Connecting an input
Inputs can be used to read the states of the peripherals connected to the machine. The contains an array of inputs with a special purpose, as well as an auxiliary input that can be used for various purposes. These inputs are:
- Probe - Input that can be used to measure dimensions, such as a tool or material.
- Aux in - General purpose input that can be checked in a macro or guarded during operation.
- Home - Inputs that can be used to determine the home position of the machine.
- Spindle - Input used to measure the speed of the tool.
- E-stop - Input used to signal an emergency.
- Pendant - Several inputs used to control the machine manually.
All information related to the home inputs can be found in Connecting home sensors and the E-stop can be found in Connecting an E-stop switch. These will not be included here.
Wiring each input may differ because each input may have a different specification. These instructions are grouped by inputs of the same electrical specification.
These inputs all function as NPN inputs. That means that the devices connected to these inputs need to switch the signal terminal to the ground to trigger.
Outputs that apply either 0V or 24V to the input on the can be wired straight to the signal terminal. The two devices must use the same ground, so if they haven't already, the ground needs to be connected to the GND terminal on the .
If the desired peripheral does not match any of the other options, there may be a way to wire them using a relay. There is no generic wiring diagram to connect any peripheral to the relay. However, connecting the relay to the is always the same. Since the operating principle of the switching side of a relay is the same as a normal switch, this can be wired in the same way as a switch.
The diagram below shows the wiring from the relay to the controller. The dashed line shows that either the normally open (NO) or the normally closed (NC) terminal can be wired to the signal input.
The spindle index input is designed to count the revolutions of the spindle. It can either be wired with a switch, a 0-5V input, or an NPN input. Since this input only has a ground and signal terminal, the ground terminal of the switch must be wired to the ground on the and the signal to the signal terminal.
The pendant connector on the presents inputs that are commonly used to manually operate the machine. The diagram below shows a typical installation using this connector. The resistors in this diagram should be between 1kΩ and 4.7kΩ.
When deviating from this diagram it is important that the input levels for the HW-A, HW-B, Run, and Pause inputs do not exceed 5V, and the Analog-1 and -2 do not exceed 3.3V. Exceeding these voltages may damage the controller irreparably.
Usually, the aux input is used to read a signal from a peripheral device. This may be useful for checks in an automatic tool changer for example. When using this input in that way, no configuration is required. In the job or macro calling M56 P1 will store the state of aux input 1 to variable #5399.
This value reads the logical state of the input. If this needs to be inverted, this setting can be found under Setup -> Input/output -> Invert IO signal level.
The aux input can also be used to trigger actions related to safety. This setting can be found under Setup -> Safety -> Safety inputs. More information on these actions is available in auxInputCheckSenseLevel.
The probe input can be used for measuring the dimensions of tools or materials. To start a measurement use the G38.2 (Straight Probe) command. If triggering the probe outside of this command needs to be treated as an error, the setting Pause on unexpected probe trigger can be set. This setting is available under Setup -> Accessory devices -> Probe
When the probe is not mounted in the spindle and therefore does not share its position with the tool, offsets can be applied. This offset has an X, Y, and Z component each with a separate input field. These can be found under Setup -> Accessory devices -> Probe.
The spindle index translates a single pulse per revolution of the spindle to an RPM that can be read from the software. There are two settings related to this input. Navigate to the Setup tab and go to Toolhead -> Toolhead
The spindle speed sensor is disabled by default, so this needs to be turned on per spindle.
Because of small variances in spindle RPM's this value should usually be smoothed. Setting a higher smoothing time will result in a more consistent value, but it will respond slower to changes. A lower smoothing time will be more responsive, but the value might change a lot more.
The most common manual pulse generators (MPG's) have 100 detents per rotation, because of their operating principle of them (4 distinct states per detent) this value should be multiplied by 4. This means that the default value of 400 is correct in most cases.
When using selector switches for axis selection and multiplication factor, these inputs need to be mapped. When using the aforementioned wiring scheme, these need to be set to ANA1 IN and ANA2 IN respectively.
By default, it is assumed that the pause button is normally closed. This increases safety to where the machine pauses when the handwheel disconnects. If the button used is of normally open type this can be inverted in Setup -> Input/output -> Invert pause input.
By default, the run and pause buttons only serve a single purpose. When setting the handwheel type to Wired handwheel model 1 (two buttons) these buttons gain an additional purpose.
The run button will still start the job if no axis is tracked. If an axis is being tracked short pressing (< 0.5s) the run button will set the work offset for that axis at its current position.
The pause button will still pause the job unless the machine is in a handwheel state. In that case, a short press (< 0.5s) will start tracking the next axis, and a long press (1s - 5s) will change the tracking multiplication factor.
