simplicity it's gets called this).
Although not needed for this, if you were to use some form of closed loop, there is the Step Response screen for tuning servos and carrying out test moves, an IIR Filter screen for applying filters to closed loops, and a Bode Plot screen for generating test plots to see in detail how the closed loop is performing.

For a basic step/dir system such as this, there are only 6 lines that need to be set, which I've highlighted in bold below-

	ch0->InputMode=NO_INPUT_MODE;  Sets open loop mode
	ch0->OutputMode=STEP_DIR_MODE; Sets Step dir output
	ch0->Vel=40000; Sets maximum velocity
	ch0->Accel=400000; Sets Acceleration
	ch0->Jerk=4e+06; Sets Max Jerk
	ch0->P=0;
	ch0->I=0.01;
	ch0->D=0;
	ch0->FFAccel=0;
	ch0->FFVel=0;
	ch0->MaxI=200;
	ch0->MaxErr=1e+06;
	ch0->MaxOutput=200;
	ch0->DeadBandGain=1;
	ch0->DeadBandRange=0;
	ch0->InputChan0=0;
	ch0->InputChan1=0;
	ch0->OutputChan0=12; Configures output mode (Step/dir, Quadrature, open collector, or actively driven)
	ch0->OutputChan1=0;
	ch0->MasterAxis=-1;
	ch0->LimitSwitchOptions=0x100;
	ch0->LimitSwitchNegBit=0;
	ch0->LimitSwitchPosBit=0;
	ch0->SoftLimitPos=1e+09;
	ch0->SoftLimitNeg=-1e+09;
	ch0->InputGain0=1;
	ch0->InputGain1=1;
	ch0->InputOffset0=0;
	ch0->InputOffset1=0;
	ch0->OutputGain=-1;
	ch0->OutputOffset=0;
	ch0->SlaveGain=1;
	ch0->BacklashMode=BACKLASH_OFF;
	ch0->BacklashAmount=0;
	ch0->BacklashRate=0;
	ch0->invDistPerCycle=1;
	ch0->Lead=0;
	ch0->MaxFollowingError=1000000000;
	ch0->StepperAmplitude=20;

	ch0->iir[0].B0=1;
	ch0->iir[0].B1=0;
	ch0->iir[0].B2=0;
	ch0->iir[0].A1=0;
	ch0->iir[0].A2=0;

	ch0->iir[1].B0=1;
	ch0->iir[1].B1=0;
	ch0->iir[1].B2=0;
	ch0->iir[1].A1=0;
	ch0->iir[1].A2=0;

	ch0->iir[2].B0=0.000768788;
	ch0->iir[2].B1=0.00153758;
	ch0->iir[2].B2=0.000768788;
	ch0->iir[2].A1=1.92076;
	ch0->iir[2].A2=-0.923833;

The lines in bold, are the keys ones. There are other options, like the limit switch options, soft limit, and backlash settings that can be used in open loop mode, but nearly everything else is servo tuning specific.
I'm guessing several people will be wondering what Jerk is. Well it's a limit on how quickly acceleration can be applied, and is defined in units per second per second per second. Using a basic non-jerk limited trajectory planner, you end up with a sharp start to acceleration, and a sharp stop to acceleration. On a graph plot showing that velocity, you end up with sharp corners during velocity changes. What Jerk does is round those corners, so you get smoother motion.

After the channel configuration data, you need to enable each channel/axis, which is a simple job using EnableAxis(n).

As I'm using Leadshine drives which have a relatively long pulse setup time requirement, the FPGA line stretches the standard KFlop step pulse length to meet this requirement.

Then we finally assign each channel to the relevant axis, using the DefineCoordSystem() function. It's simply in the order of X(0), Y(1), Z(2), and as we have to declare four axes, we simply set the unused A to -1. This function allows you to set whatever channel you want to any axis, and you can even change it on the fly, by simply running another program which redefines the coordinate system I.e for if you wanted to do something like change the spindle (which is not controlled by the coordinate system) to a A axis (which needs to be part of the coordinate system).
There are 6 and 8 axis versions of this function, so you can use any combination of X,Y,Z,A,B,C,U and/or V axes.

The final couple lines of code tell the KFlop there is a Konnect expansion board attached, and what address range to use for the Konnect inputs and outputs.

And that is a breakdown of a basic KFlop init.c file.
Off course, it's been expanded on, which I will try and cover in later posts.