Vertigo MX2 to Masso

[mtlchsr]

Hi all, Mtlchsr here from down under in NZ....I am trying to eliminate endless issues by converting my Vertigo MX2 (A kiwi product) router to Masso. The MX2 is brand new, and comes with a 'smoothie ware' controller board /box and USB connection to the PC. CNCj was the interface for the routing files. I have Vectric Aspire for making my designs/code. Had nothing but trouble and random issues (read spoilt work, hang ups, failure to home properly, agro, etc) from the get go. Final straw came when the whole file that was running 'disappeared' off the screen and the router decided to dig through my spoil board and gouge ugly hole into machine bed... all in two shakes of a snakes leg, .....ahhhhhh . Support from Vertigo has been , lets say, pathetic to say the very least. I did a rant on their face book page once and that got a response, ... alas the promises and fixes were as useless as each other.

Anyway after an inquiry to Masso I took the plunge.....

Also I should note here I don't know much about electronics at all. I do know that a 4000 volt 'whack' from the electric fence certainly gets ones attention + a mental reminder note to try and not let that happen again. But I can follow coloured wire diagrams even if I have not much comprehension - dangerous I know.. but this is NZ - DIY capital/center of the Universe. !

So, $$$$ later I have the hardware necessary... 1 x Masso G3 with the MGP Pendant + 24V power supply, 1 x Gecko G540 drive system + 1x 48V power supply.

I have watched and read the support documentation and done all that I can do without help/bothering folks when the info is available already.. so here is where I am up to....

I have the Masso unit up and running with screen, keyboard, mouse and software loaded. (Wow!) Everything looks ok thus far. I have the Masso mounted to a box on a din rail with the Gecko unit in there as well. I have a decent heat sink on the back of the Gecko with its own fan as well.. cool it should run. Next phase of the project was to wire the Masso to the Gecko, I have followed the wiring diagram available under 'Support' drop down... then 'Documentation' option... then following the links all the way to https://www.masso.com.au/masso-documentation/?section=gecko-g540 page. All was going well untill (yes I know that is spelt wrong, but I learnt it wrong way back in primary school last century and now the die is cast and without copious amounts of Gu'mnt funding as well as free endless tax payer paid councelling (same issue ) I don't think there is any reason why I could possibly change a bad habit. AND who made up the spelling rules anyway. !) .... continuing.... All was going well until (!) the last wee bit of the diagram where it has the A axis with the green wire to pin 25 on the Gecko D-type connector. 1) the Masso G3 A axis connection block has 4 pins - same as the X, Y, Z green blocks - not 3. Also pin 2 is S- not D+ ? That is pin 3 is it not? Then there is no 'G' pin either. Am I to understand that actually the blue wire to the Gecko D-type connector pin #9 should be at pin 3 (D+) on the Masso unit and the green earth wire should be into any one of the black 'GND' pins on the Masso board ? Or am I to understand that the green wire can be shoved into pin 4 (D-) as that is the same thing as 'Ground' ?.... I am confuzzled. Can someone in cyber electronics land defuse the confusion for me. (please) Then I can get onto the major issue looming in the whole conversion process...... finding out what wire pairs go to what stepper motors on the MX2.

I should also say that I am presuming I need the A axis wired up as the MX2 has 2 steppers for the Y axis - 1 on each side of the router bed - these will need to be in 'sync' (trendy wording I know) 'slaving' the second stepper motor is the technical wording I think. Thus Y and A will need to be together somehow. And even if I was not using A at all , that green wire would need to have a home would it not?

Thanks in advance... but be warned ... there will be more questions for sure and if you don't reply I am going to have to apply for more counselling etc... oh and where are the emoticons in this thing..

 

[breezy]

@mtlchsr

For starters it is the B axis that is slaved to the Y axis (fixed in MASSO internal hardware & software).

Now with the G3 model the A & B axis outputs have been upgraded to have the same hardware as the X,Y,Z axis, so the wiring is the same across all 5 axis.

The "ground/common/-ve" between the MASSO and Gecko is provided by any one of the black "ground" terminals, this provides the return path for the electrons that departed the axis terminals. ... ...

I don't like that MASSO uses the term "ground" for the negative connection, because it introduces confusion with AC earth connections. Masso-Support needs to update a lot of the documentation drawings/pictures to include the changes made with introduction of the G3 model.

Regards,

Arie.

 

[mtlchsr]

Hi, Thanks Arie for the clarifications... Yes that 'ground' terminology is off putting in my (un-savey) context.

I'm off to continue the adventure.

Appreciate your help.

Mtlchsr

 

[mtlchsr]

OK... after some stop n starts I have it done. Converted the MX2 to Masso. Following are my notes for those who want to do the same. Note that this is what happened with my machine - yours may not be exactly the same as Vertigo makes changes as they go which is usual as models progress. So... This is for a Masso G3 controller combined with the Gecko 540 stepper driver to overcome the many issues I was having with the Vertigo electronics. (To be fair - I think this is an electronics/computer issue rather than specifically a Vertigo thing. That is why the Masso exists - to do away with the computer electrical fluctuations that disrupt PC based controllers. These notes are for a New Zealand power context (240 v AC)

The Gecko is 48 Volts DC and the Masso is 24 Volts DC - dont mix them up...!

You can use the AC (3 pin plug end) to Dc power unit that came with the Vertigo (if yours is 24v DC )to power the Masso.

I also used the E-Stop button from the Vertigo and wired it to the Masso system... so I have one E-Stop on the console and one on the MPG unit....

1. ) Remove lid from the Vertigo controller box and TAKE PHOTO's.....
   
2. ) Tip machine on its back and also take photos of wiring underneath so you can refer to 'how it was' later on as things get a bit more complicated.
   
3. ) Next I 'mapped out' the wiring to ascertain what wires went to where and for what purpose. This helps with understanding when you convert to the new system. You will need a basic mulitmeter for this. Now with all power to the machine and controller box OFF (i.e. -controller and machine not connected to computer or power at all)....disconnect the big main cable clamp from the back of the machine... and with your multimeter check the wire continuity from the mini plugs in the Vertigo controller to the exposed pins of the main cable clamp. There are 24 pins - 2 x rows of 12 pins. To do this I set my multimeter to the 20k 'Ohms' resistance (Greek Omega letter/symbol ?), you touch one Multimeter probe (red - or black) to a removed/unplugged vertigo controller box connector pin and then try to locate what number pin on the connector plug responds when the other probe touches a particular pin. (Note that the black wires of the cable are numbered.... the wee printed 'bars' seen on the wires by the numbers are there to tell you which is the bottom of the number.. so you don't mix wire '6' with '9' - which can be difficult when your head is upside down and one eye closed trying to see what is what... I ended up with this..
   
4. Wire #1 (From Controller plug 'Y+') corresponds to Pin #1 and wire #2 to Pin # 2 See attached photo number 2 with notes as to what is what in the Vertigo controller. Sorry have to go now... more in next post
   

 

[mtlchsr]

Hello again... episode 2... Work your way through to identify all the wires that come from the Vertigo controller to the pins on the main connector plug. You need to make a diagram that shows all the pins and the wire number that comes from the controller to those pins. Do this via the multi meter method described above in episode 1. Once that is done find out what pins from the machine side of the connection plug correspond to what part of the machine. i.e. pin #5 on the machine side of the connector is the wire that is connected to the X axis stepper motor. On my machine the stepper motors have a junction plug that disconnects close to the actual stepper motor. Disconnect the plug and make a diagram of the plug... small box shape with 4 dots to represent the wires. In our example with pin #5 we find that it corresponds to the top left 'dot' - which corresponds to the red wire coming from the stepper motor side of the joiner plug. Note this all down. Continue with this procedure until all the wires from the machine side of the main connection plug are mapped out. You will have wires that connect to four stepper motors, three limit switches, the relay switch (relay is in a plastic grey box underneath the table chassis. This also contains the mains 240v power from the 3 pin plug to the router motor - make sure it is unplugged!!! The relay will need to be replaced -see a later post) When this is complete you will have the info required to connect up Masso and the Gecko. You will also need some externally sourced info related to the stepper motors themselves. This info should be available online at the stepper motor web site. You need this info to know which of the four wires that goes to each stepper has to go to what colour at the junction plug from the stepper motor. Get this wrong and the motors will not work. My motors were OSMTECH NEMA 23 motors. #23HS22-2804S. 1.8 deg, 2.5v , 2.8A, 2 phase Bipolar motors. The web page with the wiring diagram gave me this info... Black wire = A+, Green wire = A-, Red wire = B+, Blue wire = B-. These A & B are the two phases of power that the stepper uses to function as they do. Now look at the front of the Gecko and you will see at the 9 pin area a diagram that corresponds to the A & B set up. You just need to solder the correct wire to the individual corresponding pins at the connector. Also make sure you solder a resistor as given in the diagram - see also the Gecko documentation and look up You Tube videos on this to clarify what needs to be done. There is a lot of good info there. Wire the Gecko to the cable wires with the info you have obtained. In my example above ... Wire #5 is connected to the Gecko X axis 9 pin outlet at Pin # 6 ... it makes its way down to the EPic Connector at the back of the machine table .. through the plug up the wiring chain to the X Axis joiner plug which matches the Red- B+ of the Stepper motor.

Next you will need to wire the Masso to the Gecko. The Gecko only distributes the info it gets. The masso sends the info - which it got from your software etc. Follow the online Masso videos and info on how to do this. You need to have wires connected from the X, Y, Z & B axis pins on the Masso to the Parallel Port on the Gecko. I have attached a couple of pictures to help (?)... More to come in episode 3

 

[mtlchsr]

another photo.

 

[mtlchsr]

So... I have thus far escaped contamination of the Covid 19 Scam-demic...... and during the 'police state trial' experiment/lockdown being foisted on the 'global village' have time to catch up on the odd job.. (read - I have done the dishes etc). (seems very strange to me that a small island nation with 1000's of miles of cold water separating it from the rest of the planets inhabitants couldn't prevent the virus getting here, if it was 'mad cow disease' flying in on a plane there would be a public outcry and heads rolling all over the parliment floor... but , No, all parties in lockstep remain silent until the thing is 'confirmed' and then dribble on about 'saving lives' by trying to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted.) Are they that dumb... or is it deliberate and controlled ? either option is scary ... but we digress , and now will attempt episode 3..

This is about the relay fix.

The original relay won't work with the Masso, so buy a better one. See attached diagram and notes. Much thanks to Peter of CNC Nutz of You Tube fame for this info. I couldn't figure why the spindle seemed at 1/2 mast with the original relay, but this new set up works fine.

 

[mtlchsr]

Episode 4

You will need to install a new limit switch at the back end of the Y axis far side, again Jaycar have these available. I wired the Comm to pin 1 and the other one to Pin 2 which used to be the wires that were from the 'Y+' wires of the Vertigo controller.

My wiring ended up like this on the main Epic connector at the back of the machine

Pin 1 - ends up being Y slave axis limit switch Comm wire

Pin 2 - Y axis limit switch return

Pins 3, 4, 5, & 6 - X Axis motor wires

Pins 7, 8, 9, 10 - Z axis motor wires

Pins 11 & 12 - go to relay switch

Pins 13 - Y axis slave motor limit switch return

Pins 14, 15, 16 & 17 - Y axis motor wires

Pins 18, 19, 20 & 21 - Y axis slaved motor (far side) wires

Pin 22 - Z limit switch return

Pin 23 - X axis limit switch return

Pin 24 - an earth wire. Unchanged

So by now you should have the Masso unit wired to the Gecko via the parallel port on the Gecko . The Gecko unit wired to the Vertigo machine by the 9 pin X,Y, Z, + A (which is the second Y axis stepper motor) corresponding to B axis in Masso. You now need to watch (several times) the Masso support videos - especially the 'CNC Nutz Masso edition on you tube on how to get the Masso to do the right things for the machine. See if you can move any axis by the mouse clicking the appropriate button on the Masso screen. If not go back thru the system to see where the wiring went wrong. When all axis move proceed to sort out the hard and soft limits of the machine bed. and that they mach the schematic of the buttons in the Masso Jog screen. If you have/want a touch off plate then wire that in according to Masso instructions and you should be away laughing. Again many thanks to Peter of CNC Nutz and also to Breezy for all the help. If I managed to get through the conversion without destroying everything then most anyone else should be able to do it. I really have very little electronics knowledge but just do one section at a time and what appears to be a mountain will slowly but surely be overcome. Happy cnc'ing... Now I have to get the thing to make some $$.. Cheers.