Messages

1561

General Mach Discussion / Re: Possible new project pending feedback on LazyCam software

« on: March 01, 2013, 02:21:22 PM »

Why in the world are you going to cover up all that eyecandy with some ugly paint?   


Looking great!

Brett

1562

Tutorials / Re: Video Tutorials for Mach

« on: March 01, 2013, 09:15:54 AM »

Hey George C, welcome to the forum. 

Is this what your looking for?  ftp://anonymous:guest@machsupport.com/ExtraInformation/Optomize.txt

I would follow that and use the PC as a dedicated machine controller.  Many use all sorts of programs on the control PC with great success but I would start clean and once I felt comfortable and confident everything was rock solid I would change or add one thing at the time and test 100%.  The optimization isn't as critical if using an external motion device like the SmoothStepper but still a good idea I think.  The simple fact is that some PC hardware and Mach just do not play well together and that seems to be more and more common making the external motion devices more appealing IMO.  But, if your getting a good clean driver test (flat line) and the test is saying its excellent then you should be OK as long as some other process doesn't randomly throw a spike in.

Brett

1563

General Mach Discussion / Re: setting up tooltable

« on: February 28, 2013, 08:52:12 PM »

But this is random you say?  I dont think this is software but if you can figure out how to make it repeat someone can probably figure out whats going on.

Brett

1564

General Mach Discussion / Re: setting up tooltable

« on: February 28, 2013, 08:23:22 PM »

seems to randomly decide to operate in radius mode.

What do you mean?  Give an example.

Brett

1565

*****VIDEOS***** / Re: New Touchscreen Controller is mounted

« on: February 28, 2013, 08:20:09 PM »

The cabinet looks good.   

Brett

1566

SmoothStepper USB / Re: where to mount the Smoothstepper?

« on: February 28, 2013, 08:18:21 PM »

Just think of it this way, the SS is simply a replacement for your parallel ports.  It has some added benefits too though.  You have as much IO as 3 parallel ports would give you (Mach only supports 2) and you will be lowering the work load on your PC.  How you hook it up is entirely up to you.  It just needs 5V and a ethernet or usb connection.

Brett

1567

SmoothStepper USB / Re: where to mount the Smoothstepper?

« on: February 28, 2013, 07:14:52 PM »

Yup, you can pull the 5 volts from one of your connectors in the PC, just make sure it is 5 volts.  You can google your power supply and find a pin out probably. I wont say the color of wire as I might be wrong.  The 2 parallell ports will still go to your controller.  I'd mount it in the bottom of the pc and use two of these in place of the PCs parallel ports.

http://www.pmdx.com/DB25Ribbon

You can get them with the plates too, not sure if those in the link do or not.  They will fit in the pack of your PC where you would srew the plate of an add on card.

Brett

1568

General Mach Discussion / Re: setting up tooltable

« on: February 28, 2013, 05:52:48 PM »

Have you ever checked to see what the x mode is set to Drew?  I would like to know if something is changeing that on the fly.

Fred, do you have the X mode set to diameter or radius in ports and pins, turn options?

Brett

1569

*****VIDEOS***** / Re: New Touchscreen Controller is mounted

« on: February 28, 2013, 09:10:40 AM »

The link doesnt work.

Brett

1570

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

« on: February 28, 2013, 09:05:00 AM »

Hey Marcus, welcome to the forum.  You will likely get more views and answers to your questions if you post it in the General Discussion board as a new topic.  Just copy and paste all of this into a new topic and name it "Advise needed, speed and feed in wood."

Brett