Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: psjflyer on March 04, 2009, 08:31:40 PM

Title: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 04, 2009, 08:31:40 PM
Ok, Her is one for all of the pros out there. I have just gotten into the cnc hobbie. I have a JGRO design and trial version of Mach 3 and trial version of Cut 2d. Here is the problem. I try out the wingspar in cut 2d. It cuts it out great but it always cuts too deep. I have tried to set it to like 1/16" deep and it still cuts to like 3/8". on the DRO's it shows it is cutting at 1/16". Z & X Axis are great. I have re calibrated the z with the axis calibration in Mach 3 and have all of that set. No matter what depth I put in it always goes it seems like to the same depth. Cut 2d will allow me to change the plunge depth, but it does not change when doing the job. First chips tonight and it was SO COOL.

Thanks for all of your help.

Gerald
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: ger21 on March 04, 2009, 08:57:35 PM
Can you post the g-code?
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: jimpinder on March 05, 2009, 05:56:52 AM
If you are saying that Mach 3 says you are cutting at 0.0625 and you are infact cutting at 0.375 then you would appear to have an offset working - either a tool offset, or a machine offset.

You do not say whether you have fitted home switches - but I will assume you haven't. I do not know Cut2d but you must make sure that you do not put anything in the program that is a tool offset, or length.

Jog your axis to where you want to start your program - i.e.the X0 Y0 Z0 position of the program. This is usually, but not alwyas, the bottom left hand corner of the table, with the cutting tool resting on the workpiece. Check that this is correct for your program

Press the Machine Code button on Mach 3, the surround will light - "RefAllHome" and the Machine Co-ordinates will go to zero. Press the button again, and the surround will go out. The display is now showing Program Co-ordinates - these should be zero - if they are not, zero each one by pressing the zero button at the side of the DRO.

You now have Machine and Program co-ordinates all at zero - i.e. there are no offsets on your machine, and if you check Config/Fixtures the table should be clear. Check, while in there, the tool table - this should be clear as well.

If you jog your cutter clear of the work, and press cycle start, it should now cut at the correct depth. If it does not, Cut2d must be putting in some offsets. Stop the machine and check the offsets table and see if anything has altered.







 




 

Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on March 06, 2009, 03:57:15 AM
Check your Cut2D GCode for G50 (reset scale factors) and G20/G21 (units Inch/mm) and correct if necessary.

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 06, 2009, 10:10:29 AM
I have solved this problem. My z axis was locking up and when cut2d was wanting to move up 2.0" before the coming back down to the material. It was only moving up 1.0" and then when it came back down it was off by 3/4". I hope that made since.  Anyway it is solved and on to the next problem.  Here is what it is.


Ok, I have two computers with mach 3 and cut2d, both have of the softwares are trial versions, One is a laptop another is a desktop. This is the problem. When I load one of the trial version files in cut2d and capture the toothpaths and save it as a mach2/3 arch (.txt) file on the laptop it loads into Mach3 perfect When I do the samething on the shop desktop computer It only Loads one letter the "C" from the sample nameplate file "ROCKET" and some of the surrounding area.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: BClemens on March 06, 2009, 10:26:51 AM
Re-save the file in 'notepad' by copying and pasting as a .txt file - see if that becomes more universal to both computers.

Bill C.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 06, 2009, 10:42:15 AM
Are there any error messages in the ticker at the bottom of the screen when it fails to load?
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 06, 2009, 10:58:35 AM
No error messages that I can remember, I will look again when I get back to the shop computer. I will run what it grings up in the toolpath window. It is just part of the job???????
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 06, 2009, 11:03:12 AM
If it loads a toolpath display then it has run through the code, maybe there is a M30 halfway through your code?
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 06, 2009, 11:15:04 AM
M30? Please explain, remember Beginner here. When it laods the toolpath it is only part of the toolpath not the whole thing. On the office laptop it loads the whole toolpath... Very weird
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 06, 2009, 11:28:47 AM
Please attach the code, also if you can attach the xml for both laptop and machine. You will find the xml in the Mach3 folder, it will be called Mach3Mill,xml if you are using the standard mill profile. You will need to rename each of them before the forum will accept them so I suggest you copy then rename them psjflyer1 and psjflyer2.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 06, 2009, 12:24:01 PM
Cool I will do, I just came from the shop. All of the code is there,  but it is not being shown in the toolpath code window. When I scroll down it says that there are 6000 line, but it stops showing the code line at around line 4300, but when I goto the dia tab and open the code with the button and then it opens the notpad window all of the code is there.

I will post what you want.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 06, 2009, 01:14:09 PM
Ok if its a demo version of Mach it is restricted to 500 lines.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 06, 2009, 01:48:57 PM
I guess then it would only show partial g code then, right? I fould where someone else had the same problem and his was demo too. I do not know if they resolved the problem by upgrading I am waiting for a reply. I thought it was 1000 lines. Show how much I know.. Will they email a upgrade number to me or do I have to wait. for mail.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 06, 2009, 02:03:21 PM
You need to purchase a licence, it will be emailed to you when you do. If you have already bought any version of Mach then the same licence is valid for all versions and revisions up to the current and any future Mach3. So just copy it into the Mach3 directory, it is called Mach1Lic.dat
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on March 07, 2009, 02:55:18 AM
Very strange that the laptop will show all the code and the desktop will not. I wonder if the laptop would actually run all the code without having the licensed version installed ?.

Tweakie.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: jimpinder on March 07, 2009, 02:52:20 PM
If you want to run more than 500 lines of code, then you must use sub-routines, and an editor, like Microsoft Word, to split your code into 500 line chunks. Word is best at this, becasue it automatically numbers the lines, and as you chop 450 - 500 off, it renumbers.

I did this on a 5000 line code for drill and milling a printed circuit board, and it worked a treat. The main prgram just called the 10 subroutines in order.

When you  feed it into mach 3 at the beginning, then, as Hood said, it goes through all the lines, and the subroutines, and paints a full picture.

A bit messy, but it works. Thank goodness I don't use long program.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: BClemens on March 07, 2009, 04:15:00 PM
I believe Hood said to "purchase the license". Pretty amazing how far some folks will go to avoid doing what's right. Includes tax evasion.....walking in slop up to the ears to avoid paying a bridge toll, cutting a long program up into sneaky little pieces, etc, etc.

Bill C.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 07, 2009, 04:36:28 PM
Well said Bill, only an ex bobby could go to such lengths to get a bit more from the already generous trial version (http://forums.pcper.com/images/smilies/extras/yllol.gif)
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 07, 2009, 08:26:43 PM
Alright , I have all problems figured out except one. I have followed the videos on setting Mch 3 up and how to load a file. I am having the hardest time on trying to figure out how to get the router to find the job, What I mean I creat g-code in cut2d full version. I then post it to Mach 3, I then jog to where I would like the job to start, highlite machin coor and press ref all home button long one on the left side. re-gen toolpath and strat job. Router comes up and then just has a mind of it's own, but once it finds where it waits to go it does great.  If I was to do a 4"x4" job I would have to put down a piece of material 12"x12" just to have a little change of the router finding the job. Does this make since anyone. One the video it looks like he loads the roadrunner, jogs to the middle of the table where the material is and the zeros out re-gen toolpath and the job relocates to the new postion,mine does no relocate on the toolpath display, Please help.


Gerald
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: BClemens on March 07, 2009, 11:29:45 PM
I have seen this. Mach apparently is zeroing on the last saved fixture position. The dodge for this is to start the program and immediately stop it, then regenerate the toolpath. Seems it then will zero correctly. Something to check carefully is that you are not attempting to zero and regenerate a toolpath while observing the machine position. Check where your DRO is set when zeroing the job.

Bill C.

Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Hood on March 08, 2009, 01:56:59 AM
If you dont have Home switches then really there is no need to zero the machine coords by pressing the RefAll button. What you should be doing is jogging to where you want and then Zero the axis Offset (not the machine coords) by pressing the zero button at the side of each axis DRO.

If you want to pretend you have home switches so you can take advantage of the SoftLimits then when you first start Mach jog to the extreme negative of X and Y axis and positive of Z and press RefAll button then you can jog to where you want the Offset X Y and Z zero to be and press the Zero X Y and Z buttons to set your offset.
Hood
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Brian Barker on March 08, 2009, 11:16:43 AM
If you want to run more than 500 lines of code, then you must use sub-routines, and an editor, like Microsoft Word, to split your code into 500 line chunks. Word is best at this, becasue it automatically numbers the lines, and as you chop 450 - 500 off, it renumbers.

I did this on a 5000 line code for drill and milling a printed circuit board, and it worked a treat. The main prgram just called the 10 subroutines in order.

When you  feed it into mach 3 at the beginning, then, as Hood said, it goes through all the lines, and the subroutines, and paints a full picture.

A bit messy, but it works. Thank goodness I don't use long program.

Hello,
If you are willing to work on your code everytime to make it under 500 lines you are a better man then  I ;) . I think we are going to revisit the licensing, I am thinking rather then having a 500 line limit that we will make it time out. During the demo you will be able to run as many lines as you like. This I think would give people a better way to test the software and all it's features. In the end we would like users to buy a license not because we are looking for profit but because it is what pays for the servers  you are posting on and also the devlopment :) ... In the end I think Mach3 is a good value. We would like to make it so you can test the software but on the other hand it cost money to do all the work that we are doing so it will never be free. If Mach3 where Unsupported Freeware I would not be able to work on the code the way I am now (It is more then a ful time job).

You should show us what you are making with the Demo! I love to see what people are working on !

Thanks
Brian
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on March 08, 2009, 12:16:26 PM
I would like to second Brian's comments above.
Mach represents such excellent value for money that if it is used for CNC then it should be purchased. (I regularly run code in excess of 250,000 lines splitting that into 500 line chunks would be mind numbing).

Tweakie.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Chaoticone on March 08, 2009, 01:05:18 PM
Exactly Tweakie! If your so miserable you have to spend hours trying to figure out how to screw someone out of such a small amount of badly over due income for a program that is such a value in the first place your a sad individual.  ::)  The FREE demo is more than enough for users to decide weather it will be worth the cost.

Brett
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: BClemens on March 09, 2009, 05:39:01 PM
You're wasting your kisses, Brians' over on the Yahoo Group. Besides, looks like a time-out is definitely needed......

 Moderators are explaining how to cheat and get by without purchasing the license then now we are going to allow an unlimited number of lines then just time out? ""I just made a program to re-register with another name and location - anyone want to buy that?"" Gets you full use of Mach3 without buying the license like current purchasers were suckered into!

IMHO, Wrong approach Brian. Also IMHO why not leave things as they are? I understood the entire prospect of having the license for Mach and what it meant not to have it. Don't undermine your old customers by shortcutting what we had to do and were honest enough to go ahead and do. There is no mystery about Mach3 and it's use.

Raise the license fee. I just bought it - it's a fricken' bargain at three times the price - as is!

Bill C.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on March 10, 2009, 03:26:11 AM
Hi Gerald,

We seem to have hijacked your thread over the license issue - sorry.

Have you now resolved the zero tool position on the work ?.

Tweakie.
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: psjflyer on March 10, 2009, 07:22:39 AM
Tweakie, yes I did get it figured out. Just trial and error is what it takes on my end. I read this forum about what other people did and then I will try it on my machine.  I did not mean to get everyone all excited about the mach license issue. Anyway, have to go cut some more wood.

Gerald
Title: Re: Newbie needs help
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on March 10, 2009, 09:12:15 AM
Gerald,

Please don't forget to post some pictures of the stuff you make.

Tweakie.