Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: Please help, Chinese eBay purchase!!

« on: October 26, 2015, 05:11:05 AM »

Hi Paul

I am likely to be buying one of these myself soon, whilst browsing EBay I found this which might be of some use to you.

I agree about the translation it's hopeless but it might give you a better idea.

I should be able to be of more help when I get my own machine, I will probably replace the controller sooner or later due to just this sort of problem

Regards Mark

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: help with hp lap top running cnc controlor

« on: October 18, 2015, 03:44:00 AM »

Hi Alex

Same question as Tweakie,

There is a problem with some of these USB to parallel converters, especially the cheap ones, in that they are not bidirectional, they do not support EPP or ECP modes.

In this application some of the printer port pins need to be set as inputs rather than outputs, for EM Stops and limits for example.

I have had instances of even some printers not working properly with them. Your best bet would be to use either a PCMCIA card parallel port (check is supports ECP/EPP) or a full blown USB motion controller.

Regards Mark

13

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 18, 2015, 03:13:05 AM »

Hi Dwrightny2266

I'm in pretty much the same position hoping to get a 3040 in the next few weeks.

So welcome to the forum, they are a friendly bunch, and a goldmine of info for us newbies so we will have plenty of support in the early stages.

I have been told here that you can set one up to work just like a manual machine but with power feeds and DROs on all the axes so the transition shouldn't be too painful.

Regards Mark

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shielded Cable

« on: October 17, 2015, 03:38:36 PM »

Hi Gary

Yes spot on, It's the same in the U.K. We have very strict requirements for earth bonding for very good reasons as you point out. I once had to drive an earth rod in whilst doing P.A. at a church because the electrical system was so shoddy there wasn't an effective earth. This not only cured all the P.A. noises but provided some increase in safety. We left it there afterwards. with the proviso that they get the electrics checked.

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shielded Cable

« on: October 17, 2015, 04:22:28 AM »

Hi Naijin

The reason for not connecting both ends of the shield is that slight resistances in the earth path can cause circulating currents to flow in the earth usually at mains frequency. In Audio circles it is known as a hum loop and they are a menace. This is why In Pro audio we use what is called balanced or differential inputs which only respond to the difference between two signal wires and rejects such interference as it is the same on both wires. Some sensors can operate this way too. It is an especially useful technique for very low level signals and long cables but this should not be a problem in your application unless your CNC machine is absolutely massive.

Regards Mark

16

General Mach Discussion / 3 MPGs

« on: October 17, 2015, 03:55:26 AM »

Hi All

Real newbie question here so please don't laugh too loud.

Is it possible to set up Mach3 with 3 separate MPGs on a small mill one on each axis so I could use it just like a manual mill and is it possible to use x10 x100 multiplier switches on them for fast traverses

I can envisage simple jobs occurring where it is not worth writing GCode or going into the CADCAM to do it.

Regards Mark

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Create hard disk image in a different PC ???

« on: October 16, 2015, 05:59:50 AM »

Hi Beefy

For disk cloning I use LSoft Active@ Boot disk creator. From this you can create a boot CD/DVD or a bootable USB flash drive. At it's core it uses the windows preinstall environment which is basically a very stripped down version of Win 7.

simply go into the BIOS and set your machine to boot from your CD/DVD or flash drive and reboot, active@  will create a RAMDisk in memory and loads itself into there. it does not need to write any files to your hard drive at all.

you can either connect your target drive internally or use a USB Drive dock as I do. The clone function will create a complete clone of your source drive, MBR, Boot sector and all.

A couple of caveats though,

It is a very powerful tool capable of much more than cloning disks, so read the manual very carefully.

It is probably a good idea to disconnect your CNC machine from the P.C. whilst doing a clone just in case something untoward should happen.

It will not work on very old machines, but if your machine can support Mach 3 it will almost certainly support Active@

18

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 16, 2015, 03:40:07 AM »

Thanks Tweakie

I like Super Kitty BTW very cute but I'm biased,  I'm cats mad as well. Amazing creatures

19

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 15, 2015, 10:32:54 AM »

Hi All

I'm new to the forum and would like to introduce myself.

My name is Mark and I'm from Gloucestershire, England.

A little background, I am a professional Engineering Technician who has worked in many different engineering disciplines including control systems, rotating machines, and audio among others.

My hobbies include model engineering, audio and video work and electronic construction.

I have worked for Renishaw in the past, experienced CNCers may recognize the name for their touch probes. It was here that I started to get an introduction to the basics of CNC machines. I was let loose with a brand new Cincinnati Sabre VMC on permanent loan from the manufacturers. It was used as a "test bed" for checking metrology gear and was probably the most leveled, calibrated and backlash compensated machine in history. We managed to find some backlash although almost nil as you might expect.

I also worked for a company who did some CNC retrofits on some very strange machines indeed but that's a long story for another day.

Despite this my knowledge of G Code extends to a few G0s and G1s to check the axes with one hand on the EM Stop in case we had the limits wired wrong or the spindle motor suddenly "took off" on us.

A situation I am about to remedy however. Up until now I have never owned a CNC myself but I am about to buy a fairly solid looking 3040 Router. It's a Chinese one but The chassis looks fairly solid and I can upgrade the controls, motors and spindle at a later date. It is within my (VERY) limited budget and we all have to start somewhere. It is fitted with ballscrews not ACME feedscrews though.

It will mostly be used for drilling P.C.B.s and possibly isolation routing some as well as small brass and aluminium model components.  

As long as I don't try to push it too hard I should be O.K. as soon as I can work out how to turn Excellon files into G Code.

I have tried a few converters but not a lot of luck yet. Any Ideas anyone.

I expect I will be a frequent visitor to the forum especially during the broken tools and "It's supposed to go the other way" bit (if it's anything like the "big ones")

Regards Mark