Messages

41

General Mach Discussion / Re: finding hex address

« on: June 13, 2014, 09:39:06 AM »

Oh Well, sometimes the dopey question hits the nail.  You will probably find that the driver you installed Windows 7 wouldn't have it. For my money, I would pull the lot and start over from scratch installing the LPT Card (Parallel Port) first making sure that you have the correct drivers. You should be able to see the LPT Card in your Device Manager. Then add the other bits and bobs one at time.

You said that, 'The frustrating part is that it worked before.' Don't be too concerned about it, "Windows is like that" !! 

42

General Mach Discussion / Re: finding hex address

« on: June 13, 2014, 03:41:27 AM »

Don't you just love technology... I would try setting your Mach3 Parallel Port to 0378 and see what happens. This sounds like a fairly new PC (couple of year’s old maximum) and I'm a sucker for dopey questions but here goes: "is the Parallel Printer Port part of the System Board or is it an Add In Card in one of the PCI or PCIe slots?? The reason I ask is that if it's an Add In Card, are the drivers for it installed correctly...  

43

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie (not another dopey question) Help with Soft Limits.

« on: June 12, 2014, 07:10:49 AM »

"I have never used Aulto Tool Zero as I do my toolsetting via an integrated height checker which links to the tooltable in Mach"

Oh... That looks interesting... How do you do that

BTW thanks for the M6 Macro help. Gonna be a busy chappie adding all these goodies to my "Modified" Chinese Wonder

44

General Mach Discussion / Re: Thunderbird 5 main engines help?

« on: June 12, 2014, 05:38:47 AM »

I don't have an answer for your DRO problems as I am very (old) new to CNC programming, however I remember form my Nephew's Factory, they used to use neat car anti-freeze in their Spindle Cooling Plants as this would work extremely well as a coolant and a rust inhibitor and would also act as  act as a dye indicating in detecting any leaks.

45

General Mach Discussion / Re: finding hex address

« on: June 12, 2014, 04:49:20 AM »

Hi, had a similar problem a while back. You will find your LPT Port Address at Contro Panel>System Should Open a Dialogue Box Sytem Properties. Select the  Hardware Tab Click the Device Manager Option then Click Ports, COM & LPT Then double click ECP Printer Printer Port (LPT1) should open another Dialogue Box ECP Printer Printer Port (LPT1) Properties.  Selecting the Resources Tab should display the LPT I/O Range which is normally 0378 - 037F

Hope this helps

   

46

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie (not another dopey question) Help with Soft Limits.

« on: June 11, 2014, 04:23:00 PM »

well Mr Hood, thank you ever so much for the help, I am now a NEWBIE SMART A#$E EXPERT at soft limits, one hell of a learning curve, but I have fiddled on all day and not hit the hardware limits or heard the sickening crunch of the Gantry hitting bed once!! Weee, chuffed to ribbons!!!

Okay next question. Is it possible to program Mach3 to move to a preset position when I need to do a tool change? i.e. my home positions are Z15, Y15 and x15 but I would like to have it go to X260, Y300 to change the tool.

Ther is also an Auto Tool Zero, how does that work?

 

 

47

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie (not another dopey question) Help with Soft Limits.

« on: June 09, 2014, 05:41:27 PM »

Thanks again old friend... I'm away to my bed know, I try it in the morning.

48

General Mach Discussion / Newbie (not another dopey question) Help with Soft Limits.

« on: June 09, 2014, 05:14:33 PM »

I'm having a hell of time getting my head around this. I have gone over the manual like a rash but I still cannot get my Machine to behave. Firstly, I am assuming that DRO means the Digital Position of my X, Y & Z axis, and that the digits I ought to be using as Safe Limits are the Machine Coordinates Y/N ??

For arguments sake my Z Machine Coordinates that I want to set as Safe Limits are -5 and -63 I enter tham into the Max an Min Motor Home/Soft Limits Dialogue box then close the box. On testing the Z sails straight past both safe limits completely ignoring them on either end of the travel.

My questions are is there something disabling the Safe Limits? A check box perhaps ? Secondly, am I setting this up right? Taking -63 to be lower in value than -5

Finally, What are the other options in the  Motor Home/Soft Limits Dialogue box ? Home Off, Home Neg and Auto Zero What do they do 

49

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fitting Limit/Home Switches to TONSEN TS3040C CNC

« on: June 08, 2014, 05:35:08 PM »

I think I may have answered my own question. If I'm right, swinging the Axis from the home '0' to its farthest travel before hitting the limit and then resetting the DRO starts to display the DRO's as Positives. Is that the right way to do it ??

Then when I set the soft limits do I take the readings from the current position or from the Machine Coords ?

This is one hell of a steep learning curve....

I think I have earned a small session of Recreational Chemistry¹...


¹ Recreactional Chemistry, Converting Ale, Spirit's and Fine Wines into Urine..

50

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fitting Limit/Home Switches to TONSEN TS3040C CNC

« on: June 08, 2014, 03:05:28 PM »

Having a real pig of a time with this... I tell Mach3 to home my limits which it eventually does at a snail's pace but then all my DRO's (I think that is the correct terminology for the Digital Position readout) all work in the negative. i.e. to move Y back down the table 100 units it only responds to -100  

If I  check the Reversed in the Motor Home Soft Limits Dialogue Box it switched the direction to the Home limit but my DRO's are still negative...