New product from Teknic for ClearPath

[Richards]

Teknic announced the ClearCore controller board to control SDSK and MCxx servos. The ClearCore board might be useful if you use a Teknic ClearPath servo with a tool changer. The introductory price is $99 (plus about $50 for a suggested power supply and connectors). It's user programmable with a very rich instruction set. With the ClearCore board, one or two outputs from the Acorn could select from 1 to 16 tool positions on a tool changer if you use an MCPV servo, or basically unlimited tool positions if you use the SDSK model. I only scanned the example code, so I may be making an incorrect assumption. If that is the case, then adding a Raspberry PI or Arduino for about $50 would solve any pulse counting requirements. I ordered a ClearCore board this morning.

Also, when I ordered an MCPV-3421P-RLN motor, I noticed that Teknic also sells an analog interface board that allows you to use the 0-10V signal from the Acorn board to control the speed on a ClearPath MCVC or MCPV motor. Normally, those motors use a digital pulse stream to control the speed. After the frustration that I've had trying to use my DMM DYN4 750 Watt driver/servo as a spindle motor, I decided to order the Teknic board and give it a try. It's priced at $59 (plus one or two cables, depending on your requirements). What I wanted to do with the DMM driver/servo as to use it as if it were connected to a VFD. That way, I could send a Forward/Reverse signal and an analog voltage (0-10V) to set the motor's speed. I managed to get the DMM driver/servo to work with a little tweaking of some code. The Teknic board seems like it matches my original idea almost perfectly. Time will tell.

[Richards]

The Analog Interface Board from Teknic works very well to run an MCPV or MCVC servo as a spindle motor controlled by the Acorn. The Teknic part number is ASU-FR510. Be sure to buy the cables suggested unless you have the parts and crimpers on hand to make your own cables. Note particularly that you will need TWO data cables. One cable is used with both factory connectors left intact to furnish data signals from the Analog Board to the servo. The other data cable can have one factory connector removed and then the wires can be attached to the Acorn board. You will need a 24V power supply to power the board and a 75VDC power supply for the sero (I use the PLC-5).

The Acorn's analog voltage controls the servo's speed. I use the spindle brake release output to enable the servo (otherwise it will creep very slowly constantly, even at 0 volts). Another output is used for spindle reverse.

The servo must be setup in "Follow Digital Velocity Command" in Teknics MSP. There are also some default settings that must be correctly set in MSP. Their instructions are simple and clear.

The Analog Board works with Teknic's NEMA 23 and NEMA 34 MCxx motors as well as their larger 1.3HP and 1.8HP motors. I'm testing with a MCPV-3421P-RLN motor, which is more powerful than my stock TAIG motor. Teknic has various models, but the NEMA 34 motor is limited to about 1/2HP.

I've tested both the DMM DYN4 750W driver/servo and this Teknic product. Both work very well. I had to add two relays to the DMM driver/servo to control creep.

In short, if you need a relatively small motor for a small mill or lathe, you will want to look at the DMM DYN4 and Teknic offerings. The larger Teknic servos would probably fit a lathe, but at about 30 lbs, they're too heavy for my Taig mill.

[Gary Campbell]

Mike...
We should compare notes....
Somewhat related... I just finished up an AXIOM Elite control retrofit with LeadShine Servos (200w) in a bit I will be testing the LeadShine 750w and 1kw servos to drive a lathe spindle. This should be interesting as they (with the correct drive) natively can swap from positional to velocity control. This will allow 4th axis "indexer" type work along with normal turning.

[Richards]

Gary,
Let me know how the LeadShine servos work out.

The ClearPath MCPV that I use has lots of modes, but they are only selectable from Teknic's MSP software, i.e., the mode can't be changed on the fly. The SDSK servos could be used with some external pulse/logic control (Arduino/Raspberry Pi/Beagle Bone, or similar) if they are controlled by the Acorn. For instance, the Acorn could use one output as a "mode" bit to select between spindle motor and indexer motor. In spindle motor mode, the external controller would generate a pulse stream proportional to the Acorn's analog voltage (along with the appropriate enable/direction signals. In indexer mode, the output "mode" bit would signal the external controller that the Acorn would handle all step/directection signals.

I'm playing with Teknic's ClearCore module. Think of it as an industrialized Arduino on steroids. It could be used as the external controller.

Basically, I bought the MCPV motor as that I could test Teknic's "pulse burst" mode, to be used in a point-to-point machine (think of 5mm shelf holes in a cabinet or part placement holes in a electronic cabinet). The Acorn could easily do that job, but a $25 Arduino could also do the job either as a pre-programmed module, or as a $40 ModBus slave that receives coordinates from a spreadsheet or from a database. Mostly, I'm just thinking out loud at this point. The first step is to see if the various parts and pieces work as expected.

[frijoli]

Mike...
We should compare notes....
Somewhat related... I just finished up an AXIOM Elite control retrofit with LeadShine Servos (200w) in a bit I will be testing the LeadShine 750w and 1kw servos to drive a lathe spindle. This should be interesting as they (with the correct drive) natively can swap from positional to velocity control.

Gary, what series are you looking at from LeadShine for the 1KW servo?

[Gary Campbell]

Clay...
ELP drives and ELM Motors. Not sure they are released in the US for general sale yet. They are being tested by both myself and Centroid.

Testing will take a while as none of the players (LeadShine, Centroid or myself) wish to release (recommend or sell) a product that has issues (unlike some others) on lathes, routers or mills. FYI, motors are metric case sizes, not NEMA, so they wont just "bolt up" to existing NEMA bolt pattern mounts.

[wswells]

I just finished the bench testing of my Acorn board with a ClearCore controller added for 0-10V analog speed control for the SDHP motor. The
analog interface board will not work on the SDSK or SDHP. I purchased the SDHP almost 2 years ago and was about to give up on the "C axis spindle",
with analog speed control. Teknic support basically said it wouldn't work. Then I found the ClearCore and checked the pulse rate and it was well above
what I needed to make the SDHP work in my application (1800 motor rpm with a 1-2 drive), the "Normal" setting for it is 500Khz. So, after several months and a crash course in C++ programing...I have it working in analog 0-10V control from the Acorn! I have to say, with the response settings in ClearCore and the ClearPath tuning, it's very smooth and sounds great. I finally solved the reverse problem when I found a statement in the program
documentation for inverting the polarity of the motor from an input signal, you can't do it with the A+- direction signal. That worked like a charm, you only need to tell it to reverse, otherwise it defaults to FWD, so when you enter an M3, it reads the pin as false and defaults back to FWD. I just had to write an if else condition statement and leave it in the void loop to get rechecked along with the voltage read. I'm down right happy now ....just had to tell someone that understands all the long hours of mental anguish that it takes to make a project work!! now on to the other axis motors.

[rk9268vc]

I have used teknic's clearcore extensively at work for some simple rotary converting machines. I program it using the arduino IDE

If anyone has questions, feel free to reach out. I am not too familiar with acorn's advanced workings though

Congratz on getting it working! Sounds like a cool setup, and with plenty of power coming from a servo

[wswells]

Thanks for the kind words, I too switched to the Arduino IDE. I started out with the Microchip Studio and was impressed with the level of detail and syntax development but, encountered quite a few errors and the terminal console is a waste of time. The new Arduino 2.0 looks promising with improved library syntax information, but it's a bit buggy as of the latest nightly build. I haven't downloaded the last stable version yet, I just wanted to see the multi-port terminal views. ClearCore can use port 0 in UART TTL to output status messages to a 4 x 20 LCD display, so when not viewing the USB port through the pc you still see if the program made it into the void loop with a few simple messages. I just finished wiring up the display, Teknis has an example program for it and it worked very well. I'm going to mount that in the control panel to view when you have a shut down and need a spindle controller reset. ClearCore boots fairly fast, so it only takes a few seconds, but nice to know when it's in the loop and ready.
I started this conversion of a late 1980's Elgo KL26, 12-1/2-inch swing Capstan lathe in very nice condition about 2 two years ago. I'm hoping to finish by this summer. It had a 2-speed motor, 2-3 hp, with a very large transmission style gearbox. I replaced everything with a Teknic:
CPM-SDHP-N143-3-A-ELS
In the ClearPath documentation it states to get full the rated 4 HP, it needs to be 3 phase and have the blower kit(the blower kit is single phase, lol).
Installed a Phase Perfect 20hp for 3-phase and 1-2 drive system so I could run the motor in the full torque ban and stay in the 200Khz range for max motor speed. The torque drops rapidly after 1800 rpm. I installed new headstock bearings for my satisfaction of knowing it would have very good precision. I still have a few tweaks to go on the drive system but, it's time to build the control cabinet and move forward with the axis motors also.
I would appreciate any discussion/contact with you on any C++ tricks you may have found for error handling or other axis control for the ClearCore.
When it's completed, I hope to have spindle fwd/rev-speed, X, Z, A, and C axis control with at least one or two live tool controls.

[rk9268vc]

I would appreciate any discussion/contact with you on any C++ tricks you may have found for error handling or other axis control for the ClearCore.
When it's completed, I hope to have spindle fwd/rev-speed, X, Z, A, and C axis control with at least one or two live tool controls.

Sure, send over your code and i can give it a look over

Switching from fwd to reverse with clearcore is as simple as assigning a negative velocity. it handles the accel/ deccel on its own using the accel values you give it.

Using more than one motor is as simple as telling it motor2 or motor3 etc

here is a pretty simple code i wrote for a rotary bag handler. It uses all 4 axis, sensor inputs, digital outputs, velocity mode and distance moves, and serial printing status updates

tape_opener_StepAndDirectionX4.zip

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