Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / General questions, building a mini control box.

« on: July 03, 2016, 11:57:18 AM »

I would like to build a little control box; MPG wheel, jog stick, buttons to switch which Mach screen is displayed on computer screen (MDI screen, Program Run, Off-Sets), toggle the "TAB jog pop-out screen", change jog mode, LCD to display Distance To Go and Current Position, misc buttons to set tools - move spindle head to pos to change tool, some LEDs, feed - rapid and spindle overrides, etc..

The control box will be hooked up to a 60x40 router, but i would like to make it portable incase i want to move/use it on another machine.

Right now im running Mach3 (win 7 32bit) and have no plans in the near future to upgrade to Mach4, but do not want to rule that out.

I started to play with an Arduino and created some "Brains" but then came across PoKeys and Opti-PAC.

Right now the PoKeys57 looks like the best, most versatile and already has a Plug-in written Mach.


So whats the best way to approach this ?

Are there any advantages to USB or Ethernet ?

Any info or recommendations would be great full.

- Thanks...

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2

General Mach Discussion / Life span of Mach3 maintenance/updates ?

« on: May 02, 2016, 11:45:17 AM »

Soon enough ill be buying Mach.
For the last couple weeks ive been playing with Mach3 while waiting for a little 6040 gantry router to be delivered. Delivery should be this week, if so, hopefully by the weekend everything will be working and then soon after that a full Mach license.

So the thought of how long will Mach3 be "supported" has come to mind.

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3

Forum suggestions and report forum problems. / "Preview post" not working ?

« on: April 21, 2016, 09:18:29 PM »

Any time i hit the 'Preview' button in a new thread or replying to a post, it just shows "Fetching preview..."
If i use the "Quick Reply" at the bottom of a thread and hit 'Preview' it works fine.

Using Ubuntu, Firefox 45.0.2
Plug-ins...
Adblock Plus enabled/disabled dont make difference.
Ghostlery enabled/disabled dont make difference.

Same with Win7 and Firefox (sorry, dont have win7 firefox version)

Is it just me ?

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4

General Mach Discussion / Proximity Sensors, do they need to drop to zero volts when triggered ?

« on: April 20, 2016, 06:21:59 PM »

Hello all...

Just received the following NPN DC6-36V Proximity Sensors, and im waiting for the following router to be delivered (so i can not test the switchs with the unit).

Right now im playing with the switchs using a bench power supply and they are working with 5v IN but when they are triggered, they only drop to 0.633v, not 0 volts, will this be a problem ?

Testing now with 12v (from bench power supply) to 5v voltage regulator.
Powering switchs with (brown wire) 4.978v from L7805 regulator
Not triggered, output (black wire) = 4.973
Triggered output (black wire) = 0.633



Secondary question(s) :-)

1) Would it make sence to use an exturnal power source (a "wall wart") hooked to a 5v voltage regulater, since the switchs are working at 5v ?
Knowing nothing about the control box (BOB) which comes with this router (aside from its an import), im trying to plan ahead so i have as little problems down the road.

2) Alittle electronic nieveness here...
I plan on using 6 switch, two for each axis.
Again, not knowing what the BOB with this router can do, would it make sence to wire three switchs in series (one per axis for the limits) and the other three by themselves for home (through reading on this board, thats seams pretty commen) to use less I/O pins ?
But... while testing two switchs in series:
5v power to (switch one) brown, then (switch one) black to (switch two) brown, there is a 2.5 voltage drop (so im gonna assume these switchs have some kind of resistors in them).
2a) So with that said, if i wanted to wire those three in "series" (more so, wire them so they only take up/use a single I/O pin on the BOB) could i run three to a relay (with resistors) and then have the relay hooked to a single pin (passing 5v through relay, then when one of the switchs triggers it will kill the power to the relay coil) ?


Thanks for any guidence.


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5

General Mach Discussion / Displaying a space between lines in g-code viewing window ?

« on: April 02, 2016, 03:23:58 PM »

In the image below you will see what some g-code looks like in a text editor and what the same file looks like in Mach3's run window.

I would like to know if there is a way to have Mach display the code with a space  between the lines so its shows just like it does in the text file, possible ?

The reason behind this is so i can use custom edits in my post process file to use line numbers only at the beginning of each operation, and later when the program is being run in Mach i can use these line numbers for "Run From Here", just like you would on a "normal" cnc control.

In case image does not display:

Text Editor:

Code: [Select]

(INNER BOX)
(NEED 8, ZERO TOP LEFT CORNER)
(APRIL 2 2016)

(T2  D=0.25 CR=0. - ZMIN=0. - FLAT END MILL)

G90 G94 G91.1 G40 G49 G17
G20
G28 G91 Z0.
G90

N4 (TOP)
S2000 M3
M5

Mach Window:

Code: [Select]

(INNER BOX)
(NEED 8, ZERO TOP LEFT CORNER)
(APRIL 2 2016)
(T2  D=0.25 CR=0. - ZMIN=0. - FLAT END MILL)
G90 G94 G91.1 G40 G49 G17
G20
G28 G91 Z0.
G90
N4 (TOP)
S2000 M3
M5

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