Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / MOVED: Future Enhnacement? - Encoder Abilty for All 6 Axes

« on: November 24, 2010, 05:38:06 PM »

This topic has been moved to Feature Requests.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=16599.0

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: can mach3 control rotation head for vertical saw blade

« on: November 04, 2010, 02:25:25 PM »

I agree with ostie,
Comming up with a CAM program that can output the toolpath for a setup like this will be difficult, specially with the difference of width of cut and diameter of the blade.
I might be wrong and some CAM packages might have a module for that or something

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: can mach3 control rotation head for vertical saw blade

« on: November 04, 2010, 12:57:14 PM »

just be aware that when using tangential knife, the cutter follows a curve while rotating the blade,
this is mainly used for vinyl cutting where the blade just barely pierces the material.

I assume that you are just cutting straight lines and most corners will be 90 degrees, make sure that the blade moves up on all direction changes, I'm not sure if that is possible, i've never worked with tangential knife control.
I believe there is a lift angle dro and a lift z dro, im guessing just put the angle to 1, and the lift just so your blade moves out of the material.

Regards
Fernando

34

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Milling Vise for pocket work

« on: September 15, 2010, 01:45:15 PM »

I want one, and I dont even have a mill   (Soon I hope)
Great work!

35

Tangent Corner / Re: Using a PC to control a DL06 PLC

« on: April 17, 2010, 09:19:48 PM »

Thanks Pete, I will look into the Omron solution...
I think I have found a suitable way to do this... the Automation Direct inteligent stepper drives, which take serial ASCII comunication and have internal indexer.
There are about 600 positions to keep track of.

Best Regards
Fernando

36

Tangent Corner / Re: Using a PC to control a DL06 PLC

« on: April 15, 2010, 11:19:14 AM »

Thanks for the info kf2qd, I will look into it, but the thing is, there are actually more than 500 positions, I think I figured out an easy, not cheap way to do it.

Tweakie, thanks too... Yes I have actually thought about it, that was my first option, In fact I would love it if it would be possible, but sadly i dont think it is, The reasons:

The front end has to be able to change dynamically with the contents of each of the positions, there is also a bit of use of databases, and online databases, and some other peripherals that mach does not handle directly like barcode scanners and stuff like that.

Id love it if we could just code the front end on something else, (java, .net, etc...) to handle the databases and other peripherals, and just call Mach3 for the motion and I/O subroutines, that would be ideal.

Thanks, Best regards
Fernando

37

Tangent Corner / controlling mach 3 trough OEM software

« on: March 09, 2010, 10:50:29 PM »

Hello guys,

is it possible to program some 3rd party software to use mach3 just for stepper motor control and maybe some brains and I/O?

basically i want to know if it is possible to program a front end for a pick and place machine, and just send G01 commands to mach3 to move the stepper motors and monitor some I/O

Best regards
Fernando

38

Tangent Corner / Using a PC to control a DL06 PLC

« on: February 15, 2010, 12:44:18 PM »

hello Guys,
When in peril I always turn to the knowledge of our beloved group.
I just need some insight on some thing that came to mind and was thinking of how to do it.

Imagine, in a small scale, a pick and place machine, that can go and pick anything from a 3x3 grid, there is a PC as a user interface, where the user selects which item from the 9 on the grid he wants and then the 3 axis + gripper goes to that coordinate and picks the item.

I was thinking of using a PLC to control the pick and place (DL06) with high speed outputs to move stepper motors. I was wondering how can a PC communicate with the PLC, i believe it is through Modbus RTU, and from what I have been reading you can just send a hex string trough the serial port to do this, is this right? for example:

1 06 0001 7D0 9A9B
where 1 is the slave address
06 is the function code to preset a single register
0001 is the #40002 register i want to write to
7D0 is the value of the position i want to sent the pick and place to in the x axis (2000 in decimal, as in 2000 steps)
9A9B is the cycle redundancy check

Am I on the right track?

Then I can send that 40002 register of value 2000 to step counts on the high speed outputs of either the PLC or an expansion module.

Can anyone point me to a good resource for this kind of information?
Best regards
Fernando

39

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: CNC Turret Punch

« on: June 19, 2009, 01:18:20 PM »

Great Great Work!

You say 3 servos, 2 for x and y movement, what is the other? the turret?

Are you able to rotate the angle of the die? or is it set to a fixed angle?

Amazing.
Fernando

40

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to select PLC? D0-05 series of Koyo PLC

« on: June 13, 2009, 02:00:48 PM »

no the cable is not included, nor is the programming software.

I dont know if there is a free trial version of the software for download,
you can look in the manuals and there is a cable diagram, so you can make your own.


Regards
Fernando