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Messages - David Morrow

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1
Works in progress / Re: Another simple mill / router screen
« on: November 10, 2021, 11:08:49 AM »
You'd also like the above pic as an attachment ? There are no other screens that have been changed in my project.

2
Works in progress / Another simple mill / router screen
« on: November 09, 2021, 09:02:13 PM »
After 16 years of using Mach3, I decided to clean up my screen. I need very few of the functions that clutter up my screen and came up with this. I still have some work to do on it but it's very close. I used Screen4.


3
General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Y axis for a Rotary table ?
« on: October 26, 2019, 08:58:22 PM »
Here is a manually operated machine that does what I am trying to do with CNC :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=39&v=ynHtaqsvODs

4
General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Y axis for a Rotary table ?
« on: October 26, 2019, 08:23:28 PM »
Here's an example that I found online :



5
General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Y axis for a Rotary table ?
« on: October 25, 2019, 11:03:31 PM »
Here are a couple of photo's. Remember, this is just a mockup but a mockup that works well enough to test parts placement and, of course, software compatibility. Once I get it to work, I will re-make everything out of aluminum and brass along with some proper bearings and timing belts. Also, it is sitting on one of my CNC routers so some of what you see in the background is another machine.







6
General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Y axis for a Rotary table ?
« on: October 25, 2019, 07:09:03 PM »
Much of the issue is that I am cutting with a lathe type cutting tool and that only cuts on the one side. If the rotary table reverses, it will rub on the non-cutting side.

7
General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Y axis for a Rotary table ?
« on: October 25, 2019, 12:57:52 PM »
I have tried making the rotary table the Y axis but my suspicion proved out that it would not work. For example, assume that you are cutting a circle and the cutter starts at the 9:00 o'clock position and runs clockwise around. The cutter move up the Y axis until it reaches 12:00. But then the Y axis reverses as it heads towards 3:00 o'clock. With a rotary table, the chuck needs to continue its rotation.

8
General Mach Discussion / Using Y axis for a Rotary table ?
« on: October 24, 2019, 10:41:57 PM »

I have built a small prototype CNC engraving machine. It will be engraving the face of small brass and silver discs using cutters much like lathe cutting tools ( ie, non-rotating). It uses the X and Z axes in their normal fashion but not Y. My third axis is a rotary table configured as the A axis. Jogging the various axes around works just fine.

My CAM program is Sheetcam which does 2.5D G-code. (The engraving is 2.5D cutting so I really don't want to complicate things by using 3D CAD or CAM.) Sheetcam will not produce G-code for an A axis and you cannot configure Mach 3 with Y as a rotary axis - only A,B, or C. At least, not without some sort of work around.

This is a real puzzle and I'm not sure where to turn. I would prefer to stay with both Sheetcam and Mach 3 but I'm beginning to think that this will not work. Any thoughts ?

9
Thanks Robert.

I think I now have it under control. I talked to Dan at Camtronics and he walked me through a couple of setting changes. Plus, the Jog setting on the new installation was set to "Off". This was something that I had not used in over 10 years with my other Mach3 mill setup so that really took my by surprise. I'm not completely there yet but I'm on the right track.

Thanks again.

10
I'll start at the end, where I think the final bit of trouble is :


With the ESS plugin installed and and Camtronics XML file also installed, if I go into Mach 3 menu - Plugin Control / ESS... Ethernet IP Setup/ I see that the Smoothstepper board's IP address is 255.255.255.255 and everything else, including the MAC address is blank. If I correct the IP address and close the menu, and immediately reopen it, the 255.... address is back

I have a second network card installed and used Warp9's SCU to ensure the NIC address was ok ( 10.9.9.2) and the ESS address was at its default value ( 10.9.9.9 ). Lots of good pings.

The ESS LED's are solid and blinking as described in the warp9 Youtube video ( although the blinking LED looks to be blinking about twice per second.)

The computer is a brand new desktop running Windows 10. The CNC control box built buy Camtronic with the ESS and Gecko G540. I have had some really quirky Win10 issues so I'm not sure if that's my problem here or something else.

Firewall turned off temporarily but Mach3 allowed both private and public when turned on.

Network card IP4 properties : IP 10.9.9.2, Subnet 255.255.255.0, Default Gateway 10.9.9.9, WINS - Disabled Netbios over TCPIP

I hear a very muted "Thunk" when I start Mach3. I get something like that on my other, older CNC control box using older Gecko's and parallel port breakout board so the sound makes me somewhat hopeful that there's some communication happening.

I'm stumped. Any help would be gratefully accepted.


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