Re: Y axis non-movement

[Jon Elson <elson-at-pico-systems.com>]

Dave Engvall wrote:

> List,
> I suppose this will be obvious to everyone else but:
>  
> I just upgraded from BDI 2-10 to 2-18. The card is a stg I.
> I get movement on the X-axis as usual but nothing on Y.
>  
> Stgdiag dac on Y produces movement at the expected rate but neither 
> manual or mdi (tkemc) will induce movement.
>  
> I moved all my parameters from the original .ini to the 2-18 .ini. so 
> gains and other tuning parameters should have stayed the same.

Well, the first thing is to find out where it is breaking down.
So, first check that the Y axis servo amp is enabled.  If so, then
try to move the axis manually, by pushing on the belts or
pulleys.  (Be careful to do it so it can't pinch your fingers if
it takes off!)  If the axis is "limp" that is another indication
that the servo amp is not enabled.  If it is stiff, check the DAC
output from the STG card to the servo amp.  If it stays at
0.0 V when you command motion, then you need to look at the
limit switch functions.  Do you have limit switches?  If so,
try manually tripping them, and make sure they all cause the
appropriate axis to show red when the switch is held, and
back to green when released.  It is possible that the limit
switches respond differently in the 2-18 version, or that
something happened when you edited the .ini file.

If the amp is not being enabled, then you need to see how
you are enabling the amps.  Are you using signals from the
STG I/O ports, or are you using one of the parallel port bits
(auxilliary I/O) for this?

If you jog for a while, do you get a following error?
You should.  If not, your following error limits are too
large, or EMC is refusing to move the axis for some reason.
There is a software limit in the .ini file, that sets a "workspace"
limit for machine travel after homing.  If these are set too
small, it will behave as you see, I think.   There is a pair for
each axis, MIN_LIMIT and MAX_LIMIT.

Jon