The Hickory CNC controller is now available.

[cnckeith]

+1 vote for the Delta ASDA-A2 series. I can't finance testing, but I'd buy 3 controllers in a heartbeat!

do you have them? we can't get them. send us one to test.

[cnckeith]

EL7 and EL8 series are being tested for possible support.

That's awesome, the EL8 drives in particular look very nice. Do you have any rough idea for timescale on testing these drives?

EL7 and EL8 work! we are selling control systems now for use with them!

[adthelad]

EL7 and EL8 series are being tested for possible support.

That's awesome, the EL8 drives in particular look very nice. Do you have any rough idea for timescale on testing these drives?

EL7 and EL8 work! we are selling control systems now for use with them!

That's excellent news. I have already bought Hickory and have EL8 drives and motors on order. Do you plan to upload EL8 servo drive example schematics?

[cnckeith]

yep, tomorrow will have leadshine el7/el8 setup instructions and system schematics to follow

[adthelad]

yep, tomorrow will have leadshine el7/el8 setup instructions and system schematics to follow

Beautiful, thank you! Can I ask what you figured out about the EL8 drive showing discontinuities in the error plot like it is losing position?

[cnckeith]

yep, tomorrow will have leadshine el7/el8 setup instructions and system schematics to follow

Beautiful, thank you! Can I ask what you figured out about the EL8 drive showing discontinuities in the error plot like it is losing position?

there is a digital o scope built into CNC12 in the pid menu, i'll put together some info on how to use it.

[eng199]

Beautiful, thank you! Can I ask what you figured out about the EL8 drive showing discontinuities in the error plot like it is losing position?

It seems to need a full power cycle after some parameter changes in the Motion Studio software (even if not indicated in the parameter description). When in doubt, remove all power, including USB cable. Ran several days after power cycle without the issue returning.

[cnckeith]

Leadshine EL7 and EL8 setup instructions added to the TB page. https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... browse.php

EL7 https://www.centroidcnc.com/dealersuppo ... ds/323.pdf

EL8 https://www.centroidcnc.com/dealersuppo ... ds/324.pdf

All Hickory schematics are here.
https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... browse.php

type in "hickory" in the search bar

[adthelad]

Thanks for the setup instructions Keith. I just had a careful read through of the EL8 instructions and I have some questions.

When using linear scales on the axis, is this possible when providing the scale feedback directly to the EL8 drive? The instructions in the drive tuning section say that 'Set PA0.15 Absolute Encoder settings to 1 for multiturn linear mode (i.e. X, Y, Z axes). Incremental encoders are not supported.'. I believe (I am not certain), that when providing linear scale feedback directly to the servo drive, the drives will operate in incremental mode.

Pr0.30 and Pr0.31 are the relevant parameters. Currently only ABZ scales/encoders are supported by the EL8 drive, which is where I have my suspicions that the drive must operate in incremental mode when using external scales.

The other option would be to provide the linear scale feedback to Hickory, not the drives. My thinking here is that it would be better to provide feedback to the drive rather than Hickory as then the drive can directly implement the servo control loop on the linear scale feedback. I have the feeling that this approach would be higher bandwidth and perform better than providing it to Hickory which would then have to act like a middle man with the scale feedback. A secondary benefit of providing the feedback directly to the drives is that Hickory encoder ports would remain free for MPG inputs.

I would appreciate if you have any thoughts here.

[centroid467]

Sorry for the delayed response to this. We will be investigating this use case. It is not readily apparent whether the EL8 will report absolute or incremental positions to Hickory according to the manual.

Scale feedback directly to Hickory will work and there may be an encoder expansion board in the future. Not sure if Hickory encoder expansion currently is in the pipeline though.