Difference between revisions of "Mach4 SimpleMotion drive plugin"

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Revision as of 15:17, 10 January 2018

Introduction

Mach4 is a CNC motion control software developed by Newfangled Solutions. It has been in use on Industrial equipment running constantly for over a year. The M4SM 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

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 plugin folder TODO: Mistä?
  • Launch Mach4
  • Select the SimpleMotion driver plugin from Mach4 settings
  • Restart Mach4
  • Select the plugin as motion control device

Mach4 configuration

  • Plugins
    • Simplemotion drive plugin must be checked
  • Motors
    • Counts/unit, velocity, acceleration, reverse
  • Axis mapping
    • Select motors. Numbers are different here compared to driver numbers!
    • One OB axis can be selected for being used as a velocity or position controlled spindle
    • Do not enable axes without motors
  • Homing/SoftLimits
    • Set home order
    • Home dir is selected in Granity software
  • Spindle
    • Spindle settings
    • A position controlled spindle can be selected here

Plugin configuration

  • FTDI port number
  • Buffer max fill percentage
  • Spindle settings
    • Position-controlled spindle
      • Select from Mach4 settings
    • Closed-loop velocity-controlled spindle
      • Select OOB axis from Mach4 settings and the same axis from the pluginc configuration dialog
    • Open-loop velocity-controlled spindle (TODO: Not implemented for Atomi)
      • Select OOB axis from Mach4 settings and the same axis from the pluginc configuration dialog

Known issues