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Messages - JB

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1
Competitions / Re: ******Guess and win a G100 Grex******
« on: May 15, 2007, 08:25:46 PM »
Well, I hate to be a sadist, but I'll go for a free anything...  My estimation would be 2,613,497 chips. I'll take my prize now thanks!

2
General Mach Discussion / Re: Multiple joy axis togheter
« on: January 28, 2007, 01:03:07 AM »
Brett,

  How do you keep XP Pro from automatically installing drivers for USB hardware. I have uninstalled the driver for this joystick about 15 times going about it every different way I can think of, but then have to reboot to see if the joystick will work with MAch3. Then when I reboot the @#$%^@ driver reinstalls (it does this as it's booting up apparently).

Thanks for the help!
John

3
Gent's,

  You guys are great! I hope there are some good old fashioned American shops out there benefiting from all this intelectual prowess you so freely offer up as we speak!

  Just today I had to lay off about 1/3 of my staff (19 people!!!!!!!!!) due to offshoring (the shop I run in is owned by people from Asia), and I'll be the first to tell you that the very last thing people from that part of the world are willing to do is offer up their hard work and knowledge for other's use and possible profit. This really makes me recall the remember the kinship that I felt to those that I served with in the military.

  I really have to respect the people like Art and Mariss for giving not only the hobbiest but also the hard working man and woman, looking to get ahead and earn a dollar for an honest hour's work guy, a fine product for a reaonable price and then being beyond supportive after the sale.

  Then past that, I have not yet seen a single person bicker about wanting their bit of due (motentarily or otherwise) on these pages, though I am a newbie! Makes me have some hope for our future!

  You all out there probably don't want to here it, but please join the Manufacturer's Coalition - just Google it! (Absolutely no ties -not even a current member due to my ethical conflicts [although I support in every manner humanly possible, unofficially]).

Cool work guys'

John B

4
General Mach Discussion / Re: Multiple joy axis togheter
« on: January 24, 2007, 11:56:49 PM »
Chaoticone,

  Are you using a serial or USB joysticK?  I found a Saitek USB for dirt cheap and would like to use it (yes I've already spent the $2). Keygrabber is a bit past where I'm at right now, but if USB does work, I'll jump on that aspect next. I appreciate the the feedback (sorry id Iv'e mispelled, the keyboard seems to be fighting me tonight).

THX,
John B

5
G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: M98 & 99
« on: January 17, 2007, 11:06:08 PM »
Kree8tiv,

  The file reference you are looking for has only been available in my experience on controls that have quite respectable look-ahead capabilities, wherein they can look ahead up to 100's and sometimes 1000's of lines. In order for a control to look ahead at a subroutine is one thing, but to look ahead at another seperate file and read its contents is another step. I haven't ran across that info regarding Mach3, but I'm thinking that it's not in that realm.

  One of the tech's from DMG explained to me at one time that the lookahead line count is "consumed" by the main program first, which when using embedded sub-routines these are supposedly counted in the main program count, when using sub-routine files that are loaded into the same directory (for instance in main buffer on a Fanuc machine) these lines are looked at ahead after the complete main program, and then those remote files also secondarily. Not ever tested by me, but this is what I was told by a person I know to be a consumate pro.

  I've only seen that type of super-functionality on Heidenhain controls and Okuma machines, which are pretty darned pricey. I'd say that asking Art to add this sort of processing control may be more than we really want - as the more power the more $.

My 2cents.

Rgds,
John

6
Hello all,

  Anyone have any experience with BobCAD/CAM V21? Especially the CAM aspect of this package? Even older versions.

  I am considering purchasing this package for the CAM aspect alone, as I have Autodesk Inventor and use it for solid modeling all my parts now and probably won't change. I do need a fully functional CAM outfit that can atleast offer 3 axis code and position a 4th axis without my having to manually add most of the details.

  They are hard sale types that's for sure, but the only comparably priced packages I've seen are VCarve and some others that do not have 4th axis ability (as far as their phone staff has told me). the BobCAD folks are willing to make me a deal at the moment, but a deal on something that won't save me work is not a deal (if that is the case).

  Would appreciate your feedback...What works for you without spending 4 hours cleaning up posts or making the posts yourself anyway. I kind of get the impression that BobCAD doesn't really have any canned cycles built into it, but that a person that is savvy with creating the macro programming can build the scripting into BobCAD to create posts with G12/13's and G81's and so on....

Thanks,
John B.  ???

7
General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach + Grex + Pendant w/MPG
« on: January 11, 2007, 11:02:35 PM »
wcarrothers,

What input pin numbers would they be then that would act like MPG inputs but come in through the encoder inputs? As Art has stated many times, this is not (yet) a closed loop system, so I don't get how connecting an MPG to an encoder bank of an unused port makes sense.

THX,
John

8
General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach + Grex + Pendant w/MPG
« on: January 09, 2007, 10:50:11 PM »
Brian (or anyone that has got this figured),

  It seems from other posts after your last one here that others have managed to get an MPG going, but you mention in this thread that you think the code is not active in Mach3 at the time. I am now running 2.00.031 and cannot get this figured. Could you point me in the right direction?

  I am using a Tosoku brand MPG handle (used on Okuma sometimes and Fanuc type machines like Johnford and such) with OFF/resolution switch and another switch for axis selection. I'll worry about the resolution and axis selection later. The problem is that I can see the pulses on the Digital Input side of the G100 plug-in realtime display (I'm using ports 1 & 2 at the moment) but get absolutely no other response.?? This pulse generator uses a +5 volt supply and A and B side signal outputs.

Help and Thanks!
John B

PS: This wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have decades of time on a machine where I had a pulse handle to set work coordinates. I feel like I'm going to crash using the jog function.

9
Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: I'm ready are you! I/O Questions.
« on: January 08, 2007, 09:41:39 PM »
Brian,

  Yes, I could verify the connection to the Grex under the plugin config. Odd thing though, I rebooted again (about the 11th time) to finalize some other software issues and I began to get response. You know how those OS glitches are, sometimes they just disappear. I was cleaning up a bunch of extra junk that was dragging my PC down though, and one of the programs that I removed may have been interfering.

  The continuing odd thing is the green box by the wizards buttons that flashes between "Normal" and then yellow "Abnormal Condition", and when it is flashing abnormal I can select it and a message pops up which is ranging from "G90/G91" condition or something to "axis not ref'd to normal condition". I can get everthing working fine, even run G code and make some test cuts, but this bleeding flashing box to go away. Do you know what gives with this? And yes I have corrected the G90/G91 issue...

Regards,
John

10
Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: G100 Limit Inputs in MACH3
« on: January 08, 2007, 09:29:01 PM »
Brian - Got ya! I know a business day get's eaten up pretty quick. I'll put down my connection schematic and post it so if it's of any use for a manual it's available.

Walt - Got my system running over the weekend. I did get my limit switches working initially.

  I'm using 2 switches on the Z axis connected together (lower limit is on an adjustable clamp) and that works great. I can't make sense of the approach distance and back-off distance though(says they are in set-up units, maybe this is step pulses), but it works pretty good.

  For the X and Y axis' I am using 2 switches as well, but not connected in the Neg and Pos side. I have the switch for each on the Pos side connected to the LIM port for the respective axis, and the switch for the Neg side connected to the LIM ports of the B and C axis as these axis' are not used by me. The X started having problems late Sunday after I started tuning the motor to avoid a stall I kept getting on a tight point on the leadscrew. Now the Y is having some glitches as well.

  This is the routine that my control is doing now...
1. Z axis homes to the switch and backs off - no problem
2. X axis homes to the switch and backs off - no problem
3. Y axis homes to the switch and backs off - no problem
4. X axis jerks hard back into the switch and sets off OT alarm - problem (doesn't mess up the home)
5. Y axis just lately started jerking into the switch right after the X does, and oddly enough this is after the OT alarm is set off by the X.

  I can reset the control though and move on - it's just annoying as you've said. I am going to be adjusting the current to the X motor and this may have an effect, as I have the motor tuned all the way up right now and I'm suspicious that may be part of my problem. I did witness the limits working perfectly for about 18 hours though.

Regards,
John

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