Difference between revisions of "Mach4 SimpleMotion drive plugin"

Revision as of 16:34, 10 January 2018

Mach4 is a CNC motion control software developed by Newfangled Solutions. The Mach4 SimpleMotion drive plugin is needed to run motor drivers connected to SimpleMotion bus with Mach4.

Requirements

The following things are needed for building a CNC machine using Mach4 and motor drivers connected with SimpleMotion bus:

• Atomi, IONI or Argon-based motion system, e.g. CNC mill, connected with SimpleMotion bus
• Windows PC
• Mach4 software + license
• SimpleMotion adapter depending on selected motor drivers

Motor driver configuration

Configure the motor drivers with Granity software:

• Motor specific settings
• Set position mode for every driver except for possible velocity-controlled spindle motor
• Set suitable max. speed
• Configure homing for all possible axes to ensure the positioning accuracy
• Set soft travel limits

Mach4 installation

• Download and install Mach4
• Download the plugin files to the Mach4 plugin folder
• Read the Mach4 installation, configuration and operation manuals
• Launch Mach4
• Select the SimpleMotion driver plugin from Mach4 settings
• Restart Mach4
• Select the plugin as motion control device

Configuration

Mach4 configuration

• Plugins
  • Simplemotion drive plugin must be checked
• Motors
  • Counts/unit, velocity, acceleration, reverse
• Axis mapping
  • Select motors. The motor index numbers in Mach4 are one smaller than the motor driver numbers in the SimpleMotion bus. For example, Motor0 in Mach4 controls the motor driver 1.
  • One OB (Out-of-Band) axis can be selected for being used as a velocity or position controlled spindle. An OB axis can be selected for position controlled spindle in the Mach4 spindle configuration, and for velocity controlled spindle in the SimpleMotion drive plugin configuration.
  • Do not enable axes without motors
• Homing/SoftLimits
  • Set the homing order
  • The homing direction is selected in Granity software, not here
  • Set home in place if needed
  • Set soft travel limits
• Spindle
  • Set min. and max. RPM.
  • A position controlled spindle can be selected here if it's enabled in motors tab

SimpleMotion drive plugin configuration

• FTDI port number, usually 0
• Buffer max fill percentage. Defines the percentage of the motor driver buffer used for buffering motion.
• Select a velocity-controlled axis to be used as a spindle
  • To use an axis as a velocity-controlled spindle, enable it as an OB axis in the Mach4 settings and select the same axis from this list

Other

Versions

Known issues

• A possible small bump after disabling or stopping motion due to aborted buffered motion