Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: jimthefish on October 30, 2011, 02:54:05 PM
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Hi Has anyone used this pendant to control Mach 3 on a cnc milling machine
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230683867676?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
I'm thinking of getting one so I dont need my keyboard and/or mouse near the cnc maching whilst I'm setting up. I watched the vidoe on youtube showing it working but it seems to good to be true for the price.
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Just found the post by Tony W, maybe not a good idea to get one. Has anyone got a suggestion for a Mach3 compable cheap pendant?
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Hi,
I've been using the Contour ShuttlePRO for a couple of years.
Has the added advantage (over the pendant in your link) of having a central MPG wheel and the jog ring and using the Mach plugin, it can be configured to suit your application.
Ive bounced mine a few times, it's still working, but the key cap can ping off into corners of the 4th dimension (being clear they are hard to find !).
ATB
Derek.
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Cheers derekbpcnc, looks good, might suggest to the wife it would make a good christmas present.
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Just took delivery of that pendant from ebay its brilliant, easy to set up and easy to use. Best £25 spent on CNC. One point worth noting don't plug it in until you have Mach3 running on you computer otherwise the screen freezes on start up and you have to restart your computer. When the pendant is programed its fine. Jim
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Good to hear Jim. Looks like the other guy just had a faulty one which I suppose is not that unusual with the Chinese stuff. Usually though if it works it tends to keep working.
Hood
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Hi Hood nice to hear from you how are you mate. The unit is quite sturdy will take a few knocks. Only one thing wrong is he's got the X+ and X- the oposite way round to the mach pages. I just programed them as if they were the same as Mach3. Not going to put a sticker on it to tell me which is which, till I press the worng one of course. You know I'm useless at electronic, well it took me 2min to program it. only had to do the X Y Z axis all the rest was pre-programed in. All the other options still work, the keyboard, on screen hand controls and mouse. Aint got the emergency stop to work yet thought I would quit whilst I'M on top. Jim
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Personally I wouldnt rely on an E-Stop that was via USB, in fact I dont even rely on an E-Stop that is only into the software, much better to have it also cut hardware but suppose it depends on the size of machine and power of motors but even wee steppers can damage you.
Hood
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Cheers Hood, I have a e/stop button on the front of the machine so will use that, It's in a position which is easy to get too. indeed everytime something falls of the machine table it catches the stop button on the way down. Once again thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I know its not good for the UK but don't know how they do it, the total cost of the unit from Hong Kong was £25 which included air mail, It arrived 11 days after I purchase it on ebay. Mind you the warranty is only 1 month. Jim
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I think if its working out of the box there is a good chance it will continue to work for a long time, seems to be the way of the Chinese stuff. At that price you could afford to get one a year :)
Hood
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Hi Hood and Mach forum users, I have put this video on you tube to show the pendant. Sorry about not being able to show table movements but would have to have taken the side of the workshop out. Jim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7N9_FGvsdI
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Was going to say it lks to be working well but really it sounds to be working well ;D
What make of mill is that? Looks like a solid wee machine.
Hood
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Hi Hood its Denford triac bench mill. Its brilliant and cuts well, using 10mm reground carbide endmills, I can take 2mm full cuts in steel with no problems, I make model steam trains on it so mainly Mild steel or Brass cutting . Have a look at my latest creation a mini bending roller fixture. All made on the triac and a Myford ML7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU7QFhHzRfc
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Looks good Jim. Funny that, someone just PM'd me today saying they have a Triac and they are wanting to convert to Mach. Their Triac has AC Servos with resolver feedback so its not straightforward. What kind of motors does yours have?
Hood
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Hi Hood mine had D34 steppers and a tray full of electronics. I think the 240 volts were fed sraight into the stepper boards where the voltage was reduced. As you know I aint very good at electronics, however I have the manual on the origonal Denford Traic if you want a photocopy. all I used of the origonal machine was the D34 stepper motors and the spindle drive. The rest I purchased from Roy at diycnc and the steeper drives off ebay (Hong Kong i'm afraid) they were half the price and 2 weeks delivery. If I had got them from the UK they were £70 each and 8 week delivery. I think the total cost of the conversion was about £300 as I blew up my first set of stepper motors because I cross wired two motors (told you I'm no good at electronics). If it moves and is covered in grease i'm OK, I know what i'm doing
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;D
Well the guy is talking about going with steppers, personally I wouldnt. Nothing wrong with steppers as such but once you have used servos and see the velocity and acceleration that can be had steppers dont look so good ;D
My Bridgeport was steppers and to be honest it worked very well for a lot of years but just recently I have been converting it to servos. Suppose it really didnt need it but it just seemed so slow, especially on acceleration, when I went from the lathe or the beaver mill to the Bridgeport.
Seems like yours must be an older model as this guys one has a toolchanger and AC servos as standard so the manual likely wont be much good but thanks for the offer anyway.
Hood
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Hi again Hood, mine is a 1988 model and it had a tool changer on it. I took it off as it relied on pnuematices to open and close the tool lock and the electronics needed to spindle to be locked in a set position, the table at a home point and pnuematics also fed the tool towards the spindle. It jammed more times than it worked correctly. I dont mind standing with my hands in my pockets waiting for me to make manual tool changes. (keeps me awake). Jim
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Jim, does the manual have electrical drawings or info on the operation of the toolchanger?
Hood
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Yep it does have electrical diagrams but no mechanical drawings. Hood I looked at several ways of adapting mine before taking it off and flogging it. lots of problems with orientation of spindle and pnuematics so give up. The process to change a tool went someting like this
Call for tool number
machine goes to TCP
Proximity sensor on spindle orientates spindle to set position to line up driving dogs by reverse and forward spindle actions along with an electronic drive locking of the spingle motor
pneumatic cylinder drives the T changer towards spindle and engages into spring loaded tool holder on carousel (sometimes)
pneumatic release of tool holder from spindle (sometimes)
Pneumatic tool changed goes down to clear spindle and allow rotation to next tool
carousel rotates to new tool requires ( uses a stepper and a proximity sensor on the carousel)
tool change comes up with new tool and locates in spindle and driving dogs (sometimes)
TC retracts (pneumatic)
spindle starts and continues with machining
The machine needed 100psi mainly to release the tool holding locking clamp, and unfortunately if the spindle got warm I used to tap the tool holder with a copper hammer to help release the tool. I used to be an engineering lecturer (mechanical not electronic) and this machine was in my department from 1988 to 2000 when I purchased it for home. It used to make chess sets on a machining cell with a denford Orac lathe, 2 robots and a conveyor. You are right about stepper driven axis by the time we had made 20 chess men the last one was 0.5mm smaller then the first. My machine now holds its size well so it must have been the Denford electronics at fault.
Hood there was 2 boxes full of electronics which I threw away when I got ride of the tool changer to a bloke from down south who bought the unit from me off eBay. When it gets light I will go down the shed (workshop) and look to see if I still have the wiring diagrams or pictures of the tool changer, if I have I will scan them and post on the forum.
Jim
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Just found this on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol_sFbcKekM
Would have saved all that writing on the previous posting
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Thanks Jim, seems to work very much like the Boxford toolchange which I wrote a ladder for, for a guy here.
Yes seems like the Denford electronics were to blame as steppers should be deadly accurate, well that is if they are properly sized and not pushed beyond their limits.
Hood
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Its now light down here so been down and got the drawings. Aint very good but they are 24 years old and been down the shed for a while.
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Excellent, thanks very much Jim.
Hood