Hope this doesn't post twice

Here is my GalilDebug File

My AC and DC look pretty high, is this a setting in Mach3? I burn AC=699392 and DC=699392 into the Galil card, and I just double checked it and it's still those settings.



Thanks,

Aero

you dont burn ac and dc into galil. just used to create a move in smarterm
acceleration should be set to 300000 as mach galil pdf says (set in plugin, not in galil itself)

just looked at the debug file (i dont understand it fully by the way)
are the numbers for kd kp and ki as galil tools set them? seem very high!
do motors sit steady when not commanded to move?
do they move nicely if moved from smarterm?
are motors on or off machine at the moment?
reset acceleration/ deceleration, let mach take care of that

The PID's are set for all axis, according to Galil's "Velocity zone method" http://www.galilmc.com/support/appnotes/miscellaneous/note5491.pdf. I spent a long time tuning these drives to get them perfect. They run great in Camsoft so I'm 100% sure they are tuned good for the size they are. I'm just trying to figure out why my A-axis is jerky in Motor Tuning in Mach3. I can set the AC and DC to anything in GalilTools, but I think Mach3, like Camsoft, adjust them to what it wants, as seen in the debug file. I'm going to go through the .PDF agian and see if I missed something.


Thanks,

Aero

Your AC DC settings come from Mach settings in Config->Motor Tuning.  You need to set the counts per unit correctly as well.

You might want to read the Mach documentation a bit more to get an understanding on what is required in the Mach settings.  They are geared to the parallel port, but the concept is the same no matter what control you are using.  You will then be able to put all of the pieces together.

You need to do this for all of your axes:

1. Enable the axis in Config->Ports and Pins (motor tab).
2. In motor tuning, set your counts per unit, the max seed, and acceleration.  (This is where your problem is)

Then, in the Galil plugin config:

1. Map the Mach axes to the Galil axes.
2. Set the motor types.

Do not map multiple Mach axes to one Galil axis.  Meaning each Mach axis requires a unique Galil axis.

The PID settings should be the only thing burned into the Galil's NVRAM.  All other settings are calculated from Mach settings (which HAVE to be correct for your machine).

Disable the MPG until you get the Motor Tuning corrected.  It can make things harder to diagnose.  Also, set the motor type for your E and F Galil axes to servo to get rid of the SM jumper warning.

Steve

OK I did a master reset on the Galil card. I reset my PID's and the FV and FA how I had them, but all other settings are default. I re-setup the plugin, according to the .PDF, and I disabled the MPG. I went back to Mach3 "Motor Tuning" and found out that whenever I change the Acceleration or Velocity I have to save then hit the reset button to make the changes come into effect. I will play with it more tomorrow, or Monday, and see if I can get it stable.

Is there anyway to figure out the accel. and velocity of a servo to get it close to start with? I have the encoder counts set really close (1000), coming off the scale on the A-axis (rotary).


Thanks,

Aero

OK, I have been reading the Mach3 config .PDF. I take it that in "Motor Tuning" the Velocity=RAPIDSPEED, so I can calculate that with my encoder counts. We want all our drive to run at 200 in./min., (or 200deg/min for the A-axis) so I just take my encoder counts, A-axis is 1000, and times it by how fast I want it to move:

X=encoder counts
Y=speed in in./min.

X*Y=Velocity (RAPIDSPEED)

So my A-axis's velocity would be:

1000*200=200000


Hope this is right, then all I have to do is adjust the accel. to get the accel and decel I need for the motor.



Thanks,

Aero



Edit: 200deg/min might be a little slow, I going to have to bump that up a bit.

set your steps per at how many counts per unit
i work in mm.units
 mine is at 400 steps per mm    (how many counts to move 1 unit)
500ppr encoder. quad =2000, 5mm ballscrew , 2000/5=400

speed is max rapid speed you want to run at . so
my max machine speed on x axis is 40000mm/min so set at 40000 (no other calculation required)
note this is maximum machine speed not what you want to cut at
(for testing, set at a quarter of what you want, it can be changed later)

acceleration, start at a low number like 200 that way it will not jump straight to max speed. if you set this and then click on the trapezoidal graph above it will show you how fast its accelerating to max rapid speed
this can be reset quickly as you go on testing with real cutting etc at a later time.
its good to keep acceleration low doing first tests, that way everything will seem like its in slow motion
remember to save axis settings for each axis before moving to the next .
when you have set all axis. shut down mach3 and restart it, all settings will be saved in its setup xml file so will be there for all future runs.

now, print off the pdf and the mach 3 manual, go sit on the loo for a few hours and have a good read. lol

I noticed that jog has to be on for the "Motor Tuning" to work, is there a way to make it to continuously run when I'm in "Motor Tuning" instead of jog? I get it set to what I think might be a good velocity and accel, but when I go to MDI and type G1 A10. F10. the A-axis wont move.

I can jog the axis with the jog/mpg window, but it wont jog the amount I tell it to.


Thanks,

Aero