Messages

7321

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mini ITX Motherboard for Mach4

« on: December 09, 2016, 10:34:03 PM »

Hi TOTALLYRC,
saw this with the latest gen Ethernet chip;
https://youtu.be/XNFl7HpKRyU

Fully configured with 8G RAM and 60G mSATA SSHD less OS for about 300 GBpound. Quite a step up in grunt than the Atom. If it wont
run M4 and controllers I'm giving up CNC and taking up knitting!

Craig

7322

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mini ITX Motherboard for Mach4

« on: December 09, 2016, 10:07:09 PM »

Hi,
he certainly is that. Rereading the PM he mentioned 'Intel on board Ehternet' rather than a specific chip.

If you can install a slot based card, I would suggest an Intel Pro-1000e.  This is a server style Ethernet card that is setup to handle lots of transmitting with minimal processor use.

Craig

7323

General Mach Discussion / Re: No communication between computer and controller box.

« on: December 09, 2016, 05:08:26 PM »

Hi captainleeward,
sounds like you've got things under control and have a logical plan to follow, you'll do fine.

I mostly experiment VHF/UHF/SHF but ZL3UII here.

Craig

7324

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mini ITX Motherboard for Mach4

« on: December 09, 2016, 04:52:33 PM »

Hi All,
had an interesting PM conversation with Smurph. He has used Atom platforms but needed to massage the settinsg to get good results.
I have tried a few of the settings but they are on the limit of my knowledge at this time and more often than not break the Ethernet connection
rather than improving it. Hopefully as my knowledge grows so will my accuracy at determining the optimal settings.

He did have one comment that I should share for any other folk looking to go the 'bare bones' single board computer direction. He said that
when Atoms were popular they used Realtek Ethernet chips which were optimised for receive rather than transmit. Given their intended use
as netbooks and thin client net boxes it makes sense. He recommended searching for a board which uses Intel Ethernet chips as they could
handle more transmit without offloading processing to the CPU. He did give an example chip number which I've forgotten offhand but I think
that referred to a PCIe plugin card. Will come back when I learn more.

All I can say is that M4 and ESS is going great guns on the Atom albeit with the Realtek Ethernet chip.

Craig

7325

General Mach Discussion / Re: No communication between computer and controller box.

« on: December 09, 2016, 04:28:00 PM »

Hi captainleeward,
you have been busy! I recall the day I got my own homemade mill working, I was elated and you will be to. The degree of elation is proportional
to the effort spent building your machine so yours will be phenomenal. May pay to alert the authorities beforehand, hoax earthquake reports
are viewed dimly! A lot of users on this forum buy their machines ready made from China. They seem to report more frustration than elation.

From the pics its clear you don't use any pulleys or reduction between your steppers and the lead screws. The Steps Per calculation is easy. There is
a calibration utility in Mach3 but unless you have to use it don't bother.

If you set the microstepping to 1/8 you should be about right. Two phase steppers advance 1.8 degrees per full step or 1.8/8 degrees per microstep
at 1/8 setting. Your table will advance (1.8/8/360) *0.5 ie 0.3125 thou per microstep or taking the reciprocal 3200 microsteps per inch. If you set to
1/16 microstepping 6400 microsteps per inch. Easy!

Stepper motors are very grunty for their size at low speeds, upto about 100 rpm but lose torque thereafter down to about 5% of rated torque
at 1000 rpm. Multiphase (3 and 5) steppers do better but the same trend applies. Unless you are prepared for repeated stalls set your max speed to
be such that the steppers are doing 300-500 rpm. At 300 rpm(conservative) then 300*0.5 ie 150 inch per min.

Again as a conservative starting point set you acceleration to 15 inch/sec/sec.

What I did not see in your pics was an Estop button, it is a must have!. Plenty of suppliers will supply you with lockable and latching Estop
switches in standard colours for $$$. Any push-to-break switch will work tho. You can set it up to use push-to-make but if you have a wiring
fault you wont know until you REALLY need it. Not recommended. Many safety conscious users arrange it that an Estop will kill all electrical
power to the motors and spindle rather than relying on Mach3 to stop on command. I personally have not bothered to do so and have had
a couple of times where I regretted that choice but none the less a working Estop is a must especially when starting out and setting up as you
are.

Work on one axis at a time. Use manual G0 commands or use the jogging keys to move backwards and forwards while tuning you motors. If you
haven't found it yet there in an enable jogging/disable jogging button on various Mach3 screens. On the MDI screen hit <tab> to see the flyout
with the jog commands and modes. Have fun!

Craig

7326

General Mach Discussion / Re: No communication between computer and controller box.

« on: December 09, 2016, 03:53:20 AM »

Hi captainleeward,
the fact that its starting to makes noises is a good sign. I suspect your motor tuning is out of whack somehow.

Rather than trying to run a file concentrate on issuing manual commands. If you don't know G-code its time to learn!
Just to make sure  on the Config/Select Native Units page confirm that they are set to your machine. Note that these are the units
you will do the calculations with to set the motors and will be the means of Mach3 doing its internal stuff. Once you set it don't
change it. If you want to run a job in mm for instance use G21 and when you finish use G20 to go back to inches if that's whats
comfortable to you.

I assume you've assigned ports and pins otherwise nothing would happen. Go to the motor tuning page, what values have you set?
My native units are mm and my steppers/ballscrews advance 1um per pulse or 1000 pulses are required to move 1mm. Ergo I've set
my Steps Per at 1000. What you set there will depend largely on the microstepping you select and the leadscrews you've got.
Don't go overboard with microstepping, while it sounds great 'my machine can make one step of a millionth of an inch' its horse s...t!
The machine accuracy is largely determined by its leadscrews, the quality of it ways and its rigidity, no amount of fiddling with a computer
will change that. Microstepping does make for smooth running tho. What does the manufacturer recommend?

If your native units are mm then Steps Per are around the 1000-2000, if inches 8000 or more.

The next thing to set is the speed, start slow and as you get used to things speed it up. Steppers stall if you try to go too fast, they just make
a squealing sound, you get used to listening for it. While not ideal it doesn't really do any harm either. My machine has planetary gear drives
and is quite slow, its set at 1200 mm/min or 60 inch. I don't imagine your machine has reducers so start at say 100 in/min or 2500 mm/min.

The next one is the acceleration, Motors can't go to max speed in an instant, they will stall EVERY time you try. Start really really slow until
you find the limits. A good starting point is 10% of your max speed. Once you've set them make sure you save them. Just experiment with on one
axis to start with, say X, once you've got the hang of it the rest will be easy.

On the MDI page on the input line enter G0 X4 <enter>. With any sort of luck the table will take off to the right 4 inches. Use G0 X100 if in mm.
A G0 X0 should take it back to where you started. G0 means 'go as fast as you can' or rapid traverse in the jargon. Its unlikely you'll want to cut
at that speed, for cutting use G1 F********* where ********* is the speed (upto the max) you want to go, the feed rate.

Try it out and let me know how you get on.

Craig

7327

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mini ITX Motherboard for Mach4

« on: December 07, 2016, 01:58:30 PM »

Hi Mike,
I learned along time ago with M3: Don't fiddle with the toolpath display when a job is running.

Haven't tried breaking the rule with either this platform or with M4, it is after all my own rule, why would I do such a thing?.
Don't answer that, I can hear you from here! LOL

I have a workaround for the Autoleveller utility that I use which is being cranky under M4. The toolpath takes about 4 hour to run
just one side of the circuit board so I won't be breaking my little rule today.

Craig

7328

General Mach Discussion / Re: New guy needing some help.

« on: December 07, 2016, 01:45:47 PM »

Hi,
can you post the Gcode that you used?

Also have a look on the Config/General Config page and near the centre there two are settings:

Distance Mode should,or at least most commonly be 'Absolute' and
IJ Mode should , or again most commonly be 'Inc'.

Craig

7329

General Mach Discussion / Re: No communication between computer and controller box.

« on: December 07, 2016, 01:34:07 PM »

Hi captainleeward,
if I remember correctly when the Mach PP driver is installed it shows in the device manager as a piece of hardware, named
something like 'M3 Pulse Engine' or 'Pulser' or....I have recently upgraded to Mach4 so no longer have a machine with a PP installed.

As I discovered when taking up this hobby (read obsession) that the pulse engine is a very trick piece of code. It has been described
'a bit like a virus', in order to do its job it has to live along side the Windows kernel and in fact shoulders Windows aside when running.
Anything which disturbs it like Windows getting bolshie and the pulse stream you are relying on to drive your motors falters or outright
fails. Even if it comes online again only a few milliseconds later its too late, your motors have stalled and often the job ruined.

The advice I was given, and unlike me to actually follow, is remove and or disable everything in your PC that does not have to be there
to run your machine. A long time CNCer described it 'its is no longer a PC but a machine controller that happens to use Windows'.

I don't know whether your existing sign machine will still work once the Mach driver is installed, actually controlling the pins of the port
is small beer when compared to running an interrupt driven timer as the pulse engine does. Its possible that if Mach is not running some
other application, your sign making program for instance, will run and be able to control the port. Given what I said in the previous
paragraph I wouldn't even try, a Mach3 PC is a machine controller and should do NOTHING else.

From what you've described the pulse engine is running so the next step is to see whether it can drive the parallel port pins. I you have an
oscilloscope and a steady hand to probe it then that's the way to go. Next best bet is to hook up your breakout board, BOB in the jargon.
Many of them have LEDs on the outputs so you can see at a glance if a particular output is changing. Do you have any documentation
on the BOB and/or pics?

In order to observe any outputs the BOB has to be enabled, in lots of cases by a charge pump, really need to know if your board is enabled that
way.

Craig

7330

General Mach Discussion / Re: No communication between computer and controller box.

« on: December 06, 2016, 10:56:29 PM »

Hi captainleeward,
hair is an overated accessory for the vain!

I assume that you are trying to use a parallel port, PP in the jargon?

If that's the case don't worry about hooking up the machine just yet, the probability of it working out of the box is just about nill.

Just to make sure, if you are using PP then your operating system (OS) must be 32bit, Windows 7 or earlier, with XP/SP3 the common standard.

In the Mach3 folder, usually c:\Mach3, is a program DriverTest.exe Run it and see what happens. It should open a window and tell you it's taking over in 3,2,1...
seconds. Then it will give you some useful info about itself and how well your PC might run the PP. If it doesn't do this you've got trouble.

When you installed the driver did you shutdown and restart? If you didn't that's what's wrong. The driver gets screwy if you don't.
There is a document on the Artsoft website:
       Mach3 CNC Controller Software Installation and Configuration

It covers this situation well, I know because I did exactly the same thing back when I had hair!

You'll have to use the Device Manager to dig the old driver out by the roots and start again.

Then when you run the DriverTest it will install a fresh copy, remember to shut down and the re start and you should start getting results.
While setting up and getting used to Mach3 its a good idea to make a shortcut for DriverTest and put it on the desktop.

Let us know how you get on.

Craig

BTW--- I always give the inside boat buoy-room, its no good arguing later when you've got two crunched boats.