Messages

4101

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question about XY compensation under mach3 with formula

« on: July 30, 2011, 09:53:35 AM »

It should work with any g-code.

However, it doesn't work when jogging, which can cause problems. After a jog, a g-code move will cause the axis to try to instantly move to the calculated position, possible causing lost steps.

4102

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: z axis not consistant

« on: July 28, 2011, 08:57:56 PM »

Lower the Z axis velocity and acceleration in half, and see if that helps.

Keep in mind that it's entirely possible that the laptop is the cause.

4103

General Mach Discussion / Re: old machine Pinout for Mach3

« on: July 28, 2011, 07:00:39 PM »

I have triple checked the Com port for Mach3

MAch3 uses the LPT port, not the COM port.

You might want to watch the tutorial videos.
http://www.machsupport.com/videos/

4104

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jog Hot keys don't work.

« on: July 27, 2011, 12:00:31 PM »

The mach3 driver must be running. The Rosewill driver just let's Mach3 see the parallel port, but the Mach3 driver controls it. There really two completely differernt things.
Sounds like you don't have something setup properly in mach3. make sure all the motors are enabled.

4105

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis help

« on: July 26, 2011, 08:10:48 AM »

thanks a lot Tweakie - now it looks better :-)

Seems more logical then to use only negative ones.

Just remember that when you ask for help, Tweakie's the only one that will know what you're talking about, because everyone else does it the "normal" way.

Note that some Auto Zero macros (and I'm sure others as well) assume Machine Z zero to be the top of travel.
The one in my screenset is done this way to make it act the same on all machines. If they don't follow conventional wisdom there's really no way to know where it's safe to go.

But if you don't use any 3rd party macros, you're free to setup your machine any way you want.

4106

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis help

« on: July 24, 2011, 10:52:33 PM »

I will jog the z axis down to the work piece and zero it........................................................However on the sample programs, I see some positive numbers and when trying to execute -  I get the soft limit warning.

When the top of your part is zero, there should be some positive distance from zero up to the top of your travel. Machines with longer Z axis' will have more positive travel.

Are you homing the machine at the top of travel? The softlimits are in machine coordinates, and if you don't home the Z at the top, then your machine zero may be below the top of travel, thus triggering the softlimits.

Never used the multipass, so can't help you there. But sometimes when entering cut depth, some programs accept positive numbers for depth of cut, even though the g-code will be negative numbers.

4107

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hards, Homes, Limits, Softs, Slows, Offs.

« on: July 24, 2011, 08:55:27 AM »

This will home at the homing speed in Config>Homing/Limits, then home again at 1/10 the speed.

So if you set the Homing speed at 50%, it will home at 50% first, then 5%.

DoButton(24)
DoButton(23)
DoButton(22)
While IsMoving()
Wend
SetParam("XRefPer", GetParam("XRefPer")/10)
SetParam("YRefPer", GetParam("YRefPer")/10)
SetParam("ZRefPer", GetParam("ZRefPer")/10)
DoButton(24)
DoButton(23)
DoButton(22)
While IsMoving()
Wend
SetParam("XRefPer", GetParam("XRefPer")*10)
SetParam("YRefPer", GetParam("YRefPer")*10)
SetParam("ZRefPer", GetParam("ZRefPer")*10)

4108

General Mach Discussion / Re: Well..... That Was Weird....

« on: July 23, 2011, 04:41:30 PM »

Probably a bad .xml?

4109

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Migration to Win7 - Simulation use only.

« on: July 22, 2011, 11:59:10 PM »

1) do I install the PP driver even though it wont work on Win7 64bit?

My guess, is that you won't be able to properly simulate on a 64 bit machine, unless you use a Smoothstepper with it.

4110

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Migration to Win7 - Simulation use only.

« on: July 22, 2011, 05:47:10 PM »

I am not running the PP driver

That's the problem.

A lot of things won't work correctly without the driver installed.

I found that out a long time ago when testing screens and macros. Even on a 32bit XP machine, some things just won't work without the PP driver installed.