Hello,
I just finished assembling my new Stepcraft 2 D300. I took the "Parallel Module OEM Package", which comes without control-board nor software.
For the control of the machine, I want to use my UC400ETH (
www.shop.cncdrive.com/index.php?productID=789
). It is a control-board developed by CNCDrive (same company that is doing the UCCNC software) with the big advantage of being able to control 2 different CNCs over ethernet!
For the control software to work, it needs to have the "configuration profile file" of the CNC we want to control. It is a file with (at least): the Parallel port (D-sub 25) pin assignment; the motors resolution and feed/rotation; the range, speeds and acceleration for each axis...).
For UCCNC, it is a xxxxx.pro file.
I assumed that Stepcraft would share (free download) the "configuration profile" of its machines for the "few" CNC control softwares that exist outthere: Mach3, Mach4, UCCNC, WinPCNC and LinuxCNC. Or at least for the two that are "natively" supported by Stepcraft (UCCNC and WinPCNC).
Unfortunately, Stepcraft do not share it openly... :/ It is only shared on a case-by-case private email basis. Why?...
So here is my 1st question:
Since Stepcraft alreasy shares the Operating-instruction.pdf and first-steps.pdf of its CNCs; why not share the Configuration-profile?
My 2nd question:
Can a good soul share with me the configuration-profile.pro of the Stepcraft2 D300 with HF500 spindle and tool-length-sensor ? In metric of course ^^.
I tried to configure UCCNC by myself, manually...
One can find the Stepcrafts CNC D-sub 25 pin assignment on the section 6.5.1 in the Operating-manual.pdf (
www.stepcraft-systems.com/images/SC-Service/Anleitungen-EN/Betriebsanleitung-v5-eng.pdf
). In section 6.2 there are the °/full-step of the motor and the mm/rotation of the coupling thread. In section 6.1 there are the travel range of each axis.
But some data is missing, if one wanted to configure a stepcarft CNC by hand. And/Or my knowledges of CNC software are limited...
Which leads to my final questions; which may not all have a meaning ><:
- Are all the pin active high (or some are active low)?
- Are the "relay pins" the same as "home pins"? If yes are Relay 1,2,3 related to the limit-switch of X,Y and Z (respectively)?
- If wiring like in page 8 of the mini-assembly-manual.pdf (
www.stepcraft-systems.com/images/SC-Service/Anleitungen-EN/construction-manual_small_summary_v4.pdf
), are the limit-swith on the "positive" or "negative" direction of motion of the motors?
- Where are the spindle control pins on the D-sub25? (since the D-sub 15 only connects directly to the spindel driver, how does one control the spindle via the software?)
- What are the advised homing/maximum speed and acceleration for the D300?