Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: rneelypens on January 25, 2013, 07:20:40 PM
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hey ron neely here, ive been woodworking for bout 20-25 years, & started with a legacy ornamental mill. but as i have progressed into making custom pens, i purchased a deep groove cr2019 taig mill with the g540 gecko controller, i had someone help me set it up & create some codes to run my spiral pens & 6 sided pens,etc. but due to conflicts i have lost touch with him. i am very green, to put it mildly about cnc? but my main problem is, i just installed a license to try to run some sample v carve pro trials over 500 lines, to get my mill to be more adaptable to my work, but in the install somehow i lost my driver! tried to reinstall but to no avail my motors would not move! so i reinstalled ona newer computer, the 2500 line v carve program ran fine except i had to change the direction of my y axis! but when i try to run my spiral g code programs for my pens, it moves very slow in the x axis & only cuts the blank round instead of 4 starts of spiraling! i have a bd tools indexer for my 4th axis, & before it was set up to cut in degrees. like starting at 90 then spiraling all the way to the end, then it would return to o, & start at 180, then 270 then 360. now it only turns it round very slowly? i tried to access my old computer for the settings but i uninstalled it trying to get my driver back & lost all my pin settings,etc.. i have a licensed version now & installed an xml from deepgroove to set it up, but still not workin right with my 4th axis! now im lost in space? can anyone please help me? thanx ron neely
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I have not used a 4th axis but if you attach your xml I will have a look at your settings to see if I can find a problem, also a link to your 4th axis so I can see the details would be handy.
Hood
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hey thanx for the reply! ok which xml are you asking for? i do not have a link to the 4th axis, since i bout it from ebay & the seller does not have a website or any more listed now! but it is driven by my 4th axis stepper motor which i ordered with my mill from deepgroove, & it has belt drive to the rotary indexer, which was set up to read g codes by degrees not inches! i know there were some settings for my 4th axis that my x friend had me change? but not sure which ones! i tried to load an xml from deepgroove to set up my mill after i reinstalled mach 3 with a license, but didnt have any 4th axis settings for my belt driven indexer to help so nothing changed? heres a link to my mill i bought! http://deepgroove1.com/cncmill.htm heres some examples of my spiral pens. http://www.pbase.com/rneelypens/spiral_design_pens&page=all
thanx for you reply & i hope you can help me? thanx ron neely!
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If you open Mach you should see the profile name lower right. Close Mach then look in the main Mach3 folder for a file of that name with a xml file extension. Copy it to your desktop and rename to rneelypens.xml then use the additional options on the reply page to attach.
Regarding your 4th axis, will really need to know the gear ratio, if its purely pulley driven then tell me the teeth on both pulleys and that will get it.
Hood
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ok emailed the guy at bd tools to get number of teeth since i would have to take it apart to count them, ill let yo know when i get the teeth count! found something on the net which says i should set my a axis to .001 to read in degrees? not sure what to do? but i really appreciate your help! thanx r neely!
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Ok when you get the info and attach the xml I will have a look and see if I can figure out your problem.
Sleep time here, its 1:30am :(
Hood
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hey no problems, thanx again r neely!
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ok the number of teeth on the motor is 18 & the indexer has 36 teeth. i have been trying to attach my xml file but cant get it work! 1 more try? thanx for your help, r neely!
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ok try this just reread what u said before!
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is it 18 and 36 or 18 and 32 like you said in the pm?
If the former steps per degree would be 11.11111111
If the latter steps per degree would be 9.8765432
Hood
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18 on the motor pulley & then its 36 teeth on the indexer driven by a belt! the indexer s what i need to move in degrees, & where wopuld i change these settings? thanx r neely
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Config menu then Motor Tuning and the steps per unit for the A Axis would be 11.111111111
How that is worked out is gear ratio is 36/18 = 2 . So stepper being 200 steps per rev and geckos having 10 microsteps it would be 2 x 200 x 10 = 4000steps per rev. 1 Rev is 360 degrees so 4000/360 = 11.111111111 steps per degree.
Hoos
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ok tried that but still moving very slowly, barely turning in the a axis & only cutting it round very very slowly? maybe i need to change some other settings? im going to send a gcode i use for this & maybe then u can help figure out my problems! but im going to send to your email, since it took me so long to get it created, dont really want to post it on here? thanx r neely!
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Try increasing the Velocity for the A Axis in motor tuning, it is likely very slow. Also are your X Y and Z steps per unit set correctly? ie if you command a move of 1 inch on each axis do they move that distance.
Hood
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hey im not sure how to check if the motors move 1 inch? tried to set my a axis faster but my x axis is still barely moving when i try to run my spiral or the 2nd code i sent you. but when i run the 1st 6 sided code the x axis works fine but when it comes back t 0, the a axis just spins! i obviously dont have my settings right but not sure how to fix them? ron did you get my gcodes, & my xml files? can you tell anything from them what i need to set my motors to? thanx ron
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To test your axis you need to measure. For example you can zero the X DRO in Mach then go to MDI page and comand a moveof say G0X1 and the X should move 1 inch, the same procedure for other axis.
You will likely also have to set a rotational radius for the A Axis on the settings page. I think your code shows the surface of the pens as Z Zero so looks to me like you will have to set the radius as whatever your pens are.
Your A Axis velocity will be in degrees per minute so if it was set to 360 that would mean it only turns 1 revolution in one minute so you need it a lot higher than that. How high you can go depends on your motor but test out from motor tuning page by increasing in steps and using the up arrow key and keep increasing until you hear it stall then back off a bit.
Hood
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hey did you send the email with the pics 4th axis settings? ron just curious different email address?
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hey got an email from bd tools with the settings for my a axis, you were right on! but heres is what he sent! steps 11.11111111 velocity 18000 accel 3000 hey its back working now with my codes! but i had to reverse my x axis? oh well thanx for your help! ron neely!
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Glad you got it running :)
Hood