Now that my Kflop and Kanalog are in the country, albeit stuck in customs, I'm looking for some thoughts on my general plans.
The machine I'm retrofitting is a Shizouka knee mill, which will have Kinco servo drives on all 3 axis, and initially be using the standard AC motor via a VFD for the spindle.
The items below are what I'm not sure about.
1) Step/Dir or +/-10V to control the servo drives?
The drives are capable of both, but I'm not sure what is the better option when driving via the Kflop.
2) How capable is the Kflops modbus capabilities?
This I can split into 3 seperate categories.
a) I'd like to have all the controls via modbus (I'm looking at custom arduinos with 24V inputs, and output via a differential line driver for reliability), so how responsive will a MPG be via modbus?
I know I can wire an extra encoder to the Kanalog, but by the time I allow for 3 axis with differntial index pulses, a spindle encoder (I'm looking to eventually swap the spindle to a servo) + index, and the possibility of adding a 4th axis in the future, I'm all out of differential inputs on the kanalog.
b) I know the kflop won't have enough inputs/outputs for what I'd like to acheive, and I'm still undecided between running Mach and KMotion.
Will there be any issue with extra inputs being supplied via modbus?
I'd like to have things like individual inputs for limits (I'll still have a limit input on the kflop to ensure things stop immediately), along with other non-critical things like lube level.
c) Will there be any issue with also controlling the tool changer via modbus?
I know that with b and c, if I run Mach, I could have all that fed straight into the computer. I am swaying towards Mach, just for the fact it'll be abit easier to set-up, and allows that bit extra flexibility without doing a lot of coding.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as things progress, but I'd be grateful for any input on the above.
The machine I'm retrofitting is a Shizouka knee mill, which will have Kinco servo drives on all 3 axis, and initially be using the standard AC motor via a VFD for the spindle.
The items below are what I'm not sure about.
1) Step/Dir or +/-10V to control the servo drives?
The drives are capable of both, but I'm not sure what is the better option when driving via the Kflop.
2) How capable is the Kflops modbus capabilities?
This I can split into 3 seperate categories.
a) I'd like to have all the controls via modbus (I'm looking at custom arduinos with 24V inputs, and output via a differential line driver for reliability), so how responsive will a MPG be via modbus?
I know I can wire an extra encoder to the Kanalog, but by the time I allow for 3 axis with differntial index pulses, a spindle encoder (I'm looking to eventually swap the spindle to a servo) + index, and the possibility of adding a 4th axis in the future, I'm all out of differential inputs on the kanalog.
b) I know the kflop won't have enough inputs/outputs for what I'd like to acheive, and I'm still undecided between running Mach and KMotion.
Will there be any issue with extra inputs being supplied via modbus?
I'd like to have things like individual inputs for limits (I'll still have a limit input on the kflop to ensure things stop immediately), along with other non-critical things like lube level.
c) Will there be any issue with also controlling the tool changer via modbus?
I know that with b and c, if I run Mach, I could have all that fed straight into the computer. I am swaying towards Mach, just for the fact it'll be abit easier to set-up, and allows that bit extra flexibility without doing a lot of coding.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as things progress, but I'd be grateful for any input on the above.