How To Disable a Scale
This is a checklist for disabling a scale
- Save off a copy of the current scale parameters that are on the drive.
- Initialize the drive (Factory reset) and load the corresponding drive parameters onto the drive (Sigma 5, Sigma 7, Apollo, Rapidpath, etc.)
- Open Mach and record the current steps per, origin offset (Apollo Only) and encoder resolution (Apollo Only). This will come in handy if you plan to reenable the scale at some point .
- Update the encoder resolution in the MachMotion Plugin. For rapid Path this value will be drive specific in the RapidPath Plugin
- Recalibrate the axis without the scale (or use previous calibrated settings - check for a profile labeled without scales).
- If you are running incremental you will just need to home the axis and check the soft limits
- (Skip to step 8 for RapidPath) If you are running absolute on the motor encoder on an Apollo system, you will need to dereference the axis in question and home it. Now you should power down the control and cabinet. Once Mach is back up, open the Hicon diagnostics and record the encoder position for that motor. Then input that encoder count into the origin offset for that motor in the MachMotion Plugin. Your machine DRO should reset to 0.000. Now power down the control and cabinet one more time to make sure the position holds
- For RapidPath controls I generally power down before homing. (you have ran the function 8 to reset the absolute encoder) The power down will give you a more accurate encoder count to work from. When the software comes back up, Dereference if needed and home the axis in question. In RapidPath you do not need to save an origin offset as it will automatically update the necessary file in the RapidPath directory once it homes. Power down again to make sure the position holds.
- Recalculate the following error with the new steps per unit.
- Re-enable backlash compensation. Backlash compensation is never used with a scale.
- Test motion and calibration