Messages

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General Mach Discussion / Denford Starmill

« on: November 28, 2010, 05:01:15 AM »

Hi everyone ,

has anyone converted a Denford Starmill to modern electronics , motors , etc .? In particular the Starmill with the "NEE" controllers . Any help with this would be great .

Thanks for looking .

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General Mach Discussion / Emco VMC100

« on: September 05, 2010, 05:44:32 AM »

I am about to embark on a new project to replace the cnc controller on my machine with a pc based Mach3 system . I have not yet decided how to move forward as i will not get the machine until next weekend . Has anyone tried and succeeded in getting one of these little lovelys up and running with Mach3 . If so can you advise on what was used and what problems I may encounter . Thanks for looking .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: May 09, 2010, 04:26:57 AM »

Clear as mud , but I did ask I suppose . I think I will definitely just stick to the index I think . I just love the way the software is trying to push it's boundaries and act like a "real" commercial controller . Its good stuff . I wonder if he will ever get around to using the Mac platform as well or if he'll just stick to pc's ?

Anyway thanks for the most comprehensive answers .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: May 08, 2010, 11:38:41 AM »

Whato Hood .

Right , had a really good mornings go at the machine today . I added the extra code as you suggested and it works a treat under MDI . I also had to change the starting and reversing angles to compensate for backlash etc , but again it works fandabbybloodydosy for me in MDI  . I have not tried using it under program yet because I was busy setting up my spindle also . On the subject of which . If you have a single index pulse that gives accurate spindle speed , why would you need extra slots in a timing disc to give you spindle speed as well . Does the more slots you have make it more accurate ? It does not really matter to me now because I have managed to sort out my problems . I am just curious .

Anyway , I cannot thank you enough for your kind help . You are a gentleman sir .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: May 02, 2010, 10:28:09 AM »

Got the macro to do as I was hoping but it still didn't work to well and then I realized that it is set up for 6 tools instead of 8 . I changed it and now it is almost perfect . Almost .
T0202 is called , the turret runs through 45° and reverses back to 43° and stalls before it gets there , which is what I want . The problem then arises when you then go on to the next tool . Because it thinks it is starting from 43° and it isn't .Can the DRO be set in the macro , after the toolchange , to tell the DRO what it should be reading ? That way it will avoid any cumalative errors .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: April 28, 2010, 05:27:32 PM »

Right , had another go tonight and loaded the screen . That works fine thank you . The DRO gives angular coordinates which is fine . I tried the macro again and got the same result . I altered the steps per to 66.6666 and put the speed up to 2000 and it is almost there . just some fine adjustment now .  The only thing at the mo is that it does not quite reverse far enough . If you tell me what to look for in the macro I will sort it out  .

Many thanks once again my friend . It is great to have a forum with so much help . Bloody triffic .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: April 27, 2010, 05:01:24 PM »

Right , got it ta . The steppers are 1.8°and the drivers can go between 400 and something like 25000 microsteps . Once I get the DRO up and running , the rest will be easier to work out .

Once again , thank you .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: April 27, 2010, 04:46:07 PM »

Had a quick stab at the toolchange macro this evening . I swapped the 'A' axis as you said and that worked fine . I then tried the macro and asked it to go to T0202 from the place I'd homed it . It then cranked around past 2 stations and about two thirds the way to the next and stopped . It did not appear to try and reverse up to a pawl at all . I only tried it the once so you'll have to forgive the limited feedback I'm afraid . I only had a short amount of time .

I may be able to go and play tomorrow and will try and add the screen . First priority is to get my spindle working and then I can crack on with the "Finer" details . I am assuming I go in to the Mach folder and presumably navigate to a "Screens" folder and put it in there ? Will I need to rename as I did with the toolchange macro ? Also , will MachTurn then load straight to that screen each time I start it up ?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: April 25, 2010, 03:07:13 PM »

No I'm afraid I have not tried it again today . The lathe is somewhere else which is more convenient for working on it , but not all that accessible because of time , wife , blah blah blah . It does not matter to me if it is not pretty . If it works that's good enough for me ! I won't be able to try it out again until possibly Tuesday or Wednesday evening . I have only to sort out the spindle problem I have at the mo and then I can get it home and all the rest of the tampering can be done at my leisure because I won't need to get in the back (I have a very small shed), but thats for another day . But first things first .

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Adding DRO to MachTurn

« on: April 25, 2010, 02:38:17 PM »

Cool . I do indeed use the standard screen set that comes with MachTurn . It does have a "Home All" button . Could it have a separate "Home" button like the other axis ? It does not have the third DRO though . To be honest , now that you've done a great job in sorting out the toolchanging macro for me , once I set the turret to position 1 and press the home all I should not need a DRO because the tool number will always be displayed . Although this does not take in to account moving it manually .
Just had a thought on the macro though . When you home the turret , tool 0 is displayed . I know this sounds daft , but when T0101 is called , will the turret turn 1 position . If so , it would actually be tool 2 . When you home the turret , can the tool N° be set to 1 ? Or does the macro take this into account ?