Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: February 09, 2011, 08:49:15 AM »

It might be a little until I can get pictures of the machine itself. But it is a Minitech Mini Mill 3 Pro. I found a sheet of the machine and drive specs, and it appears that they have a large range of micro stepping modes, so I'm thinking that maybe the axes are on different step modes. Could this potentially be the issue? If so, how do I go about checking/changing the micro-stepping modes? Here's a link to the machine specs.

http://minitechcnc.com/mini%20mill%20Pro%20More.htm

Interestingly enough, it says that the stepper motors operate at 200 steps/rev in full step mode, but on the motors there is a sticker saying "0.9deg/step".

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: February 08, 2011, 11:01:21 PM »

Thanks for all the help so far! As far as measuring the pitch, which screws should I be measuring? After looking at the picture, it would appear that the cylinder coming out of the stepper motor is smooth, but I'm guessing that's the one that I need to measure? Lastly, what should I be looking for to determine the gearing between the motors and screws as you mentioned?

I think I'll just e-mail the motor manufacturer to figure out the microstepping.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: February 08, 2011, 07:24:05 PM »

My initial guess would be that they are, as all motors are of the same type and appear to be connected similarly. However, seeing as how I had no hand in the fabrication of the machine I can't say for certain.

The stepper motor is of this make:
http://motionking.com/Products/Hybrid_Stepper_Motors/23HM_Stepper_Motor_57mm_0.9degree.htm?ID=9&fenlei_id=2&products=23HM%20Stepper%20Motor%20-57mm%280.9%20degree%29
Model Number: 23HM8430.

I used the stepper calculator to roughly determine that the Steps per mm should be around 640, but without knowing the other variables such as Pulse/Step, gearing, and pitch screw details it's hard to tell if that value is accurate.

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: February 08, 2011, 03:49:15 PM »

Wouldn't that also mean that the steps per unit for each axis would be different as well? If so, when I go into the Motor Tuning and Setup, the step per unit for each axis is the same, but I still run into this issue.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: February 08, 2011, 03:23:54 PM »

Update:

So it would appear that I have all the input ports and pins set up correctly as now each axis will move in both directions. However, the issue I'm running into now is that the scale of movement on the different axes is different. For example, the DRO will say that the Z axis is traveling significantly faster than it really is (z axis motion in reality is barely perceptible), and the X and Y axes seem to be operating at different feed rates as well. Suggestions?

Thanks!
- Adam

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: January 28, 2011, 02:03:27 PM »

Bought it ready to be hooked up. I think I figured one thing out, as now the tool moves in every direction, but they are backwards. I.e. jogging in the positive Y direction will result in the tool moving in the negative Y direction etc. I'm a student doing research for a professor, so I'll ask him if he has any documentation that might help fix this issue.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: January 28, 2011, 01:51:03 PM »

Is there any particular way I should go about finding which motors should go to which pin/port?

8

General Mach Discussion / Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: January 28, 2011, 01:05:46 PM »

Hi all,

I set up my Mach3 software today and hooked it up to the Mini Mill 3-Pro. I started jogging the tool around to get a feel for the different feedrates and noticed a couple things:
- The tool would only move positively along the X and Y axis in real time, despite the DRO in Mach3 indicating that the tool was moving in both the negative and positive directions
- The tool would move in the Y direction when I would try jogging using the Z direction buttons in Mach 3, but when clicking the Y direction buttons I get no response in any direction on the tool
- This would occur whether I used the arrow keys on the keyboard or the hard keys for +Y, -Y, etc. in Mach 3
- Z axis would not move on the milling machine despite the DRO in Mach3 indicating that it was moving

Any suggestions on how to go about fixing these issues? I'm very new to the Mach3 software, so any support here is much appreciated.

Thanks!
- Adam

9

Mach3 and G-Rex / Axis Only Moves In One Direction

« on: January 26, 2011, 12:32:14 AM »

Hi all,

I set up my Mach3 software today and hooked it up to the Mini Mill 3-Pro. I started jogging the tool around to get a feel for the different feedrates and noticed a couple things:
- The tool would only move positively along the X and Y axis in real time, despite the DRO in Mach3 indicating that the tool was moving in both the negative and positive directions
- This would occur whether I used the arrow keys on the keyboard or the hard keys for +Y, -Y, etc. in Mach 3
- Z axis would not move on the milling machine despite the DRO in Mach3 indicating that it was moving

Any suggestions on how to go about fixing these issues? I'm very new to the Mach3 software, so any support here is much appreciated.

Thanks!
- Adam