Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: woodknack on November 27, 2009, 12:57:12 PM
-
Ok maybe this has been talked about before, but i did a search and did not find what i was looking for. I downloaded mach3 and set it up on my mill. everything seems fine. But when I load a gcode file like say the road runner one, the first time its there and everything looks fine but then I think I did something and now I cant see the toolpath or object I want to try. I have not registered as of yet. Does this have something to do with it. I think the road runner is under 500 line limit am I not right? Or is there a way to blow up or magnify the object on my table. Because it looks like its a tiny spec in the middle of the table.
-
The Roadrunner is over 500 lines but the display will show the first 500. Sounds like you may be in table view, click the display button and see if that puts it back. The other thing it could be is your DROs are a long way away from the work zero position, if you zero each DRO it may bring things back in.
If you still have problems attach your xml please.
Hood
-
ok what happens to the demo after 500 lines of gcode is run? Does it start doing screwy stuff? Now I can not get my x y or z to move by manually trying to move them. But if I goto config and motor tuning I can get them to go. Is it because I am at the end of the demo limit? Id like to know before I fork over $175 and still have the same problem..
-
No, the demo is fully functional with only a few things disabled, the things are max 100 lines of code in Turn, 500 in Mill, Run From Here disabled, Threading in Turn disabled and a few others I cant remember at the moment.
It sounds like you have the Jog Control switched off, have a look and see if the LED round the button is off, if it is press the button and jogging should be back :)
Hood
-
No, the demo is fully functional with only a few things disabled, the things are max 100 lines of code in Turn, 500 in Mill, Run From Here disabled, Threading in Turn disabled and a few others I cant remember at the moment.
It sounds like you have the Jog Control switched off, have a look and see if the LED round the button is off, if it is press the button and jogging should be back :)
Thank you very much!!! That was exactly the problem. I have a lot to learn here.
Hood
-
We are all still learning :)
-
Hood,
Is there a way that I can move an axis say .500 with out gcode. when I try to jog it goes to fast to stop at an exact number.
-
Yes, press the Tab key and on the flyout screen you can set to Step mode and then set the distance you want each step to be.
hOOD
-
also..MDI to EXACT positions.
-
ok im very new to this. how about a step by step. Say I want to move the x axis 0.5000
Thanks
-
Well press the Tab key on your keyboard, a screen will pop out and you will see that there is a button you can click to set it to either continuous or step mode. If set to step mode each touch of a jog key will move the amount in the DRO above, you can set that amount by pressing the Cycle Jog Step button or you click on the DRO, type the size you want then press the enter on your keyboard.
Also as RC has said you can type G Code lines into the MDI line so if you were at X 2 and wanted to go to X4 you would type G0X4 in the MDI line and press enter.
Hood
-
Go to the MDI screen/page,
Click on the MDI line (or hit enter)
Type in G0 X.5 and hit enter to move at rapid rate.
Or G1 X.5 F5 for the move to go at a feed rate of 5 UPM.
-
Go to the MDI screen/page,
Click on the MDI line (or hit enter)
Type in G0 X.5 and hit enter to move at rapid rate.
Or G1 X.5 F5 for the move to go at a feed rate of 5 UPM.
Thanks! Got it.
-
ok i put a dial indicator on the x axis and I keep moving in the same direction. I seem to be off about .0005 I dont think it is backlash because I am moving in the same direction all the time. Any ideas?
-
Is it adding up each move?
Its probably due to the inaccuracies of your lead screw, 0.0005 inch is quite a small amount and unless they are precision ground that is very good for them.
Hood
-
wow this is weird. Say if I go (g1 x-.200 f1) the dial indicator actually says I went .206 ! now that's .006 off. now if I zero out my indicator right there and move another x-.200 then it reads almost .006 off again. This is not that good to me. Is there a place in the software that I can confiscate for this?
-
ahh big difference between 0.0005 and 0.006 :)
It is again likely to be the screws but yes you can compensate by altering the steps per unit to suit. There is an easy way to do it without the calcs, let Mach do it for you, however it will only ever be as accurate as you can measure.
To let Mach do it go to settings page and just above the reset there is a button, press that and follow the instructions.
Hood
-
its a taig 2019 cnc mill. If memory serves me right you can adjust the nut for backlash. maybe I should take a look at that first.
-
however it will only ever be as accurate as you can measure.
Hood
what do you mean by that?
-
Well if you are moving in one direction then backlash is not in the equation, certainly wont hurt to tweak it though as long as you dont go too tight.
Hood
-
however it will only ever be as accurate as you can measure.
Hood
what do you mean by that?
I am meaning if you use the auto calc in Mach to set the steps per unit then it will only be as accurate as the measurements you put in when Mach is doing the calcs for you.
Hood
-
ah gotcha! Ya im playing with that now.
-
ok That is sweet! Now can I confiscate for backlash somehow?
-
Yes, there is a backlash comp page from Config menu and there is also a few settings on General Configs page.
I have never used Backlash Comp but if you do a search of the forum you will find some info, suggest you search with backlash shuttle as your search words.
There may even be something in the members docs part of the forum.
Hood
-
Yes, there is a backlash comp page from Config menu and there is also a few settings on General Configs page.
I have never used Backlash Comp but if you do a search of the forum you will find some info, suggest you search with backlash shuttle accel as your search words.
There may even be something in the members docs part of the forum.
Hood
All I can say is thank you very much for your help so far!! I only with you were my neighbor! LOL
-
Well in a way I suppose we are all neighbours in this Internet age, whether thats a good or bad thing I dont know ;D
Hood