Messages

1

Finished Screens / Re: Mach3 2010 Screenset - Now available

« on: August 30, 2014, 07:06:41 PM »

 :)Gerry
Been using your great screen set for quite a while now, with no issues, apart from those caused by me
Have there been any updates to your screen set, not that I have any requirements you don't already cover

2

Feature Requests / Re: Chances of Closed loop?

« on: October 05, 2010, 05:43:25 AM »

I have a shaft encoder attached to the end of the stepper. Both the step signals and the outputs from the rotary encoder are fed into a microprocessor. From the difference between commanded step ( from Mach3) and the actual rotary movement of the stepper shaft I can subtract the two to work out a missed step. I have run the combination stepper/encoder at a step rate that equates to 4 times faster than Mach3 would ever step the motors and can confirm after a few hours of running ,I have at most lost 2 step in many hundreds of thousands. it when the stepper is installed in the machine and the additional effect of inertia and mechanical loss come into play that I notice the occasional missed step

Since I trying to get the best accuracy/repeatability any loss of position is undesirable

3

Feature Requests / Re: Chances of Closed loop?

« on: October 03, 2010, 12:21:54 AM »

Thats basically how my system is now, with the encoders and hardware attached I can tell when I am missing pulses As far as I know mach3 cant use the feedback, so I have 3 lights mounted on my control panel that shows when an axis is out of position. Now I can tell how many steps I've missed, just wish I was able to use this information to correct the position

4

Feature Requests / Re: Chances of Closed loop?

« on: October 02, 2010, 06:14:17 PM »

I have a small 3 axis machine using steppers. Since I need to do fine milling for PCB's I decided to add encoders to each of the steppers
I find that I will drop an occasional step which isn't a big issue, but over the course of milling it can add up, one here, one there etc.
I want to be able to pause Mach3 when I detect I'm missing position, so I can use the external hardware I have to move back to where I should be
Since I would only be a few pulses out of position, hopefully It wont be too apparent.
My question is, how can I pause Mach3 from a digital input, I'm sure it possible

Thanks