JT wrote:

We are actually working on updating all the software now.

 

I'm glad to hear that you're in control and can update the system. That's good news.
My thoughts are with you.

Mücke 

Like I said, not really a good reason to change.
Right now it's running a really old Minirak drive, basically analog, trim pots, etc. Works but it's starting to fade. My hope is to bandaid it enough until I can swap in something more modern, like from the last decade or so
The 5 volt signal seems to pick up a lot of noise and a slight drop there is a noticeable drop on the motor so was hoping that dropping in a separate supply would improve it and stepping up to 10v might help or at least be less of an affect on the motor speed change.
I'll see what I can come up with between the 12v supplies I've got and the multitude of diodes in other drawers.
Thanks for the input
M

Thank you for your message. I have been using the VFD with Modbus this whole time, including rigid tapping, but still interested in your Ethercat setup. You said you didn't need to change the files I shared, but could you share your VFD settings? I image other would find that useful.

I want to clarify something.

My goal in this thread was never to “reinvent everything”.
It was to separate CiA402 logic from EtherCAT transport and validate it deterministically in SIM before going back to real hardware.

Rodw already showed the essential backbone:

• A proper PDS state machine gate
• Only allow homing/motion after Operation Enabled
• Explicit opmode request (6060) and confirmation (6061)
• Controlled homing start sequence

That is exactly what I am implementing — but modularized and testable without depending on a specific drive.

If someone believes this “will lead nowhere”, that is fine — but then please explain technically why isolating CiA402 logic, adding deterministic state transitions, mask/value evaluation, timeouts, and SIM validation would be a wrong direction.

Negative predictions without technical arguments do not help anyone.

Also, individual hardware purchasing decisions (A6 or anything else) are unrelated to the architectural question being discussed here.

The objective is not to fix one specific drive problem.
The objective is to build a clean CiA402 logic layer that can be validated independently and reused.

If anyone has constructive input (state diagrams, PLCopen-style Execute/Busy/Done patterns, hardware traces, mask definitions, timing constraints), that would be very welcome.

Otherwise, I will continue implementing the modular adapter + PDS manager approach and share results for review.

You can look for a "10v reference". Those will output 10V, can be had reasonably inexpensively (either as boards or single parts, based on a 30-second eBay search), and should work so long as you're not drawing much current. That's what I was going to use to control my spindle until I decided that avoiding analog would be ideal (it's a servo, so quadrature input is what I ended up going with).

If a 12V supply will let you adjust it low enough (or a 9V supply high enough), that will also work, and you're not going to harm it at all by doing so unless the manufacturer did something really strange. That's probably the easiest approach.

Series diodes should also work as long as you don't have varying loads. Not a fan of that solution mostly because it's not "right".

If you're up for soldering, plenty of adjustable regulators out there- eg www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmic...ronics/LM317T/591677 You can probably find breakout boards for something that will give you 10V by just changing a resistor.

All that said, I would leave it as-is if it's working- the fewer parts/wires/etc. the better IMO. It's your machine, though, so if you think 0-10V would be better or you'd have fun doing it or something, have at it.

Guys, try the attached.  No idea if it works, but it's not giving any errors and outputs data.

I do know about the pot on the PSUs but wasn't sure dialing it down 2volts was a great long-term choice. Dropping in a few diodes makes sense, I'm guessing the current draw on a VFD control would be minimal. I should have a bunch of 1n4001 laying around here somewhere lol.

Thanks
M

For no real good reason I'd like to change my lathe from using 0-5v to control the spindle to 0-10v.
The VFD is an old VFD05-D230 and it has the options of 0-5V, 0-10V and 4-20mA and supplies it's own 5v if you are using a potentiometer so it looks like I just wired my 7i76 (old version connected to a 6i25 via DB25 cable) in place of the pot. I can't find any way that VFD will supply 10vdc so I need to use an external power supply but most are 5 or 12 (when I say most I mean all the ones I have here and the quick look at meanwell online. Digikey ones quickly jump to well over $100)
I know 0-10 is closer to standard but what are you using for supplies? Is a 12-10 buck converter ok? Can I "turn down" a meanwell 12v to 10 without killing it?
Just asking what some options are
Thanks
 

So wie ich das lese, willst du den Motor als Spindel einsetzen....
Wenn ich all deine Wünsche berücksichtige, landest du bei Kollmorgen. Das sprengt aber dein Budget 

hmnijp wrote:

Marcos DC wrote:

A “HAL-only second planner” is technically possible, but then you own all the safety, limits, interlocks and coordination logic yourself — and it tends to become fragile fast.
 

If the toolchanger robot only requires point-to-point motion and doesn't require circular or linear interpolation, then extrajoints can be used. Basic safety chains, homing, and limits will work as for other regular joints. However, for motion planning, you need to connect the simple_tp or limit3 components. Their motion calls should be implemented in custom M-code (e.g., M100 P1.2 Q23 ...).

oooh. yeah we can 100% just have single axis at a time motion for this.
thanks, ill look into this.

The devices is starting to take shape here