Messages

5641

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Installed but not launching

« on: December 21, 2017, 03:24:38 PM »

Hi Peter,
if you use the internet to stream music while your machining you are flying in the face of the advice of every experienced CNCer on the forum.

Craig

5642

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 on Parallel Vs UC100

« on: December 21, 2017, 12:08:26 PM »

Hi,
sounds like your dead set on a UC100 irrespective of what others say. In which case don't get a Chinese knock-off, they abound on EBay.
Buy direct from CNCDrive or their nominated distributor.

Craig

5643

General Mach Discussion / Re: Slave problems

« on: December 21, 2017, 12:03:55 PM »

Hi,
de-bounce is noise filtering for input signals and has nothing to do with outgoing motor signals.

Are the motors and drivers the same?

When you say 'out of synch' what do you mean? Do they rotate at the same speed? Does one get ahead of the other and if so how much? Does the difference keep
increasing?

Craig

5644

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Installed but not launching

« on: December 21, 2017, 11:53:11 AM »

Hi,
if you intend to use this PC as a machine controller I presume it wont have an internet connection so why have any anti virus installed?

Craig

5645

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 on Parallel Vs UC100

« on: December 20, 2017, 06:23:08 PM »

Hi,
Mach is not a hugely CPU thirsty program. What Mach requires is CONTINUOUS CPU service, if the CPU for whatever
reason stops to do something else then Mach will stall and usually stop.

External motion controllers are better for maintaining continuous service than a parallel port.

If you have a servo with a 10,000 count encoder, the current entry level incremental encoder, and you want the servo to
do 50 revs/sec max, that is 3000 rpm, then Mach would have to issue 50 x 10,000=500k pulses per second.
Machs parallel port is commonly capable of 25k and if you push it might get some PCs to produce 100k, not particularly
reliably but still 100k. This is still FIVE times short of whats required to drive a decent servo at max speed and max resolution.
Some external motion controllers can manage that speed but would absolutely require differential signalling. Be careful for
what you wish for....more pulses can also mean more headaches.

Craig

5646

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 on Parallel Vs UC100

« on: December 20, 2017, 05:54:17 PM »

Hi,
the number of pulses is those that are required to move an axis a given distance. If you used a UC100 it will produce
exactly the same number of pulses to go the same distance. In short if your parallel port is working then you will
notice NO difference to a UC100.

Where external motion controllers come into their own is if the PC has other software running, the UC100 is much
less susecptable to stalling or stuttering and can also be run on a much much wider range of PCs including 64 bit which can't
be done with a parallel port.

External motion controllers are able to produce very stable accurately timed pulse streams which stepper motors like, they
seem to run smoother and cooler even if not a great deal faster.

Craig

If you can do what you need with a parallel port then carry on. If you want to run a little smoother or use a late model
PC and OS then get an external controller. The UC100 is good but has only 'one ports worth' of IO, have a look at the
UC300 from the same company , its got 5 ports worth....inputs and outputs for Africa!

5647

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Axis Deceleration When Probing

« on: December 19, 2017, 04:54:13 PM »

Hi Alastair,
I use Autoleveler with Mach4 and my ESS. I haven't noticed any change in acceleration, maybe its to do with
the motion plugin, in your case Darwin.

Craig

5648

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Homing Issue - Z axis won't release the switch after homing

« on: December 19, 2017, 12:49:18 PM »

Hi,
those are settings in your motion controller plugin not Mach.

Craig

5649

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Homing Issue - Z axis won't release the switch after homing

« on: December 19, 2017, 01:07:47 AM »

Hi,
no I don't think so. Snap action microswitches are correct for home switches and proximity switches for limit switches. The simplest way to solve your problem is to have
three individual home switches, one for each axis and ideally each with its own input pin and separate limit switches. Note that all your home switches need
to be 'inside' your limits. Then you can reference (home) your machine without any of the limit switches triggering. With your motion controller a 57CNC
you have swags of IO, why are you trying to economise on inputs? Faults like the one you have described are exactly the sort of thing that occurs when you try
to do double duty with your switches.

Craig

5650

General Mach Discussion / Re: Home Offset

« on: December 18, 2017, 10:50:23 PM »

Hi,
sounds to me like when you program an offset the effective machine coordinate goes from zero (no offset) to
a number, your home offset in an instant. That would require infinite acceleration, its not going to happen.

Craig