PoKeys57CNC and Mach4
Step by step guide - a.k.a. beginners guide
Version: 13/12/2017
Page 1: ...PoKeys57CNC and Mach4 Step by step guide a k a beginners guide Version 13 12 2017 ...
Page 2: ...quipment is used with shall be fitted with a separate means of fail safe protection emergency stop capability and or system power removal This equipment may be connected to dangerous power sources including electrical power sources Dangerous voltage levels may be present at this equipment or at connected devices Measures must be taken to prevent persons from contacting voltage sources which may be...
Page 3: ...he stepper motor controllers and PoKeys57CNC controller 12 Connect limit and home switches 14 Connect probe 16 Connect E stop switch 16 Connecting other signals with the PoKeys57CNC device 17 Connecting spindle controller 19 Connecting spindle speed sensor 21 Connecting spindle encoder 21 Enabling threading support 22 Connect other peripherals 23 Final check and power up 23 Mapping PoKeys digital ...
Page 4: ...design We will assume that the target CNC machine has 3 axes with one motor per axis Getting familiar with electronic components For a three axis CNC machine you will need the following parts 3x stepper motor one per axis 3x stepper motor driver e g PoStep driver Stepper driver power supply e g PoPower Controller power supply e g PoPower12 25 PoKeys57CNC controller Additionally not necessary but h...
Page 5: ...as 2 coils per phase and can be run in parallel or serial mode Parallel mode needs higher current has lower inductance and better torque Serial mode needs lower current and has lower torque You can find a more detailed explanation about stepper motors here http blog poscope com stepper motor driver user manual complete edition internet or on some other internet sites Nema 17 SY42STH47 1684B Steppe...
Page 6: ...to 50 VDC power supply 1 2 4 8 16 and 32 micro steps per step 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 and 256 micro steps per step Mixed decay mode for smoother moving of motors Mixed decay mode for smoother moving of motors 3 3V and 5V logic compatible inputs 3 3V and 5V logic compatible isolated inputs 250 kHz maximum step rate 250 kHz maximum step rate 0 C To 70 C operating temperature 0 C To 70 C operating tempe...
Page 7: ...rents setting Once the values are entered click on Write values to driver to confirm changes Do the same procedure for all drivers you will use You can check if the motor is wired correctly and if it works properly in Step control tab Set the maximum speed with dial button Click on Run button and move speed slider left or right to command the motor rotation More detailed describtion on http blog p...
Page 8: ...r supply taking into account witch stepper motor and driver type you are going to use Stepper motor type SY42STH47 1684B Nema 17 SY57STH56 4004A Nema 23 SY60STH86 3008 Nema 23 Power Supply PoPower24 100 PoPower24 100 or PoPower48 320 PoPower48 320 Stepper driver PoStep25 32 PoStep25 32 or PoStep60 256 PoStep60 256 ...
Page 9: ...with the addition of powerful PoKeys device features Device contains dedicated connectors for connections with motor drivers pendants HD44780 compatible LCD module etc In addition 5 analog inputs with 12 bit resolution are available PoPower12 25 PoKeys57CNC requires external 6 26 V power supply to be connected to the board in order for the device to operate correctly device may not operate accordi...
Page 10: ...sed for PE wire Protective Earth Hint You can preserve one AC plug cable if you connect both PoPower AC inputs in parallel Remove approx 1 cm 1 3 inch of insulation at wire end Insert wire s end into power supply connector and use a screwdriver to attach Use red and black blue wires for DC voltage Red for positive power supply lines V and black for negative power supply lines V GND Connect DC outp...
Page 11: ...32 driver output pins A A and B B marked on PCB Use a table below for 4 or 8 wire stepper motor 4 wire stepper motor pin out green black blue red pin A pin A pin B pin B 8 wire stepper motor pin out parallel coil connection yellow white yellow red white red green white green black white black pin A pin A pin A pin A pin B pin B pin B pin B ...
Page 12: ...bles for the first time you can help yourself with our tutorial http blog poscope com cablepack pokeys57cnc connectors Connect the stepper motor controllers and PoKeys57CNC controller If you are using PoStep drivers use the provided cables to connect the PoStep motor driver to PoKeys57CNC controller Insert one end of the cable into the 10 pin IDC connector on the PoStep driver and insert the other...
Page 13: ...apter board above is to use a 10 pin flat cable with so called flying leads on one end equip the flat cable with the 10 pin IDC connector on one side only and spread the wires on the other end Connect the wires straight to your stepper motor driver If your stepper motor driver has differential inputs noticeable by the signal pairs we suggest wiring the negative signals usually named PUL DIR and EN...
Page 14: ...ed to the Limit Home connector next to the screw terminals adapter board 20 20 https www poscope com product adapter board 20 20 can be used to access individual inputs As can be seen on the illustration up to three switches can be connected for each axis Switches of axis 1 must be connected to the axis 1 switches inputs inputs of the unused axes cannot be re used for other axes Each switch input ...
Page 15: ... used select the Invert option for the selected switch in the Pulse engine configuration in PoKeys plugin for Mach4 If no switch is connected to specific input make sure that it is configured as Disabled in the Pulse engine configuration in PoKeys plugin in Mach4 Electronic switches with pure NPN open collector output There are various types of electronic switches e g inductive capacitive optical ...
Page 16: ... on the pendant hence the input for the emergency switch is wired to the Pendant connector on the PoKeys57CNC E stop switch can be connected either to dedicated E stop connector red 4 pin connector or to pendant connector a combination of both is also allowed since both are wired in series You can use one of the following wiring options a E stop switch is connected to dedicated 4 pin E stop connec...
Page 17: ...n PoKeys57CNC specifications suggestion use OCOC or REL Wiring for DO5 DO5_D Connect PoKeys GND to common ground of the external device or a dedicated input ground connection if applicable connect PoKeys output pin to external device input Wiring for OCOC Connect PoKeys OC to positive power supply voltage max 50 V OC to external device input and negative power supply to external device common grou...
Page 18: ... pin marked as Pin x where x is a number that can be configured as digital input DI5P DI33P DIO33 types suggestion use DI5P or DI33P Wiring Connect PoKeys GND to negative lead of the external device output sometimes marked as common connect PoKeys input pin to external device positive output lead Optocoupler outputs active low signal is tied to ground by the external device when active Compatible ...
Page 19: ...nically isolated I O pins of the PoKeys device these pins have a dedicated ground signal named GNDi Do not connect GNDi to GND since this renders the galvanic isolation irrelevant Spindle controller with master on off function or with forward direction signal only If your spindle controller only has an on off control input and the spindle speed is either constant or manually adjusted use the appro...
Page 20: ... not GND to the common or ground voltage signal of the spindle speed input Connect 0 10V analog output signal of the PoKeys device to control voltage signal of the spindle speed input 10V voltage output of the spindle controller should be left unconnected Make sure that the spindle controller is configured to accept 0 10V analog voltage signal as the spindle speed reference The 0 10V analog output...
Page 21: ...o use Index mill or Index lathe as shown below The lathe option expects a lower frequency signal and uses different filter settings Connecting spindle encoder PoKeys57CNC expects that the spindle encoder outputs a digital signal and an index pulse Connect the encoder signals to the appropriate pins of the Encoders connector on the PoKeys57CNC device The spindle speed measurement uses PoKeys s Ultr...
Page 22: ...NC supports threading operation with either index only or encoder index signals Select Enable threading support in the Spindle tab of the PoKeys plugin configuration Note that only lathe signal types for the spindle speed sensor can be selected It is suggested to leave the gain settings unchanged ...
Page 23: ...eck and power up After connecting all together make some final check before plugging power supply cable into AC socket Make sure to separate high voltage high current and low voltage signals wires to avoid unnecessary noise injection into the signal wires Finally we connect entire CNC electronic control system Three stepper motors for axis X Y and Z with associated step drivers controller and powe...
Page 24: ...st contains signals for the complete 16x8 keyboard disregarding the actual configuration of the keyboard PoKeys_xxxx Matrix LED 1 2 Matrix LED outputs organized in rows and columns the list contains signals for the complete 8x8 LED matrix disregarding the actual configuration of the LED matrix display PoKeys_xxxx PE Pulse engine related signals dedicated home and limit switch inputs home and limit...
Page 25: ...wever for configuration purposes PoKeys57CNC can be powered via USB connection if no external loads are connected Reliability both connection types provide high reliability and protection against electrical noise However since Ethernet devices are galvanically isolated the odds of ground loops are greatly reduced Convenience since most of computers have built in USB ports connecting the PoKeys57CN...
Page 26: ...stall PoKeys software Step 4 Open PoKeys application follow the instructions to update the firmware then connect to your PoKeys57CNC device and enable Fast USB interface go to Device USB Enable Fast USB interface Step 5 Remove the USB cable from PoKeys57CNC device turn off the power to the PoKeys57CNC device then re apply the power and insert the USB cable again The computer will find a new device...
Page 27: ...ilities of automatic device discovery Direct ethernet connection PoKeys57CNC PC Make sure that an appropriate IP address is assigned to a network card of your PC that the PoKeys57CNC device is connected to Follow the steps described in the following guide Change TCP IP settings in Windows 7 Step 1 Locate ethernet ports on your router 1 and PoKeys57CNC board 2 and connect them with RJ 45 cable stan...
Page 28: ...ice entry the device data section on the right of the dialog will show device details including currently assigned IP address In order to configure the PoKeys57CNC device network settings click on Configure button and the following dialog will appear allowing you to change between automatic IP retrieval using DHCP or manual configuration Only IP address can be manually configured here since you ar...
Page 29: ...onfiguration can be disabled in network device settings dialog under Advanced options by checking the Disable automatic cross subnet detection option If automatic device discovery option is disabled the software will not be able to automatically detect PoKeys devices in the network and a correct IP address of the device will be needed to connect to it If settings are misconfigured the device can b...
Page 30: ...gin the latest version is available on PoLabs homepage under Downloads Copy both plugin files and place them inside Plugins folder which is found inside Mach4 installation folder 3 Connect PoKeys57CNC using USB or Ethernet cable to computer and run Mach4 software When Mach4 opens a welcome screen from the PoKeys plugin should appear Click on Open Add new device wizard to start the configuration Th...
Page 31: ...ptions LCD and or PoPendant if you use one You can also rename your device if you want 6 On the next page of the wizard you can select the configuration of switches on your machine If you are not certain on which option suits your machine best use the Detect switches and buttons wizard by clicking the button on the top of the dialog This will guide you through the switches setup ...
Page 32: ...ch is not configured correctly make sure that Invert emergency switch input option is selected if E stop switch with NO normally open contacts Is used o Limit switch is active the machine activated the limit switch use limit override option o Polarity of limit switch is not configured correctly make sure that Invert option for the selected limit switch is selected in NO switches are used o Limit s...
Page 33: ...spond to MOTOR1 MOTOR8 connectors on the PoKeys57CNC device are correctly assigned to each axis Next switch to Motors tab and select Motor0 in the list on the right Enter the correct Counts per unit maximum velocity and acceleration that suit your machine configuration Here you can also find Reverse option that will reverse the direction of motor travel if you later discover that the motor runs in...
Page 34: ...ps tab click on Load G Code button and select roadrunner tap from Mach4Hobby GcodeFiles folder and then press Cycle Start button Open user manual PoKeys plugin for Mach4 that is provided with the Mach4 plugin for description of other available settings for the PoKeys device in Mach4 ...
Page 35: ...es or systems and any other applications or purposes that pose a direct threat to human life 8 You should use the PoLabs products described in this document within the range specified by PoLabs especially with respect to the maximum rating operating supply voltage range and other product characteristics PoLabs shall have no liability for malfunctions or damages arising out of the use of PoLabs pro...
