Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] I'm curious, Please read...

Group, I've been holding off announcing this as we are waiting on production boards from the manufacturer. Mach is somewhat taking a thrashing here for being open loop and unjustly so. Jim Cullins of Sound Logic and myself have been working on an encoder interface for Mach systems which closes the encoder loop back to the software. I'm happy to announce that after revisions and much testing that an interface does indeed exist and works perfectly.

A macropump monitors Software DRO's and Encoder DRO's at 10 samplings per second and faults the system on a discrepancy value set by the user. A "following error" value is entered into an onscreen DRO. The system will enter "feedhold/pause" and halt all motion until the situation is corrected. So this means no more ruined parts on systems prone to losing position. And that potential exists for practically any open loop system. I have been using this on a test machine (Bridgeport) and it works very well. I adjusted acceleration and velocity higher to purposely cause lost postion for testing and over the past few months the system has performed perfectly every time. The board is connected via a second parallel port that must be installed in the PC. This also allows the user to run at faster feeds and speeds without the fear of losing position.

In a count discrepancy, an onscreen LED next to the offending axis will flash red, the machine will halt all motion on feedhold and a 90 db sonalert will sound and alert the operator of the situation. It will allow the operator to jog cutter away and correct count discrepancy. This is done by a "sync" key that has been added next to each axis as well.

Mach3 is now closed loop. In addition, the board includes 4 onboard output relays to control auxillary devices. And up to 4 additional inputs for probes, MPG's, OEM triggers, etc. Also provides external power supply for the encoders. Which eliminates the need for encoders with less than 50 ma draw for the Geckos. Can use any encoder now. The installation is very easy and I will offer a complete package with everything needed for a hassle free upgrade.

The board and more info can be seen at:

www.rogersmachine.net

As I stated, we have no boards ready for shipment and I will post when they are available which should be any day.

This makes Mach a much better system.
Thank You, Ron

art <fenerty@...> wrote:
Randy:

> Mach has no idea where it is at it, only thinks it knows where it's at.
>
> I agree that Mach-X and Geckos work great but you are still open loop.
>

Actually, there are systems out there where Mach3 knows its postion and
will stop and trigger operator warnings if
the drive has faulted or is having trouble keeping up.. Mach3 uses a
MacroPump, this is a user writable code segment
that runs up to 10 times a second and can monitor system variables and
operations applying its own logic to the system.


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