Adding a C6 Speed control board

I have a Spectralight mill center with a Minarik controller board, so I am following the diagram diagram for wiring the C6 provided by Arturo Duncan.

Will,

Thanks again for your input .

I can answer your list of questions from your last reply:

1) The Minarik board and solid state relay are in the circuit between the C6 and DC motor. The C6 is not wired to the DC motor directly.
2) My intent is to replace the pot with the C6, and as of now the pot is not wired in.
3) The C6 is wired into the Minarik board, and the potentiometer wires I *think* should be left out of the circuit.
4) I have 12vdc powering the C6 and have tested this successfully.
5) My C6 has an RJ45, and if I read the manual correctly, the STEP and DIRECTION will receive this signal from the ethernet card of the PC running LinuxCNC.
6) If I am correct, the step pin will receive this signal from the LinuxCNC PC and this will be configured in stepconf.
7) I have modified the HAL file. It throws and error, but I will double check it and deal with it later as necessary.
If I understand the manual, both RELAY 1 and 2 can be controlled through the RJ45 and ethernet cable from the PC.
9) I understand about adjusting the C6 pot. I checked out a video on Google from Hoss Machine . If only I could see the wiring up close :pinch:
10) Got the manual, thanks.

Thank you for your time. (IANAEE) I am not an electrical engineer only a hobbyist machinist hacker. :laugh:

the c6 only uses the rj45 as a suitable connector it is NOT ethernet ,
you need to wire the step and direction pins of the connector to your controller interface to the step and direction pins allocated to spindle

I have a Sherline Controller box through which I route my 25 pin serial output from my PC for 3 axis control. As I work through LinuxCNC StepConf and read other documentation, I am led to believe I should select a specific set of pins to wire into the C6 controller from this parallel cable communications. What I hope to do is use my A axis 5 pin DIN cable to supply the GND/STEP/RELAY1/RELAY2 inputs to my C6 board. Once I do this, the only remaining modification would be to the HAL file. Does anyone know if the is detailed documentation which specific A axis pins on the DIN go to the GND/STEP/RELAY1/RELAY2 (green/white. green, blue, brown) wires of the ethernet cable ?

Thanks.

I abandoned the idea to map pins from the Sherline controller box A axis, given Sherline does not provide a schematic, I have no oscilloscope, and simply do not want to either play a guessing game or smell molten chips. I added a 2nd parallel card, and configured stepconf to send PWM, STEP, and DIR through the second parallel port on pins 1, 14, and 16 respectively.

I have been working with Arturo Duncan at CNC4Pc and he recommended pin 14 for PWM and 1 for DIR, and if that eases setup I know how to make the changes. AT THIS TIME I have stepconf configured as describe in my first paragraph.

The 2nd aprallel port seems to be working. My reading from pin 1, the PWM, is 2.3v, and Arturo confirmed this is what I ought to see. I am making some progress. I am not however, reading voltage above .008v on the output terminals set by the C6 onboard potentiometer, nor am I seeing the two LEDs located behind the relays light up. 12v power is being applied to the board during this testing.

I believe the issue at this time is my HAL file setup, and therefore a software problem. I have tried a few customized HAL files; the result is a crash of LinuxCNC on startup. I don't know if resolving these customized HAL file problems will solve the voltage output issue; I decided I would start loading customized HAL files to test how LinuxCNC would respond on startup. Arturo assured me I would NOT get voltage readings in the 0-10v range without the correct Stepconf setup.

I am working in Linux 2.6.2

With patience, please, discard the earlier issues I poorly or erroneously described, as I think I have a good understanding of the C6's role in the chain of hardware I am wiring together. The earlier issues I wrote about were the result of not having parallel port pins physically wired into the C6.

Please if you have questions or input, all is welcome. I have pictures and configuration files I will gladly share.

Commander Jones

please post your configs folder as an archive
or email me direct