Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem in Mach3 R3.042.029?

« on: November 07, 2009, 10:04:08 PM »

But I have cut out almost 100 gears before, with success. Sometimes I have gone at higher speeds too. Our machine is designed to cut shapes out of wood. It is similar in specification to the Probotix FireBall. I presume if we downgrade to v020, it will work normally again. There could be a bug in v029 - I would like to know if other people have had the problem too - so far there has been someone else who is having the same trouble as me!

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 shifts the toolpath to the left after 3minutes of cutting? Parts overlap!

« on: November 07, 2009, 09:59:29 PM »

I am quite sure you will find that the DRO will display where it is supposed to be. Could you tell us what version/build of Mach 3 your using?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem in Mach3 R3.042.029?

« on: November 07, 2009, 07:53:15 PM »

And in case your wondering, I drew up these shapes in TurboCAD Designer, saved as a DXF file, imported and processed them into LazyCAM, and then Mach 3.

I should add that the stepper motors seemed to (obviously) be given the wrong signal at the time of the error. I can post the G-Code if you like. Once again, I did cut out one gear without any problems.

In the pictures above, I was cutting the teeth in an anti-clockwise direction.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem in Mach3 R3.042.029?

« on: November 07, 2009, 07:46:17 PM »

Actually, just looking at the cut, the error occured just before the move to the next Z level/depth.

I have put some pictures below - okay, their not simple shapes, however, they preview correctly. As I said, I cut one out fine.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 shifts the toolpath to the left after 3minutes of cutting? Parts overlap!

« on: November 07, 2009, 07:31:36 PM »

What version are you using?

Check out my post "Problem in Mach3 R3.042.029?". Do you think your having the same problem as me?

So the top image is what is previewed, and the bottom image is the actual toolpath?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem in Mach3 R3.042.029?

« on: November 07, 2009, 07:28:38 PM »

Seems someone else is having the same problem as me - refer to the post "Mach 3 shifts the toolpath to the left after 3minutes of cutting? Parts overlap!".

I have cut out almost one hundred shapes with my machine over the last year. I know about all the issues with grounding - I am an electronics technician. The wiring is all correct. I ran the program at about 80% of the speed. The issue is that 5 of the 6 passes went perfectly (on the second time I tried to cut the shape - the first try cut out perfectly). On the final pass, where the Z had to go down another 1mm, the X and Y axis moved as well (for a very brief moment) - it should have just been Z. This has never happened, until I upgraded to v029. I used to use v020, and will revert back I think - until I receive some kind of confirmation. It just that 1/3rd of a sheet of wood that cost $80 AUD has been wasted - and I lost about two hours of my day.

The DRO's are not showing the wrong position. How could I reduce the stalling (on a rapid)? I have already reduced the speed - remember on the last pass, the feedrate is reduced - a feature introduced in v029 (I think in LazyCAM). The preview looks fine. I have cut out much more complex shapes at higher speeds with success - in v020.

I think it may be a bug in v029 of Mach 3. Hopefully it is not in v031 - the latest release.

7

General Mach Discussion / Problem in Mach3 R3.042.029?

« on: November 07, 2009, 08:57:13 AM »

Today I cut a few basic shapes from wood - 1.5mm per pass - 200mm per minute, and had quite a few problems.

I have had my machine for over a year, and it has worked perfectly - only last week, did I upgrade to Mach3 R3.042.029. I have not tried Mach3 R3.042.031 - I just want feedback to see if upgrading will actually fix the problem. I will definitely upgrade next week. I am quite sure it is something to do with software. I am using a Pentium 4, Windows XP, 512MB RAM. About 5-35% CPU continuously while program is running. No programs in the background - computer is not connected to the internet.

Because my wood is 6mm thick, I do about 5 passes. The trouble is, randomly, when going to another location for cutting a new shape, or starting another pass, Mach 3 would move to the wrong place for no reason - it would be out by up to 5cm (X or/and Y). My controller is working perfectly - there are no skips when I jog manually. The axis are protected from dust. It is not my G-code - the preview is correct, and the same G-code was used to cut out the same shapes in different sections of the material. But with two of the five cuts I did with the same G-code, on the final pass, the machine decided to jump out of position - however it would continue to cut out the shape. This is a real pain - because I wasted quite a lot of material.

Any know issues?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: new hermes vanguard 5000 controlling

« on: November 07, 2009, 08:40:20 AM »

We bought a second hand Hermes Vanguard machine some time ago. It had its own controller too - however, we don't use it.

I am quite sure that the existing control circuitry would be very difficult to setup with Mach 3 - I have found no information available on the internet. There is a good chance that the parallel port is uniquely wired (not to the standard).

What we did was just take the wires from the stepper motors and limit switches (some rewiring (extending of wires) had to be done to the unit underneath), and connected them directly to our own driver board, which we made up with components from http://www.kelinginc.net/, however, we will soon be converting to a smaller design using the GeckoDrive G540 (http://www.geckodrive.com/product.aspx?i=14469) – this also does not require an isolated 5V power supply like the boards from Keling do. We are planning to use the SmoothStepper as well.

We discarded all the old controller circuitry. Connected to a Pentium 4 PC with Windows XP and a parallel port, the machine is running very well.

Another thing is that the machine had a 120VAC motor on there for the tool holder. We also removed this, and replaced it with a motor from an old battery drill (of course, we had to redesign the tool holder as well) – however, this is not that powerful, and is very noisy. We are going to try a brushless motor, and add a vacuum system to get rid of the dust. We are just planning to cut PCBs and shapes out of wood. I am not sure if the machine is powerful enough to handle aluminium – the steppers are only rated at 1.5A.

Sorry, I cannot remember the model number of our unit.