Retrofit My Build Looking at Switching from Mach4 to Centroid System

[cnckeith]

you can set it up anyway you like, single inputs for home and limit switches are supported along with various combinations of combining them.
home and limit with individual per axes, or combine all home, or combine all limits etc.. anyway you like. its all in the Wizard. just wire the switch up and use the Wizard to tell CNC12 which type and function of a switch you have wired to which input. easy peasy.
the schematics are just a suggestion.
what is your preferred way?

[cnckeith]

what schematic are you looking at? name the schematic number or provide a link.

[Onawa220]

No, I get that for the limits and homes but for the servos it’s just weird not having an individual input for each wire lol

S15145 AcornSIX Multiple Clearpath SDSK series motors

[cnckeith]

No, I get that for the limits and homes but for the servos it’s just weird not having an individual input for each wire lol

S15145 AcornSIX Multiple Clearpath SDSK series motors

the 5 volt side is made for steppers, in the stepper world its "all enabled" all the time or as soon as one drive gets enabled they all get enabled.

the open collector side of AcornSix has individual enables for each axis which is the "servo" way of doing things.

clearpath is bridging the gap between steppers and servos, if you wire it to the stepper side of acornsix then you get all enable as soon as any drive is commanded. wire to the open collector side and you get individual enables. we recommend the 5 volt side since we noticed in our testing the clearpaths seemed to like that better than the open collector way of commanding step and direction.

[Onawa220]

No, I get that for the limits and homes but for the servos it’s just weird not having an individual input for each wire lol

S15145 AcornSIX Multiple Clearpath SDSK series motors

the 5 volt side is made for steppers, in the stepper world its "all enabled" all the time or as soon as one drive gets enabled they all get enabled.

the open collector side of AcornSix has individual enables for each axis which is the "servo" way of doing things.

clearpath is bridging the gap between steppers and servos, if you wire it to the stepper side of acornsix then you get all enable as soon as any drive is commanded. wire to the open collector side and you get individual enables. we recommend the 5 volt side since we noticed in our testing the clearpaths seemed to like that better than the open collector way of commanding step and direction.

Sorry I'm really confused now.

This diagram https://www.centroidcnc.com/dealersuppo ... 145.r2.pdf shows connecting Clearpaths to the left side of the board.

The right side shows Open Collector Drive Signals which makes a little more sense but there are still only 4 connections for the 8 wires I have for each servo. I know some will go to the IN13-16 but I would love to have a diagram of what you're saying is the new right way to do it.


I only now just found the actual manual for the AcornSIX so I have some reading to do.

[cnckeith]

its simple. AcornSix supports both steppers or servos.

the 5 volt side is for steppers, stepper drives like to run on 5vdc (even though some of the stepper drive manual say they will run on 24vdc, our experience with them has proven that to be a stretch at best)

the open collector side is for servos (5,12,24 vdc)

you can run clearpath on either side (the stepper 5 vdc connection or the open collector header) , if you decide to run clearpath on the open collector side you should install resistors , however when we tested the clearpaths in extreme situations they always ran best on the stepper 5 vdc side connections as shown in the schematic you are looking at.

[centroid467]

No, I get that for the limits and homes but for the servos it’s just weird not having an individual input for each wire lol

S15145 AcornSIX Multiple Clearpath SDSK series motors

If I'm understanding you correctly, you are wondering why the return/negative connections for the motors are all tied to one pin on H14? I do not know why it was drawn like that but I am sure there will be no problem if you use the GND pin next to each set of step/dir signals per servo. All of the logic GND pins are connected internally so you can really use any of them. They're provided on the axis headers for convenience of wiring but providing a GND pin for every (low power, low voltage) signal will end up being a waste of board space.

So, you can wire X axis Input A+, Input B+ to H14 pins 1 and 2 then the Enable-, Input A-, Input B-, and HLFB- to H14 pin 3. Then, the Y can be repeated in the same pattern but using H14 pins 4, 5, and 6. Z would share the GND pin with Y.

Now that I think about it, it is probably more convenient to collect all of the ClearPath negative connections with a terminal block and make one GND connection to the AcornSix...

[Onawa220]

Thank you. I’m not bright when it comes to reading electrical diagrams and get frustrated. I started going back through the thread on clearpaths and acorn but it doesn’t show a newer one for the SIX and was getting frustrated and confused as to what exactly I’d be hooking the resister and wires to since it looks like a ton of them are also combined. A real life picture of someone’s setup would really help me.

[Onawa220]

we'll be glad you help you. can you add more information about your project to this build thread, guidance is here.
this helps us a lot to give you good information , photos are the most important. take a bunch and put them in a photo album here is how.
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=6928
and
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=1043

First post should have all the information and the link to my build pics. I now have the control box torn apart and ready to start rebuilding it. I'm so glad there is the mounting stand with the SIX because it's a large board

Do you by chance have a thread you could point me to where someone has posted pictures of their actual board wired up to the clearpaths?

[Gary Campbell]

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=10533