I am running an Ethernet smooth stepper with mach3, and from the smooth stepper to a Leadshine mx3660 driver ( drives all 3 of my motors). My question is, when assigning pins in mach3, does the driver have anything to do with that? The db25 ribbon goes from the Ethernet smooth stepper, to my mx3660. The smooth stepper has its own outputs for each pin, how do I know that it matches the mx3660. In other words, say I set up an e-stop using pin 9 for example off of the smooth stepper. From the smooth stepper pin 9 it would obviously connect to the drivers input pin 9. What if the input pin 9 corresponds to something else on the driver. Not sure if this makes sense, I'm definitely new at this and trying to figure it out. If anyone has any input that would be awesome. I attached a picture of my setup. It's temporary until I get it on the machine.
Hey Rangatang, I'm not sure what you're asking. The driver does communicate which signal gets sent to which port and pin on the ess. So port1 pin9 in mach will effect port1 pin9 on the ess. I use an ess with the mx4660. It's been a great package. Joe
Joe! What's up. What I'm asking is yes, port1 pin9 in mach affects port1 pin9 on the ESS, but from the ESS to the mx3660, or mx4660 in your case, may have pin 9 as say a limit switch. If that's not the case, then I will set it up using the pins on the ESS. I take it that's how you set yours up. How did you know which pin to assign to which function?
Hey hey, Ahh. I understand you now. Initially I started with a mach3 .xml from leadshine. You can find it on the net. Use that .xml as your router profile. It will have the pins set up for your controller. Well it is supposed too. The .xml file is a profile with ports and pins, among other things, preset for the control board. In our case that is the built in control board. In my case, I actually went through and set all of my ports and pins manually and changed a couple. You should go through the mx3660 manual and trace all of the pins to compare them with the .xml you load into mach3 from leadshine just to be familiar and to see what's going on. It's mildly tedious, but helps when your wiring limits and other sensors later on. To sum up, have the mx3660 manual, find the .xml, use that to start with mach3, trace your pins from mach to the mx3660 using the manual. Ignore the ESS, it does it's job without much hassle. The port assignment in mach is the only major thing for the ESS. Joe
Okay! Thanks Joe. So basically I should find the pin data in the manual of the mx3660, and assign those pins in mach. I guess that wouldn't be any different from just using a plain old db25 port from an old computer, the ESS essentially is that I guess.
That's right. It isn't any different than assigning pins to the lpt except you have multiple ports and the nice outboard signal processing off the ess. I plan on adding an mpg and probe on port 3 this season. Joe
