PM-45M-CNC Setup and Configuration with Mach3

Hey Folks,

Is anyone running flood coolant with their machines and running it via Mach?
 
See the thread I created in the Precision Matthews section on the G31 issues. While I can get the probe to indicate using the diagnostic LED display, the G31 command will not work at all. No Motion. I am asking for others to try a G31 command on the MDI to see if this is unique to my system or an issue with this Motion Controller.

GaryL. That is very interesting. By default Mach3 looks for the probe on Input #7. There may be a way to use a different input and have Mach3 recognize it as the Probe input but I am not sure.

Well I did get a probe to work in Probe-it on my PM45M CNC, all I had to do is replace the Chinese motion/BOB with an Ethernet smooth stepper, a PMDX-126, and a PMDX-107. Now everything seems to be working as it should.
 
I suppose backlash compensation now works with the Smooth stepper? Have you tried it yet? I could not get it to have any effect with the chinese one that comes with the PM machine.
 
Well I did get a probe to work in Probe-it on my PM45M CNC, all I had to do is replace the Chinese motion/BOB with an Ethernet smooth stepper, a PMDX-126, and a PMDX-107. Now everything seems to be working as it should.

Outstanding! was it difficult to replace the motion controller?
 
Well it took me about 2 weeks to get it all figured out, but now I could do it in about a day.
 
I suppose backlash compensation now works with the Smooth stepper? Have you tried it yet? I could not get it to have any effect with the chinese one that comes with the PM machine.
I have not yet got a chance to try the backlash compensation, but my hand held pendant (imach P2S) now works perfectly and so far the probe-it is working with my probe. I managed to get a bit behind doing the board swap so it might be a while before I can check out the backlash compensation.
 
Well it took me about 2 weeks to get it all figured out, but now I could do it in about a day.
I have been considering the same sort of conversion. Was it as simple as identifying the wires on the existing board and then moving them to the same functional connection on the new break out board? Any Gotcha's to look out for?
 
I have been considering the same sort of conversion. Was it as simple as identifying the wires on the existing board and then moving them to the same functional connection on the new break out board? Any Gotcha's to look out for?
Just about that simple. The estop did not work because the new bob was expecting a normally closed switch and ours is a normally open. To get around that just leave the jumper on the estop connections on the bob and hook the estop to the fault connection and it accomplishes the same thing. If you do try the conversion I could get the setup info to you and pictures of setup screens and the way I mounted the new boards. That is assuming you use the same boards.
 
OK, any issues with wire lengths and mounting? I am in the middle of a couple of big projects right now but I think I am going to order the parts and do the upgrade in a few weeks when I get "the Bench" clear.
Thanks for pioneering this. I have long thought that the motion controller board was a weak part of the PM-45 and this seems like a great way to address this with a somewhat standard solution. Setup information and pictures would be great but no hurry as I won't get to this for a few weeks.
 
OK, any issues with wire lengths and mounting? I am in the middle of a couple of big projects right now but I think I am going to order the parts and do the upgrade in a few weeks when I get "the Bench" clear.
Thanks for pioneering this. I have long thought that the motion controller board was a weak part of the PM-45 and this seems like a great way to address this with a somewhat standard solution. Setup information and pictures would be great but no hurry as I won't get to this for a few weeks.

The wires were all long enough, but as you can see from the attached photos, I had to add a few. I built the brackets out of aluminum.

20160325_143335.jpg 20160325_143355.jpg 20160325_143423.jpg 20160325_143445.jpg
 
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