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  1. #46
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    May 2003
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    No it isn't - I'm a bit slack for not doing it.
    I eyed it off a couple of times thinking it would make a good acrylic bender but I reckon I would have got my arm bent if I suggested it. It has been really cold for Perth over here in the last couple of weeks. He has a really good set up with the table and machine near by. Bet you recognised the machine as well.
    Cheers,
    Rod

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  3. #47
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    Brisbane
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    Bloody cold over here as well its not so bad in the workshop/studio when I have the reverse cycle heating on but I have to turn it off when I run the spindle and it gets a bit cold, its a hard life.

    May have to get a Radiant heater for under my desk as well but then with MDF dust and my dislike for cleaning maybe not
    I like to move it move it, I like to move it.

  4. #48
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    May 2003
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    Perth WA
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    Default Pokeys direct interface with Mach3

    I am making a control panel for the new machine and rather than post it on that thread it is more relative to this one so here we go.

    The console project in the posts above uses the key emulator method where you create shortcuts in custom screens in Mach3 and then map switches connected to the pokeys to those shortcuts.

    The method I am using here works by interacting directly with the Mach3 inbuilt functions. The advantages are these functions are always available regardless of the screen you are on and there is no need to do any custom screen design work. It also allows for additional functionality such as MPG and potentiometers. You could do a combination of both direct mapping and shortcuts if you want to.

    I will try to make this as simple as possible using layman’s talk and rather than offer variations I will describe exactly how this one works.
    I always bench test these before making the panel and here is a photo of the Pokeys lash up of wires, pot and switches on my cluttered desk. A couple of rotary switches, some jogging buttons and other bits will be added in the fullness of time.
    I will cover each type of connection in one post so it makes it easier to follow.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  5. #49
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    Cockatoo Vic
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    996

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    Good one Rod

    Will be watching this one. Especially interfacing the MPG and FRO/SRO pots.

    I heard that with the latest plugin, the MPGs are working much better.

    Greg

  6. #50
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    May 2003
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    Perth WA
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    Default Getting the MPG working in Pokeys

    The component that gave me the most grief was the MPG but with some trial and error I have it working.
    MPG is a manual pulse generator and the purpose is to send signals to Mach3 to move an axis a set distance for each pulse. Turning the wheel clockwise should move the axis in a positive direction and counter clockwise in a negative direction. The faster you spin the MPG the faster and furtherer it will move the axis. For all the experts yes it does depend on the mode you have the MPG set but rather than muddy the waters with exceptions I am trying to keep this as simple as possible.

    Wiring is simple and using the photo the Orange wire is the A channel and goes to Pin 1 on the Pokeys, the Yellow wire is the B channel and goes to Pin 2 on the Pokeys, the black is ground and goes to any ground pin on the Pokeys, and the red wire is 5 volts and goes to the 5 volt pin on the Pokeys. Use the Pokeys documentation to find those pins or look next to the terminals on the board for markings.

    Open the Pokeys55 software and connect to the Pokeys Device. You will see the screen in the second picture below. Click on Number 1 and then on the Digital Output radio button, tick the encoder box and Channel A radio box. Do the same to pin 2 but make it channel B.

    Hit the send to device button and it will load these pin assignments into the Pokey board.

    Now you can check if it all works. In the Pokeys top menu select Peripherals and then Encoder Raw values….. and a screen like picture three pops up. If you spin your MPG you will see the values change, mine is on 793 in the photo and it is counting the detents (pulses) and reversing direction of the MPG will lower the number. Play for a while as it is good fun.

    If you don’t get this then start again checking all your connections.


    You can now close down the Pokey software.

    Next post will interface the MPG with Mach3.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  7. #51
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    May 2003
    Location
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    Default Interfacing the MPG to Mach3

    Download the Mach3 Pokeys plug-in and extract it to Mach3.

    In the top menu in Mach3 go to “Config” , “Config Plugins” and when the box in Picture 1 pops up enable the “Pokeys-Pokey-IO-USB” and click on OK.

    Shut down Mach3 and reopen. This is necessary as Mach3 loads the plugins on start up.

    Go to the Mach3 top menu again and select “PlugIn Control” and “Pokeys Cfg..” You will see the screen in Picture 2 below.

    Assign the “Use encoder 1 Pokeys” to 4. I have circled this in a red and if you read the text below that you can see that MPG1 has a value of 4.
    Press OK and exit this screen.

    Go to Mach3 top menu again and select “Config” , “Ports and Pins” , then the “Encoder/MPG’s” Tab.

    On the MPG# 1 line click enabled, then enter 10 for A-Port #, 1 for A-Pin #, 10 for B-Port # and 2 for B-Pin #. See picture 3 below.

    In Mach3 the Pokeys has a Port address of 10 and pins 1 and 2 correspond to the Pokeys terminals that you connected to A and B channel wires to.

    You have now finished but you need to shut down Mach3 again and restart so the Plug-in values you entered load into Mach3.

    Now time to test if it works

    Near the top of the Mach3 screen press the “Setting Button Alt6” and you will see the screen in Picture 4 below. Note I have cropped the screen to reduce the file size for the forum.

    Rotate your MPG and you should see the numbers change in the MPG1 boxes. If this happens then you have completed the connection and successfully interfaced it with Mach3. Now you can go to your normal Mach3 screen and then press the tab button to bring up the MPG mode and fiddle with the setting to see it jog the axes on the screen DRO’s. I will leave it to the user to work out how to change the MPG modes.

    Wasn’t that hard and we will add rotary switches later for selecting axes and MPG modes so you do not need to press tab and use the screen MPG to work your console panel.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  8. #52
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    Cockatoo Vic
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    I've been wanting to make a pendant for a while.

    You are stirring me out of my lethargy.

    Well done Rod.

  9. #53
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    May 2003
    Location
    Perth WA
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    Hi Greg,
    It is probably the only thing you haven't done and a great little project to do. With a CNC machine to cut and engrave the panel it should look half decent as well. I find it very good for machine operation as mouse clicks are not as easy as button presses and rotary controls.

    The MPG's are now very stable under Pokeys so no worries there. Boris as well as Scott have done heaps of work in the last month with Pokeys and the Plugin and the product is much improved. Pokeys are on free shipping till the end of this month.
    I better get back to writing up the FRO/SRO or this will be a long night. I might stop by the fridge as it is still quite warm here so the writing may become a little vague but will check it tomorrow.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  10. #54
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    May 2003
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    Perth WA
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    Default Analogue verses Digital Signals and Pots

    The next addition we will do is fit up an analogue potentiometer and interface this to the FRO in Mach3 – ie the "feed rate override" function.

    Some background on analogue verses digital first – remembering that electronics is mumbo jumbo to me and there is a good chance I could be wrong. Feel free to disagree with what I am about to say but remember I am trying to keep this as simple as possible. Also if I am totally wrong then please donate for the medication that I will need to re-program my brain.

    Digital signals in Pokeys are simple on/off electrical switching – it is either on or off and that is the only two states it can see. Digital can be a series of on/off signals and I guess this is how the MPG’s work.
    In this application analogue signals are a voltage based signal where the terminal it is connected to can measure the voltage and then the software can scale the voltage from zero to the highest voltage. In the case of Pokeys the highest voltage it can interpret is 3.3 volts. We can play with the scaling but more on that when we come to it.
    Ok so the only method we have of scaling a signal is to vary the voltage and the mechanical thingo for doing this is a potentiometer – herein referred to as a pot.

    These are quite cheap at $5.00 or less and you have to use a 10k pot to conform to Pokeys specifications.
    Typically you connect power to one side of the pot and ground to the other side and the signal wire is the central connection. Refer to the specs of the pot or sit there with a multimeter and you can soon work out how to connect it. If you look at picture 1, I have a photo of two types of pots. One on the left is a Peter Homann pot and the one on the right is a Dick Smiths 10k pot. The stems of these can be trimmed and a knob added for about $2.00 to suit your panel. The Peter Homann one is very stable as he has mounted it on a PCB with some other mumbo jumbo electronic bits and added terminals to make wiring easier. These are labeled 5 volt but I connected it to the 3.3 volts and it worked perfectly in Pokeys and well worth the little extra for the convenience and stable signal.

    This preamble is to tell you that analogue signals are different to digital signals and to allow for this Pokeys have assigned separate digital and analogue terminals on their board. You can only use pins 43 to 47 for analogue signals. Don’t go sticking an analogue device on a digital terminal as it will not work.

    Enough on analogue and how pots work so next post we start connecting it all up.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  11. #55
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    Location
    Perth WA
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    Default Connecting the Pot and Making it work in Pokeys

    Solder or otherwise connect your three wires to the pot - read this whole post before you get too worried about the connections..

    You take the 3.3 volts from the Pokeys board (top left pin) and a ground from the pokeys board. The central signal wire can go to any pin 43 to 47 on the Pokeys board - see previous post about analogue inputs. Best to leave pin 43 because this is the only analogue out signal on the board and you may need it another day. For this exercise I picked pin 45 so maybe do the same until you can master the interface in Mach3 and can change the values accordingly,.

    Open the Pokeys software and select pin 45 and then click on the radio button "Analogue input". See Picture 1 with highlighted areas.
    Click on send to device and wait for it to load the changes onto the Pokeys board.

    Go to the top menu and select "Peripherals", Analogue Inputs and Outputs" and the screen in picture 2 pops up. Click on the box "Input 45" and then rotate your pot. You will see the scale move up and down as the position changes. If the scaling is backwards - ie you rotate the pot clockwise and the scale decreases then change your 3.3 volt wires and ground wires over.

    Well that is all you need to do to make the pot work. Don't go to the next step until you have proven it works in Pokeys.

    Next we will tackle the interface to Mach3 which involves writing a Brain and assigning some values. Don't be concerned about Brains as I will make this as simple as possible and we are going to cheat by adding a couple of switches to stabilise the pot and lock it down.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  12. #56
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    Default Getting it to Work in Mach3

    Getting the pot to interface to Mach3 is the next trick. I spent hours learning Brains in Mach3 when it should have only taken a short time but you get that.

    Brains are a way of giving instructions to Mach3 to communicate with interfaces such as Pokeys and then interpret those signals and issue instructions to the machine. Sorry best way I can describe what they do.

    Now rather than get bogged down with learning how to create Brains we can do this easy by doing a screen for screen copy of how to do this one. Just follow the bouncing ball so to speak.

    In the top menu of Mach3 go to "Operator", "Brain Editor" and a prompt opens asking for a file name. See picture 1

    Type in PokeysMpg and click OK

    The screen on Picture 2 opens then click on the + sign that I have highlighted.

    A new screen opens and click on the Modbus button – see picture 3

    The screen on Picture 4 then opens and “enter Modbus Address to use” as 126 then click the radio button “Serial Non-Plugin Enabled”. Leave the radio button checked for “Input”

    Some time out here to explain what is happening. The Pokeys interface to Mach3 uses the Modio screens but I think it is different – not sure on that. The only thing important here is that you write the right address so that the analogue signal from Pokeys can be read in Mach3. These addresses are 124 for Pokey Pin 43, 125 for Pokey pin 44, 126 for Pokey Pin 45, etc. Want to know more then there is plenty of material to read on the Mach3 forum under Pokeys thread.

    Back to it press the Ok button and the screen will look like Picture 5.
    Click on the wording Mod:126-IN in the box highlighted (the background should change to green) then click on the + sign again.

    The next screen will pop up – see picture 6
    Click on the formula button and we will continue this on the next post.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  13. #57
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    To continue on - the next screen pops up - see picture 1
    In the formula box enter a/4 – see picture 2

    What you have just done is add some scaling to the signal coming through from Pokeys. Later on you can edit this formula to increase or decrease the percentage range of the FRO to your liking. Increase the dominator in the formula and the scale reduces and decrease it and the scale will increase – this is the percentage range of the FRO. Rather than bog you down with how this formula is derived the above is good enough for you to work around.

    Click on OK and your screen should look like picture 3

    Click on the text in the box where it says Formula a/4 and the background will change to green.
    Click on the terminate tool which looks like an upside down “T” and is green – see picture 4

    A new screen pops up and click on the DRO button and select “821 – Feed Ovrd” from the drop down list – see photo 5

    Click Ok and your Brain is now finished - see picture 6. Save the file and exit Brains.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  14. #58
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    Default How to get the Brain to Work

    To make it easier if you are having trouble creating the brain I have attached the brains file and all you have to do is unzip it to the Brains folder in Mach3 then follow the next instructions.

    If you did manage to create the brains file from my wafflings then you will also have to do this as well.

    In Mach3 top menu go to “Operator”, “Brain Control” and the screen that pops up will look like Picture 1.
    Click on “Reload all Brains” then click on the file we have just created named “PokeysMPG.brn" then click on the “Enabled box”. All these areas have been highlighted in Picture 2

    Click on the Ok button and you are now done.
    Go to the Program Run screen and play with your pot and you should see the values change in the FRO.

    There are some quirks that happen so don’t be too worried with the results as we will overcome those in the next installment. The Brain will be added to and we will add an on/off switch as well as a momentary switch to stabilize and compliment the interface.

    Noel or anyone else if you can give this a crack it would be good to know if it works for you as I may have missed something.

    An interesting thing to see is if you reopen "Operator". "Brain Control" and then view the brain we just created you can see the values in the boxes as they change. See picture 2

    It is worth noting that Mach3 and pokeys are continually improved so there is a chance these screen shots will be altered down the track.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  15. #59
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    Jul 2006
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    Nice work Rod! This thread will come in very handy when I get to that part of my build.

  16. #60
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    Aug 2005
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    Central Coast NSW
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    All i can say is thank you very much for a great how-to post. Myself and other lurkers do learn a hell of a lot from the regular contributors on this forum. Maybe one day we could contribute something but you blokes always have the ideas first
    All the best for Christmas and have a great new year
    Cheers

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