Repower with Clearpath Servos

[cutnweld]

I am currently repowering my table with Clearpath-Linux-Mesa etc upgrade. Will try to post pics once its going, cant be down long as I have stuff waiting... Stay tuned.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Popcorn on standby..

[cutnweld]

Got the oil hot? Think Its working, Tho I need to do some more tweaking with gantry bearings as well as X tuning. I have been using Mach3 for the last 7 or so years. My C&CNC servos were sounding worse and worse so I kept slowing them down, I was down to 350 IPM on the rapids. These clearpath are 1094 oz/in motors, driving the 1" wide timing belts directly. approx 3:1 reduction. I had it running 1200 ipm now turned down to 1000. Perfectly quiet motors, No moaning and groaning around. Ever. And the Linux touchoff speed... I could go on and on about that. Must touch off at least 3 or 4 times faster than mach 3, no waiting around, no material jerking when it senses, simply cruises down and bounces back up ready to go! Pics are current, I still need to tidy up control box and put table back to wall, pulled it out to work on it. I have the mesa 7176E and THCAD10 and THCAD 5 for ohmic. Thats it. Thanks to all who have contributed to Plasmac and Linux, And hats off to user caretech, who gave me a lot of remote support.
BTW the side car pieces I drew up and had cut at a laser shop, my plasma cant cut that nice

[acourtjester]

Well cutnweld you have peaked my interest in Clearpath servos, with the tables i build I like to try new things. May I contract you via PM here to ask a few questions about your setup/component selections?

[weldguy]

Nice job, looks awesome and sounds like its working well. Have some experience with the Clearpath servos years ago, very impressive motors and that fact that you can swap them in place of existing stepper drives without changing anything else is super cool.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Man that went fast, I did not even have time to nuke a bag of corn to watch it!

How did the auto tune go? I have one NEMA 34 x 1400oz to move my 400 lb gantry. I ran it 24hrs at 750 ipm for break in and it never got hot. I Run 700 for rapids due to weight of gantry. Be sure to back up the tune profile for future needs.

[weldguy]

Man that went fast, I did not even have time to nuke a bag of corn to watch it!

How did the auto tune go? I have one NEMA 34 x 1400oz to move my 400 lb gantry. I ran it 24hrs at 750 ipm for break in and it never got hot. I Run 700 for rapids due to weight of gantry. Be sure to back up the tune profile for future needs.

Great advice to back up the tune profile Segoman

[cutnweld]

Auto tune? Its a starting point I guess. Used the advanced settings to get it where i like it. Maybe I dont know how to auto tune correctly. I am ripping aluminum at 325 ipm cut speed today, sure saves time over old system.Wow sego, I didnt know these motors were so powerful. I am running two 1094 oz 34 nema motors on my x, and I doubt it weighs over 100 lb. Here I was worried about motor power

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Auto tune? Its a starting point I guess. Used the advanced settings to get it where i like it. Maybe I dont know how to auto tune correctly. I am ripping aluminum at 325 ipm cut speed today, sure saves time over old system.Wow sego, I didnt know these motors were so powerful. I am running two 1094 oz 34 nema motors on my x, and I doubt it weighs over 100 lb. Here I was worried about motor power

You could mount some chairs to that gantry and sell tickets for an amusement park ride

You need a Micro USB Charger Data Cable and the software from below:

Here is the downloads (be sure to read the section in the Tecknic manual for dual slaved axis):

https://teknic.com/downloads/

Video on process



Here is the Y/T homepage for their products if anyone is interested..

https://www.youtube.com/@TeknicInc

[cutnweld]

I did the auto tune plugged in to laptop, it took it around 10 min or so to do its thing I only gave it a foot or so to travel with, as i dont have a long usb cord. Then I loaded the Y tune into the X motors

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Got it!

[AREA]

These motors sound too good to be true. Is it really as easy as wiring these in place of your stepper motors, running auto tune, and getting back to cutting parts?

[cutnweld]

Ya. SK series motor actually stands for stepper killer as I understand it. Hey Segoman, Could I beg you to take a screenshot of your advanced motor tuning settings, or would you sell a copy of your tune so I could check parameters compared to mine? My shaft is not as tight as I wish it was and I am not sure which setting to adjust, If you rather not thats fine too just thought I'd ask. For all I know your tune is patented! Its drives nice and smooth at all speeds but when sitting there I can turn motor shaft a wee bit then it fights me back to zero position, I think it should hold better.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Ya. SK series motor actually stands for stepper killer as I understand it. Hey Segoman, Could I beg you to take a screenshot of your advanced motor tuning settings, or would you sell a copy of your tune so I could check parameters compared to mine? My shaft is not as tight as I wish it was and I am not sure which setting to adjust, If you rather not thats fine too just thought I'd ask. For all I know your tune is patented! Its drives nice and smooth at all speeds but when sitting there I can turn motor shaft a wee bit then it fights me back to zero position, I think it should hold better.

Cutnweld.

I could do that but the parameters would be off for you system, as it's based on my drive system and gantry weight. Your best bet would be to get a longer cable and get with Teknic and schedule a live tuning session. Your laptop needs internet access and some of their software installed. They will walk you through the rest.

If you still want a shot I can get you one next week. There is some good tuning vids on Y/T if you search for them, I did not bookmark them or I would post the link here. Your position holding power should match the torque of your motors. Mine has minimal movement and like you say it goes back to position. This was a must have on my system as I intend to install an air drill and no movement at pause is a requirement, a feature a lot of servos lack with out installing an electric brake.

@ AREA,

Yes they are that good.

They come with a built in driver & encoder the only thing else the SDSK series need a step & direction signal and a IPC-5 72 volt power supply. Spec out your system and contact Teknic for their recommendations on components.

My single 1400 oz for X will drag me with heels leaving rubber on the floor and a 400 lb gantry with no problem. they even offer an even higher power unit if required.

Here is a a vid on Pele' (The Goddess Of Fire) and the channel has some other vids with the auto tune software and chain drive gantry.

[AREA]

Awesome, thanks for the info guys. Super interested in this!

[cutnweld]

Ya Segoman, I know the specs are different for each motor, I thought maybe I would be able to see if there was something way way different tho... if you dont mind. Shift control P brings up expert mode I believe right? Thats the settings Id like to compare even tho I know they Will vary between Machines. Thanks!

[acourtjester]

Here is a setup video for the Clearpath servo, he starts out from scratch and then with servo attached to a table.

[cutnweld]

Its pretty tight now, Changed some more settings, motors still quiet at idle but tight and stay cold as can be.