Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

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Jason3
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Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by Jason3 »

Hello all,

I'm upgrading a machine I built about 10 years ago to a Centroid Acorn controller, after the previous controller PC running Mach 3 died. We did try Mach 4, but had endless issues. Since we already have a Cyclematic lathe running a Centroid controller it seemed ideal to use the Centroid system for this mill as well.

The mill uses obsolete Granite Devices VSD-E drives, which haven't missed a beat and have been rock solid since day 1. Photos of the machine are here: http://zealcnc.wordjot.com/posts/deskmc-hd/

The controller interface is via Granite Devices VSDEPI Breakout board which uses a DB25 connection. I'll attach the pinout below. What I'd like to do is configure the DB25 port on the Acorn board to be compatible with the VSDEPI DB25 port via the port mapping function, as that would mean almost no wiring changes.

The charge pump seems easy enough; Pin 1 should = Out 3? Pins 2 through 9 would presumably correspond to X, Y, Z and A axis, Step and Direction. I'd disregard the E-stop output from the VSDEPI pin 10 and connect my E-stop directly to the Acorn board, likewise the home switches on pins 11 through 13 and pin 15. I won't need either of the relay inputs since I'll use the Acorn board's outputs directly for those.

If I have all the above correct, that only leaves the drive enable signal on pin 14 which is where I'm stuck. The VSDEPI expects an active high signal to enable all the drives. Is there an appropriate corresponding output available on the Acorn DB25 connector? If not, I expect I can use the screw terminals and just connect the enable for the X axis drive to that input (at the cost of a couple of hours work. I'm clumsy and slow...) but a direct plug in would be preferable.

Any advice would be much appreciated. There's another couple of these mills out there running Mach 3 on borrowed time, so it'd be great if the Acorn upgrade was easy enough for me to walk the owners of those machines through it when it becomes necessary.

Kind regards,

Jason
VSDEPI DB25 Pinout.png
martyscncgarage
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by martyscncgarage »

Everything you need for controlling the drives including the charge pump is on the DB25.
In fact you could unplug your DB25 cable from the PC and plug it into ACORN, and then configure CNC12 using the Wizard.
That's why the DB25 was put on Acorn. (You can also remap some pins on Acorn using the DB25 Mapping submenu in the Wizard
I would move any spindle control to Acorn however.
Are the drives enabled by default? There is an enable pin on the header side of Acorn. You could use that signal.

Marty
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
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martyscncgarage
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by martyscncgarage »

Study the Acorn DB25.
You can remap certain pins.
Acorn DB25.JPG
You can find the Acorn schematics here:
https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... oller.html

LOTS of information here:
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=3397
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
Jason3
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by Jason3 »

martyscncgarage wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:59 am Everything you need for controlling the drives including the charge pump is on the DB25.
In fact you could unplug your DB25 cable from the PC and plug it into ACORN, and then configure CNC12 using the Wizard.
That's why the DB25 was put on Acorn. (You can also remap some pins on Acorn using the DB25 Mapping submenu in the Wizard
I would move any spindle control to Acorn however.
Are the drives enabled by default? There is an enable pin on the header side of Acorn. You could use that signal.

Marty
Thanks Marty, that's much appreciated!

I'll certainly move the spindle control to Acorn - the 0-10v output will be much nicer than the previous on/off relay. No, the drives aren't enabled by default. I'd also missed the drive fault output from the drives to Acorn in my summary above, which will be needed.

So, after reading through the troves of information I think I'd set the DB25 up in the wizard as follows:

VSDEPI Pin 1 is for the charge pump signal. So in the DB25 connector mapping tab, I'll set pin one =OUT3. In the Primary System "Output Definitions" tab I'll make OUT3 = ChargePump.

VSDEPI Pin 10 is for the drive fault signal from the drives. So in the Primary System "Input Definitions" tab I'll set Input 1 = DriveOk.

VSDEPI Pin 14 is Drive Enable. In the DB25 Signal Mapping tab I've set pin 14 = OUT2, and in the Primary System "Output Definitions" I've set OUT2 = NoFaultOut, which felt like the closest thing to Drive Enable which isn't presented as an option.

Does that sound about right?

Regards,

Jason
martyscncgarage
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by martyscncgarage »

There is a limitation to Acorn, the charge pump signal can only be assigned to output 3. You should probably consider ditching the old breakout board.

Please provide pinouts for the drives. Pictures would be helpful
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
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cnckeith
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by cnckeith »

i agree any time you can eliminate a bob it is a good thing.. one less thing to go wrong and one less thing in between the stepper drives and Acorn.
Need support? READ THIS POST first. http://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=1043
All Acorn Documentation is located here: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=3397
Answers to common questions: viewforum.php?f=63
and here viewforum.php?f=61
Gear we use but don't sell. https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... _gear.html
Chaz
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by Chaz »

I love(d) that machine, took some inspiration from it when I was designing my own machines.
Jason3
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by Jason3 »

martyscncgarage wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:52 pm There is a limitation to Acorn, the charge pump signal can only be assigned to output 3. You should probably consider ditching the old breakout board.

Please provide pinouts for the drives. Pictures would be helpful
Hi Marty,

Is output 3 locked to pin 16? Or can it be reassigned? My apologies if I am misunderstanding the relationship between the DB26 pins and Acorn's outputs here. If I can't move the charge pump to pin 1, that's not necessarily a deal breaker for using the DB25 port as I could assemble a short cable to relocate the pins if necessary. I'd be happy to remove the BOB, but that's quite a significant amount of rewiring and would be much less tidy. The servo drives and BOB are presently housed in an enclosure with the DB25 port conveniently located. I'll attach the pinout for the drives and photo of the current enclosure below. Further info on the drives is located here: https://granitedevices.com/assets/files ... manual.pdf

Thanks for your patience,

Jason
Attachments
4l4xo2bi_550x600.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-04-27 at 1.00.50 PM.png
Jason3
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:32 pm
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CNC Control System Serial Number: 0CB2B7D92751-0609203393
DC3IOB: No
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by Jason3 »

cnckeith wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 2:47 pm i agree any time you can eliminate a bob it is a good thing.. one less thing to go wrong and one less thing in between the stepper drives and Acorn.
I agree fully, although in this case these BOB's in several machines have given no trouble over years of service and would be considerably more effort to remove and bypass than to leave the enclosure entirely alone. Additionally, I hope to have the owners of those machines upgrade to Acorn when their Mach3 pc's eventually expire. A plug and configure solution I can post would be far more palatable than asking customers to rewire their machines or to ship them back to New Zealand and rewiring them myself.

Regards,

Jason
Jason3
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:32 pm
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Re: Question; Granite Devices machine to Acorn (VSDEPI BOB)

Post by Jason3 »

Chaz wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:29 pm I love(d) that machine, took some inspiration from it when I was designing my own machines.
Thank you for saying so! Great to hear somebody noticed after all these years :)

Regards,

Jason
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