Build Thread: CNC Router, Clearpath, AcornSix

[ShawnM]

Hi Ronnie, are you saying the motors are NOT turning with Acorn? I understand you can turn them with the MSP software.

Please upload a FRESH report. Anytime you make change to the Wizard you should upload a new report. Your old report is no longer relevant after the changes you made.

You do not need to tune the motors while on the bench not hooked to anything. That's not what "Auto Tune" is for. You MUST auto tune the motors when you finally install them on the machine. They MUST be tuned under the load of your machine.

Post a screen shot of your MSP page for the motor settings.

You also have communication errors in your old report, see Tech Bulleting 270 to solve these. This must be fixed first and foremost or the machine will be unstable.

https://www.centroidcnc.com/dealersuppo ... ds/270.pdf

[Ronnie Reber]

Just tried to MDI a move for 15" and no motor function Turing, DRO was moving. FYI

[Ronnie Reber]

Stress test was completed after Initial hookup out of 5 there was none. Ran another was fine also. FYI

[Ronnie Reber]

Here is the Zip file for now. Working on MSP pic's.

[jhnmdahl]

Set the motors and Acorn at a MINIMUM of 3200 for the steps. The motors can run up to 6400 steps/rev despite being 800 in the specs. There is no "one size fits all" for all the motor programming. The Teknic manual covers all the MSP software settings. It also covers the auto tune procedure that needs to be performed.

Test the motors NOT installed on the machine. They are not tuned for a load out of the box so if you have them installed and the load is too much they will fault.

Once you get everything working and moving on the bench, then install the motors and then tune them for your machine.

Not to derail, but I've seen in the setup instructions that the 800 step per revolution (non-enhanced) Clearpath SDSK motors should be set to 1600 instead of 800, but now it's recommended to be 3200? Can you shed some light on this, and maybe explain why?

[Ronnie Reber]

MSP Pic's attached

[ShawnM]

Set the motors and Acorn at a MINIMUM of 3200 for the steps. The motors can run up to 6400 steps/rev despite being 800 in the specs. There is no "one size fits all" for all the motor programming. The Teknic manual covers all the MSP software settings. It also covers the auto tune procedure that needs to be performed.

Test the motors NOT installed on the machine. They are not tuned for a load out of the box so if you have them installed and the load is too much they will fault.

Once you get everything working and moving on the bench, then install the motors and then tune them for your machine.

Not to derail, but I've seen in the setup instructions that the 800 step per revolution (non-enhanced) Clearpath SDSK motors should be set to 1600 instead of 800, but now it's recommended to be 3200? Can you shed some light on this, and maybe explain why?

You can use any value here that's a whole number higher than 1600. Per Centroid 1600 is the absolute minimum to use with Acorn. I find that 3200 is a good mix of speed and 3D performance. You can use 6400 if you like but speed will suffer. You can use 1600 but the resolution will suffer. It really depends on what you are wanting from the machine.

You can set both the RLN and ELN motors to 1600 or higher. 1600, 3200 or 6400

The difference between the 800 RLN motors and the 6400 ELN motors is the positioning resolution of the encoder. By setting a RLN motor to something other 800 all you are doing is increasing the ratio of step pulses to encoder counts.

If you'd like to understand more this is all covered in the Clearpath users manual. Hope this helps.

[jhnmdahl]

You can use any value here that's a whole number higher than 1600. Per Centroid 1600 is the absolute minimum to use with Acorn. I find that 3200 is a good mix of speed and 3D performance. You can use 6400 if you like but speed will suffer. You can use 1600 but the resolution will suffer. It really depends on what you are wanting from the machine.

You can set both the RLN and ELN motors to 1600 or higher. 1600, 3200 or 6400

The difference between the 800 RLN motors and the 6400 ELN motors is the positioning resolution of the encoder. By setting a RLN motor to something other 800 all you are doing is increasing the ratio of step pulses to encoder counts.

If you'd like to understand more this is all covered in the Clearpath users manual. Hope this helps.

I get that speed may suffer if I use a bigger number and the pulse rate of the Acorn (or signal drivers - see suntravel's comment below) is limited, but I've never understood why using a lower number like 800 or 1600 for an RLN isn't as good as 3200 given that the RLN can't physically resolve anything higher than 800 steps per revolution. My understanding is that 1600, it waits for two pulses to advance one count, at 3200 it waits for four pulses to advance one count, etc., and doesn't really improve physical resolution or performance in any way.

It seems I'm missing something here? Thanks again for walking me through it.

[suntravel]

Acorn is not the limit, it can go up to 1200 khz, limit are more often the drivers, some can eat higher steprates with differential RS422 signals.

That will need an extra circuit for each axis.

Uwe

[cnckeith]

please use the Centroid recommended number for clearpath setup. we can talk all day about why they are the recommended numbers or we can get the machine running. we developed and tested many clearpath setups and publish the information, why would you want to do something different?
and there is even a preset in the Drive Type menu, click on that, wire to match schematic = success. why make it hard?