Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: John_77 on February 06, 2018, 07:12:57 PM
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Hi
i have a cnc machine with 5 axis , i usually use only 3 axis ,i have this machine for a month now ,but i cannot run it for long toolpaths ,even with short toolpaths it runs wrongly..
it has 5 stepper motor which are set to 4.5 Amp ,and the motors are 4.5 amp too ...the power supply in total has around 25 AMP of 36 volt...
the problem i have is when i run a toolpath ,even a short one ,sometimes (on short ones it happens 1 in 10 or 15 of the exact same gcode) means same gcode that has been running correctly ,it happens when i re run it sometimes... or with long toolpaths ,it definitely happens a few times...
i generate the gcode by fusion 360 and i let it to step down maybe 0.1mm or 0.2... then when it completely finishes the first or second or third row of gcodes ,when the z goes down for example from -0.3mm to 0.4mm ,the coordinate of x and y ,completely changes ,and the rest of gcode and toolpath runs in a different spot.... that ruins the workpiece completely... and also the tool breaks sometimes...
the computer where the visual toolpath is showing ,actually shows the toolpath coordinate has been moved... and starting the rest of it in a diffrent spot.... and also on the workpiece... i cant say its the gcode ,because sometimes same gcode works well and no problem ,next time same gcode gets the same problem ,and the problem can be in any level of z ...when z is changing and going down another level....
here i show u the pic of the vistual toolpath on mach3 ,and the workpiece ,which u can see how the toolpath is being followed in a different spot and the workpiece completely being ruined....
please help me , i am new in this and need you guys help ! i thank you for your help and sharing your knowledge
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Hi John, welcome to the forum.
That sounds like a pretty impressive machine you have there.
Please post the XML file for the profile that you're using.
Will look for any anomaly there.
Welcome,
Russ
:)
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thank u for the reply ,i am going to send the xml ... i have modified the profile a few times tho... i brought down the velocity and acceleration of the x , y , z axis
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thank you Russ here is the xml of profile...
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Hi John.
Unfortunately, that is a pirated copy of the software.
It will continue to give you grief.
You can contact Artsoft/NFS for a legitimate license.
Till then, there isn't much we can do.
Regards,
Russ
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thank you ,it came with the cnc itself! i am going to buy the mach3 right now ! is it possible to buy the software online? and not wait for the cd?
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I think they send it online, but not sure of the business hours.
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http://www.machsupport.com/licensing/
>Licenses are emailed almost immediately after you complete your transaction in the checkout. Please view our terms and conditions for more details.
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i just paid for the license online ,and tomorrow i will reinstall the mach3 ,thank you!
maybe this was the problem?
i purchased this cnc machine from china ,but i have separately purchased every stepper motor driver and breakout board and power supply and etc... u cant trust nothing with them .... lol ! thanks anwyay! i will let u guys know if the problem got fixed
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Yes, that seems to be one of the common symptoms of the pirated products. Many of them come from china.
You should notice quite an improvement with the legitimate license.
Keep us posted. Show off a cool project ... or 2 :)
I wish you all the best.
Cheers,
Russ
:)
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And many folks recommend an earlier version of Mach3 than 066. It can be a bit buggy for some.
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thank you so much Russ
i will definitely keep you guys posted ,now specially that i am a user here :) and able to post! why not! specially seeing such a friendly people like you ! i am so glad i got into this forum :)
i just have a question! since u could figure my license from the xml , since tomorrow after config ,i may re-send the profile here ,is it possible people could download my profile xml and then they pirate it? or its safe? i could send it to u ....what i mean ,is that everybody has access to internet and can get here ,even same people who did pirate that software...so just want to be safe !
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what version do u recommend for me to download?
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Hi John,
By popular opinion version .062 is the one.
ftp://anonymous:guest@ftp.machsupport.com/Mach3/Mach3Version3.043.062.exe (ftp://anonymous:guest@ftp.machsupport.com/Mach3/Mach3Version3.043.062.exe)
Tweakie.
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dear friend ... yesterday i purchased the mach3 and installed it today... dont know the earlier versions didnt get installed in my computer (win 10) ... so i did the 66 version...
the problem that i had mentioned the machines coordinate completely gets changed happens again.... i generated the gcode in fusion 360 again... and this time ,on the beginning it happens... when as the gcode says the machine first did the four sides of the rectangular of the machining area... then it started doing it... and suddenly i noticed it has completely moved like 30mm to the right on the X axis....
i dont know why this happens... but i saw in the visual area like last time that the toolpath was moved out of the rectangular area which it should have been... better to say mach3 decides to change the coordinate suddenly and do the rest of the machining in another side of the X axis .... sometimes to the right ,sometimes to the left... (on the long 3d gcodes it definitely happens)... so just soon or late in middle of the program...
i dont know why its happenning to me ,...please help me! i am going to upload the xml file of my profile...please help me ! thank you
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Are you certain that you installed it correctly ? That XML shows as DEMO, no license installed.
Also, can you post the program file ?
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let me do a restart ,and save the profile again! i am sure i have installed it correctly because it says on the top bar that its licensed to me
i am uploading the xml file again ,after restarting the system and saving setting again... let me know if this time works?
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now that i look i see the difference ,the profile i had uploaded was the wrong one ,even tho names are similar...
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would u please take a look at the profile now?
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That is basically a blank xml.
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so the second profile i sent ,still dont have the info that it should have? can u please tell me how to send you the profile in the right way?
thank u so much for helping me ,i really appreciate that :)
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Open Mach3 with the current new profile that is now configured and running your machine.
At the top, HELP / ABOUT should show you Licensed to "you" and the current version.
Lower right corner of the screen will show you the name of the profile.
Find THAT name.XML in the Mach3 folder on the C drive.
Copy and paste it to your desktop, rename it to "anything unique.XML" and attach it to your post.
The lic file must be in the Mach3 folder, wherever you installed Mach3. Preferably C:\Mach3
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i exactly did that ! and found the right profile ! here i did rename it !and post it ! i hope this time it works .thank u for trying to help me
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Are you using an external motion controller ? If so, which one ?
Your motor outputs Ports n pins are not configured in the xml.
Have you tried to run the dragon file with this Mach profile ?
Run it in air as to not waste any material and see how it performs.
A good install and configuration with a valid license should follow the gcode precisely.
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yes i do have external motion controller(TB6600)! in fact! because of this problem ,i entirely changed the breakout board and the stepper motor controllers ! the one that was on the machine , it had the same problems.... and i did replace it....
the current breakout board i have is a USB one which dont need the pins to be configured( the other one needed it since it wasnt USB)...
i have run it with this profile and it again made the same mistake... i also have run simple short gcodes which was a lot shorter than this gcode... since they were very shorter ,it happened like in each 7-8 times ....
the coordinate changes... today when i did it with this profile... the zero of the X was changed, (sometimes both x and y change).... in reality and even in the mach3 toolpath visual window it was visible...the new toolpath (green color) is following up in another location....i am wondering why this happens to me? i am new to mach3 ... but im sure there is thousand people out there who not experiencing this problem...or if they have ,there should be a solution for it...
i am willing to, again go ahead and throw away the stepper motor drivers and the breakout board ... and pay for something that works... it just making me waste so much time everyday... im really tired of it...please i need help...
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The TB6600 looks to be just a stepper driver, not a motion controller.
"the current breakout board i have is a USB one which dont need the pins to be configured( the other one needed it since it wasnt USB)..."
What is this USB BoB ?
I don't know what more to suggest at this point.
Russ
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i am sending 2 pics ,one is the LPT type which i had to use a USB to Parallel CNC Motion Controller to be able to connect to my laptop which i am also going to include it!
and second one which is NVUM is my current breakout board...the NVUM is the USB controller
by the way another reason i did use the NVUM is because the first one which was supposed to be 5 axis ,only 4 axis of it worked...not all 5 axis...
i also have another BIG problem! which i had it in both controllers ,and thats when in mach3 they say in home and limits ,you can reserve the axis ,but for me ,it did NOT work ! why is that??to be able to change the z axis ,in the ports and pins , motor output ,by checking or Unchecking the certain axis ,i was able to change the axis direction to work in reserve...
now these things that i say ,are they a part of this ? do these add up? maybe because i am connecting to mach 3 with a laptop(using the USB port ) its happening?
should i switch to mach 4??? instead??? i can give u more info if u need ! i just need help sir ! thank U Russ ,God bless you
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Hi John,
should i switch to mach 4??? instead???
the first board is a Mach3 ready USB controller, they have caused a lot of hair pulling by people over the years but they do work apparently but is absolutely worthless for
Mach4.
The second board is a straight parallel port breakout board and you could use that with the Darwin parallel port of Mach4 but the parallel port is limited, I wouldn't
recommend it, it'll be as frustrating as what you face now.
The last one is a UC100 by CNCDrive and IF ITS A GENUINE ONE its very good indeed. The reason I highlighted the comment is because there have been hundreds of
Chinese rip-off UC100s. If its one of those throw it away.
If your serious about Mach4 be prepared to buy a GOOD external controller and no Chinese s*********t. There are five manufacturers of GOOD Mach4 ready boards, the cheapest
is about $120 and the flashest one is $600. I use an ESS about $180 plus 2 x $50 for two breakout boards. The PMDX-424 is about $225 and is ready to go. PoKeys
and CNCDrive have some great products too. At this time there is no Chinese manufacturer making credible Mach4 products and if they try to tell you otherwise
walk away.
Craig
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At this time there is no Chinese manufacturer making credible Mach4 products and if they try to tell you otherwise
walk away.
Craig
But Craig, they're cheap!!!!
ROFLMAO
(couldn't help myself)
Mike
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I totally agree with you... they are chinese S...T....it makes more sense
unfortunately it has caused me more than pulling hair ! wasted so much time which i could have worked and make money... makes me so angry gush... its my fault...
i know that with mach4 i shouldnt use these controllers..because these are for mach3....which they even cant handle that...
would u please kindly let me know some of the real best which have been proven working on long gcodes?(i mean like a 3d part which takes hours of machining)...
if its not tooooo expensive...
something that is NOT a copy by chinese ,something from an AMERICAN company (God bless America)! lol
thank u so much
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I need something to support 5 axis at least
Something that don’t give me headache no more , I would pay 600 bucks for it if it really works right
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Hi John,
your story of frustration an anger at products that don't work and are largely unsupported is all too common and Chinese manufacturers are grossly over-represented
in that category.
The following manufacturers have all been in the Mach market for a long time and have built a great reputation selling and supporting Mach3 products.
I have limited this list to those of them who produce boards which are Mach4 ready and have a reliable Mach4 plugin ready to go. I should point out that
while all of these are good they are not all the same. A time passes various functions which are enacted by the controller, not Mach4, are added. So for
instance PMDX smart BoBs don't have Backlash compensation whereas the Hicon does and the ESS has got it but still buggy. Having said that they all
work and do the basic stuff well, but if you need some specific feature like backlash compensation, or THC, or lathe threading you'll need to do some more
research.
https://www.pmdx.com/ (https://www.pmdx.com/)
https://warp9td.com/ (https://warp9td.com/)
http://www.vitalsystem.com/portal/index.php (http://www.vitalsystem.com/portal/index.php)
https://www.poscope.com/ (https://www.poscope.com/)
https://www.cncdrive.com/ (https://www.cncdrive.com/)
And to complete the list I'll add one more, they make great Mach3 products but by their own admission their Mach4 plugin is still developing, is does work but you'll
need some patience, but you'll also have some superb hardware.
http://en.cs-lab.eu/ (http://en.cs-lab.eu/)
Take a look at all the offerings. By all means ask for advice and opinions on the forum, advice and opinions can be had for free, its too late if you've already shelled
out bucks for something that doesn't work.
Craig
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Dear Craig i want you know that i really appreciate your help and support ,telling me all these in my worst needing time... which i need to make a decision....
i am not doing this just for hobby...its part of my work... so time is really matter to me ,and yeah i didnt know any better and i went with the chinese crap... i still can return the nvum tho... have some days left...at least i get my 150 back...
i dont care mach3 or mach 4 or anything else ,as long as it is going to be precisely work with all the 5 axis...
the motors on the cnc machine i have are 4.5 Amp ,but the stepper motor drivers can produce up to 5 amp... so i got those...
about the high end pc? i can provide that ! i have my laptop which is a core i7 with 16gb ram ,and 3 gb of vga ... or i can buy one to put there...
i see masso dont need the pc tho... i dont know how is that going to be...
i am serious ,i have spent and lost so much money over this... but now i want to make the right choice... and i dont have anybody who could help me .. but God... which he sent you and other guys here to help me ! and i pray for all of you guys that Lord gives you blessings back a lot more in return ,since i cant...
thank you so much again
and thanks to all the other guys here who have helped me... i really been thro alot with this ,if i knew about this forum and these great people here.., i would have take a better action earlier....
but maybe at least this becomes a lesson for the next person or people who would fall into the same road as i did ,and maybe they could make the better choice before they spend so much money and time for worthless Chinese copycad crap...
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Hi,
if your serious about doing the business then the Hicon board from Vital Systems is about as good as it gets. I couldn't afford one at the time and have an ESS
from Warp9 and am very happy with it. Likewise I've heard good reports about PMDX, PoKeys and CNCDrive.
Ultimately if you are doing this as a business you will appreciate the flexibility and robustness of Mach4. If you are making money with it you are obligated to get the
Industrial version at $1400. It does give you support advantages and a couple of very useful features....they wont mean much to you at the moment but they will
in the months to come.
My advice would in the first instance get Mach4 Hobby ($200) and work with it. Once you've got your machine sorted and starting to do business with it then get Industrial.
I don't think having a spare copy of Hobby will do you any harm.
There are some perfectly good arguments for sticking with Mach3 as well, including that it is the simplest and quickest way to get to production ready status.
I run my machine with a dual core Atom single board PC with on chip graphics, 4 gig and 32bit Windows7. It is about the least grunt you can have in a PC and still
call it a PC! It is slow to load and draw large files but otherwise runs Mach4 well as it did with Mach3 before. With a good external motion controller like the Hicon
the PC is not really a big determinant of performance. Don't waste your money on buying a PC with 'muscles on its muscles' you don't need it.
Better to spend the extra on servos...then your talking!
Craig
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alright ,i just spent 350 dollars... and hopefully it solves the problems....i tried to use your advice and i did verify the options i had...
i ordered the UC300 and breakout board for it and things that it needs... so i can connect them to my stepper motor drivers...
and the good thing is UC300 works with both mach3 and mach4 ,and even a different software called UCCNC ,this widens my options ! and i am excited for it ! i will definitely let you guys know the result !
i may keep the mach3 ,or switch to mach4 hobby!
i am not making money with this now ,but in future i may... but as much as i put time into it and waste my time ,i cannot do my job and i had to cut from my actual work time to put in there...so the time is really costy more than anything ! honestly i cannot believe how here the Copied and fake items can take over the real market ,and the real items that people have put their brains into it to make them have stayed in a side ....
maybe its us ,people... idk... but im glad at least now i am paying the money to the right person! the person who makes the software ,the person who makes the hardware !
thank you
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Hi,
kool John, there are many happy users of UC300's and I'm sure you'll be another.
Mach3 vs Mach4 is about flexibility, Mach3 is entirely adequate for the majority of users. I don't know much about UCCNC but understand its similar is nature
and capability to Mach3. Given it is a commercial product you may have somewhat less access to its internal features for the purposes of customization but is
otherwise very capable.
Craig
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i may get the product sometime next week... already excited about it... and feel so much better because it makes sense !!!
thank you
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I can understand your frustration with these stumbling blocks.
Hopeful this will get you back on track and you can make up for the lost time.
Best regards, (fingers crossed)
Russ
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thank you so much
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I got the UC300 and the breakout board and stuff yesterday evening and i did connect them and rewire everything today and right now ,i immediately felt the difference ,for the first time i was able to reserve the direction of the axis in the home and limits options... not replacing the wires or etc...
i also can feel the sound of the machine has got better ,smoother ! i dont know why is that! but im happy about it !
right now ,i put one of the long gcodes that it couldnt run right and it would make at least a couple mistake during doing it (which was changing the coordinates)....
i am doing it on air ,like one of our friends here suggested it... so i dont waste the material...it will be finished in a couple of hours... then i will put the real work on it ! to see how it does !thank you guys for helping me ! i am so thankful and so excited to work with it :)