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TB237 Rev1 AD2 setup with 3 01+ or 2 69 rev 22 +
AD2 Setup Menu
Pressing F8 AD2 Setup
from the Setup menu will bring up the AD2 Setup Menu The AD2 Setup Menu provides a simplified way of
choosing parameters for the advanced acceleration/deceleration module AD2 AD2 is especially useful in controlling the amount of
banging a machine experiences as it proceeds along the toolpath AD2 is also able to optionally round part geometry allowing for
faster feedrates around corners
By default AD2 will be turned off The Quick Setup keys F1 F5 will allow the machine to be configured to use AD2 or not use AD2 in
the case of F1 Start by selecting the most appropriate Quick Setup
F1 Old Mode
Non AD2 This option turns off AD2
F2 Precision Mill
Chooses AD2 with default settings for high precision work on a Mill
F3 Contouring Mill
Chooses AD2 with default settings for a Mill with looser tolerances for rounded geometry
F4 Precision Router
Chooses AD2 with default settings for precision work on a Router
F5 Contouring Router
Chooses AD2 with default settings for a Router with looser tolerances for smooth
geometry
The slider bars and Tolerance
allow the operator to further tweak the preset values provided by the Quick Setup function key choices
In most cases it is not necessary to "tweak" the values and changing them could cause the machine to perform badly
The Tolerance
field determines the approximate amount of smoothing rounding that will occur on a typical corner A higher value
allows the machine to round corners which translates into faster cutting time Smaller tolerance values cause feedrates to slow down
more in corners and jobs to run slower Refer to the "Technical Background Description of AD2" later in this bulletin if more detail is
desired on the parameters affected by the slider bars Â
AD2 Configuration Parameters
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Parameter Description Recommended values
220 Turn the AD2 feature ON or OFF 1 = AD2 set to 0 to use the old
AD1
221 NBpts
The number of points in the smoothing filter The higher this value the
more rounded corners will become see tolerance below For Milling
Machines
0 to 10 For Routers
5 to 20
222 STEP
AD2 breaks up a G code program into segments of this vector size Use
this rule of thumb Tolerance = Nbpts*STEP /2 For Milling
Machines
001 inch /
025mm For Routers
01 inch /
25mm
223
Umax
Sustained safe throughput rate going to the CPU10/MPU11 card 400
226
W
Feature Width over which the Min Angle is determined 10
227 Min_Angle
Minimum angle to smooth in degrees
Settings of 95 to 100 degrees will come to a near stop and produce sharp right
angles 60 to 85 will move continuously while rounding angles For Sharp
corners
95 to 100
degrees For rounded
corners
60 to 85
degrees
228 S curve
Produces extra gentle stops starts and feedrate changes but
increases job run time and may appear to pause at corners 0 = Off completely
1 = On completely
Range 0 0 to 1 0
229 Backplot/AD2 mode
AD2 may slow down the display of Backplot Graphics
This parameter allows a faster backplot by not showing AD2 induced smoothing 0 = Faster Backplot smoothing
active but not shown
1 = Slower Backplot smoothing
effects shown
230 AD2 Curve Feedrate Multiplier
Reducing this value below 1 0 will cause the
machine to move slower around curves and corners minimizing "bangs" and
overshoots Increasing this value above 1 0 may allow you to run your machine
faster if the feedrates in arcs and corners are still satisfactory 1 0 default value
0 1 to 5 0 Depending on user's
preference for speed vs "bangs"
and overshoots
231 AD2 Acceleration Multiplier
This parameter allows you to adjust the overall
acceleration / deceleration rate as a means to reduce machine vibration and
noise during starting stopping and feedrate changes Reducing this value
below 1 0 will cause more gentle accelerations and decelerations Increasing
this value above 1 0 will cause faster accelerations / decelerations 1 0 default value
0 5 to 1 5 Depending on user's
preference for quickness of
accelerations / decelerations
Note STEP must be in the same units that the control is currently set to Inches or MM Once entered in if you change units in the
control from inches to mm or vice versa the AD2 parameters will automatically be converted to the other units for you so you don't
have to re enter them once you've type them in properly
Technical Background description of AD2
AD2 performs several related functions
1 Smoothing NBPTS P221 and STEP P222
These parameters control smoothing of the user supplied G code Smoothing allows significantly higher feedrates to be achieved while
reducing vibration bumps and bangs at corners and angles It is also great for smoothing over a CAD CAM generated data with
peculiar features See Fig 1 Smoothing's strength is also a potential disadvantage it modifies geometry and rounds corners See Fig
2 When would you want to use smoothing? The user may want to run smoothly through rectangular Z movements created by
"breakout tabs" on a router job Smoothing will allow the job to run at high speed right through the breakout tabs if the min angle P227
is set to less than 90 degrees The Tolerance value in the AD2 Setup Menu affects both P221 and P222
2 P230 Curve Feedrate multiplier Arcs and Corners
Low values produce lower feedrates in curves
Fig 4a P230 determines speed around curves and arcs
Tighter arcs produce lower feedrates
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3 P231 Acceleration Multiplier
Fig 4b Lower values produce lower accelerations
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4 Min_Angle P227
defines the minimum angle to apply Smoothing to All angles below the minimum angle will be sharp For
example if Min Angle is set to 95deg then all angles less than 95 right angle including 90deg corners will be sharp not smoothed
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5 Feature width W P226
W and Min_Angle work together to determine which angles will be "sharp" not be smoothed For example a Gcode file may contain
small spikes double backs or zig zags of less 1mm that may be causing unwanted slowdowns in an otherwise high speed stretch of
toolpath Given a STEP P222 = 25mm setting W P226 = 4 4* 25=1mm should reduce or eliminate decelerations across the
problem toolpath W does not itself smooth the offending data that's the job of Smoothing controlled by NBpts and STEP but W does
allow you to minimize slowdowns caused by small features which is very helpful for running smooth thru jagged CAD/CAM generated
G code
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6 S curve P228
The S curve feature changes acceleration rate more slowly and can be used to produce extra gentle stops starts
and speed changes Its effect is most noticeable at direction changes
Document History
Rev1 Created on 2010 06 23
by #188