Messages

6661

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Spindle Speed Feedback and Accuracy

« on: September 17, 2017, 02:35:55 PM »

Hi,
and dead accurate speed control is important why?

Craig

6662

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Quality Limit Switches for Fadal VMC ? What are you using ?

« on: September 16, 2017, 11:36:58 PM »

Hi,
I was in a conversation with another chappy recently on the forum who had all his switches hooked up in series despite having an ESS.

It seemed to me that if you've gone to the trouble and expense of an external controller lots of IO (more than just one port like the UC100 or PMDX-411)
then it makes sense to separate home and limit switches. He had the problem that due to a setup error one switch would remain open circuit and therefore
the machine could not detect a 'home' event when homing a subsequent axis and attempt to crash. It certainly made sense to combine limits and homes
in the early PP days when input pins were scarce but not now. It also means that you can have switches/sensors which are optimised for the task.

You may have noted in the link I posted from the Element14 website that the Omron switches are $32 each. Admittedly that's NZD so works out about $22 USD.
Further an identical switch is made by Honeywell and from time to time they have a bit of a price war, I got mine for $16NZD, or $12USD. Even still I did not
want to pay that for all the switches I required. The roller plunger switches are great for mid axis mounting and activation but mechanically less convenient
for  mounting at the end of an axis, where proximity switches are highly convenient.

I also find that having separate inputs for the home switches means that if a fault develops in one switch circuit it does not cause faulty behaviour on a
different axis. If you want index homing you will be required to have separate inputs. The less confusion I suffer the fewer crashes my machine suffers!

Craig

6663

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: GO TO WORK ZERO - ERROR

« on: September 16, 2017, 11:07:37 PM »

Hi,
I'm still running an earlier plugin but looking at the code associated with the 'Go To Work Zero'  I found:

Code: [Select]

GoToWorkZero()
--local inst = mc.mcGetInstance()
--mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G00 G53 Z0\nG00 X0 Y0 A0\nG00 Z0")

Note that it calls for movement of the A axis. As my machine is not fitted with an A axis and therefore no 'Motor 3' is defined or enabled I would expect an error
if I clicked this button. It sounds rather like your machine has the same problem, either alter the code so that it doesn't attempt to move an undefined axis or
define the A axis but not equip it.

Craig

6664

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Quality Limit Switches for Fadal VMC ? What are you using ?

« on: September 16, 2017, 03:41:00 PM »

Hi,
you will need indexing if you want that sort of resolution/repeatability. Do your servos have index pulses?

I use these as home switches only. They are set to trigger a couple of mm inside the machine boundary and have another six switches for limits,
they need to be reliable but don't need to be repeatable as the home switches and can therefore be cheaper.

Craig

6665

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Will the Mach4 Configuration Manual be updated?

« on: September 16, 2017, 12:46:11 PM »

Hi,

Also when a new user finds a large number of options in the Mach4 configuration screens which are not in the documentation it does not make the company look professional.

Without meaning any disrespect to Artsoft but they are not professional, they are certainly trying to be and their product has some distinct advantages over
'professional' competition but the origin of Artsoft is hobbyist in nature. I don't mean that negatively either, the enthusiasm they bring is refreshing and one look
at the breath and depth of this forum alone will tell you that the 'hobbyist' approach is widely supported.
At $200 non-recurring for Hobbyist and $1400 non-recurring for industrial are both ridiculously low, most professional software just the annual fee is higher
than that!

Have a look at Siemens motion control products and the way they charge for it...its clear they don't give a ********* about you or me as hobbyists, they are about raking
in money for their shareholders...end of story.

The forum gives you a living manual and the very same people responsible for developing Mach are the most consistent contributors to the forum. You try to
get a developer at Siemens or Fanuc to talk to you....LOL

Craig

6666

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle estop

« on: September 16, 2017, 12:04:39 PM »

Hi,
should continue and give you the solution....plug your VFD into a different 230V outlet to that of your computer or other power supplies.

There are 'line reactors' which are made for VFDs to limit conducted noise. In industrial situations large VFDs can 'pollute' an electrical supply
and the supply company will be after you with sharp knives! A hobbyist is unlikely to draw that sort of attention but its entirely possible to
locally pollute you own power supply and the supply company are going to say 'serves you bloody right!'.

Try in the first instance separating the VFD and PC supplies. If it is effective then you may need to consider some sort of filtering setup.

Craig

6667

General Mach Discussion / Re: spindle estop

« on: September 16, 2017, 11:55:33 AM »

Hi,
putting ferrites on the USB cable is a good idea. Tweakie suggests one at each end. If you put one somewhere near the middle you will break
the USB cable into two pieces, at least as far as radiation is concerned. Two shorter 'antennas' will pick up less than one longer one. This assumes
you are using a USB Smoothstepper...not an Ethernet Smoothstepper. Ethernet is far more resistant to radiated noise the USB and is preferred.

It is highly probable that the noise is being conducted rather than radiated. That is that current demand from by the VFD which is by far and away the
most demanding load will cause voltage fluctuations on you input supply which will in turn cause fluctuations in other voltage supplies like your PC.

6668

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Quality Limit Switches for Fadal VMC ? What are you using ?

« on: September 16, 2017, 11:14:13 AM »

Hi,
I used these for home switches, they have proven to be very repeatable, about 0.05mm variance between sessions.

http://nz.element14.com/omron-industrial-automation/z-15gq22-b/micro-sw-roller-plunger-spdt-15a/dp/1500340

Craig

6669

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 how to manually moving x axis or y axis very fast

« on: September 16, 2017, 11:00:58 AM »

Hi,
the reason that your machine cannot go fast is that you've set the maximum speed at 226mm/min which is very slow.

The first and second screen shots you posted show the X and Y axis velocity to be 226mm/min. This is the maximum speed Mach will try to drive
your machine, I think it should be something like 2000mm/min.

When you are cutting you use G1 codes which operate at F********* speeds, where ********* can be up to the maximum for that axis, if you take my
suggestion 2000mm/min. When traversing you use G0 codes which always go at maximum speed, 2000mm/min. When jogging in Cont mode
the machine will move at a percentage of maximum speed.

You need to read the manual, this is basic setup stuff...

5.5.2 Setting the maximum motor speed
Still using the Config>Motor Tuning dialog, as you move the Velocity slider you will see a
graph of velocity against time for a short imaginary move. The axis accelerates, maybe
runs at full speed and then decelerates. Set the velocity to maximum for now. Use the
Acceleration slider to alter the rate of acceleration/deceleration (these are always the same
as each other)

Go to the Artsoft site and download the manual for Mach3 operation and read it, then read it again...and again.

Craig

6670

General Mach Discussion / Re: IS THERE ANY WAY TO JOG AROUND BOUNDARIES OF GCODE IN MACH3

« on: September 16, 2017, 12:10:54 AM »

Hi Picengraver,
is the code in the link you posted a great deal different to the visual display already offered by Mach with the displayed boundaries.

I note that the code uses the pound variables generated by Mach corresponding to the max XY extents of the part program. It uses these
extents to move the tool in a rectangular fashion, it does not trace the outline of the part but rather the rectangle which contains it. If the
part is within the boundaries the toolpath will complete but if not then the path will fail softlimits if active or Estop when hard limits are
encountered.

Why?

Craig