Calypso CNC User Forums

Hi
I have a TMC 1000 that I made a control panel for 7 years ago and have manually setup each file.
I am upgrading another TMC 1000 with a Gecko 540 and 48v power supply.
I found watched the videos on Master tool setup and probe setup and I'm excited at the possibilities for me to advance.
So I bought MSM pro and really think this is going to help me learn to use my mill as CNC mill.
Now to the topic
I have read the Touch Off plate and an active 3D probe section in the manual.
"the simple circuit to connect all three devices to the single digitizing input simultaneously"
Can this be done with a Gecko 540.
It has 4 inputs for limit switches and a 5th for the E-stop
I am using 2 inputs for my limit switches run in series.
The 3 is for a probe
From what I've read I can't just use the 4th input for a touch off plate and set it up "this pin" in MSM.
Only pin #1 will work for the probe and touch off plate?
The Gecko inputs that has a voltage of 11.79v.
Can one of these be reduced to 5v with a resistor?
Can this be used as a power supply for this circuit?

I can solder resistors and transistors into a circuit board but I can't read this type of diagram (in manual) and figure out the parts needed to solder. I am trying to learn transistors but to me this is not a simple circuit to turn reverse the probe signal to NO instead of NC
Thanks
Frank

Hi,
Your post has many questions - I'll try to get you started on the path to finding some answers.

1) gecko 540
Before considering probes + touch plates, let's look at just the probe and a gecko 540.
The design of the Gecko 540 makes interfacing a probe more difficult than (IMHO) should be necessary.
I've reproduced in this forum a post from the old support that covered this topic.
http://www.calypsoventures.com/forums/v ... p?f=6&t=38

Please refer to the paper attached to that post for more information.

2) Once the gecko 540 specific aspects are worked out (or at least understood), then one could turn to the adapter circuit from the MSM user manual to connect both a probe and touch plate. I'm guessing that it's the fact that the schematic in the manual does not give pin numbers for the integrated circuit that may be causing consternation.
The IC is a 7406 and these have standard pinouts; each IC contains 6 of the inverters, and it does not matter which ones are used as they are all the same. Thus you can pick the IC sections for convenience of wiring - you just have to not mix up input and out put pins etc. IC pin-out information is provided in an IC data sheet. For reference, here is a link to a 74ls06 data sheet:
http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/P ... 6359TI.pdf

Dave

I employed my Arduino that is also doing other thing on the mill to invert the switch logic for my passive probe on the G540.

Since the Arduino only puts out 5 volts max and the G540 holds 11 volts on the input pin I used an NPN3904 transistor connected as follows.

Output from the Arduino to the base.
Ground on the emitter.
and the input pin from the G540 to the collector.

I added some simple code to the Arduino to add the functionality.

/*
Switch Inversion
*/

// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int ledPIN = 13; //connected to LED
int ProbePIN = 2; //connected to touch probe
int mPlatePIN = 3; //conneted to mobile touch plate
int fPlatePIN = 4; //connected to fixed touch plate
int tMillPIN1 = 12; //output connected to G540
int led; //output variable
int Probe; //output variable
int mPlate; //input variable for mobile touch plate
int fPlate; //input variable for fixed touch plate
int tMill; //variable for output to G540


// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
// initialize the digital pins as an input/output.
pinMode(ledPIN, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ProbePIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(mPlatePIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(fPlatePIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(tMillPIN1, OUTPUT);

}


// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
Probe = digitalRead(ProbePIN);
mPlate = digitalRead(mPlatePIN);
fPlate = digitalRead(fPlatePIN);
if ((Probe == HIGH) || (mPlate == LOW) || (fPlate == LOW))
{
tMill = HIGH;
led = LOW;
}
else
{
tMill = LOW;
led = HIGH;
}
digitalWrite(tMillPIN1,tMill);
digitalWrite(ledPIN,led);
delay(1);
}

I originally planned on having both the mobile touch plate and the fixed touchplate connected to it but had a few false positives using the 5 volt signal as the internal pullup resistors are weak. I ended up connecting them back directly to the input on the G540. Everything works perfectly.

I may try again using some 1k resistors to pull the inputs for the plates high and that may solve the false triggers. It will help me simplify the wiring in the long run.