Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Run From Here Z DRO trouble

« on: January 12, 2013, 11:31:14 AM »

Thank you for your inputs.  Yes, we are using a floating z with plasma, scribe and we also have a third holder to eventually have an oxy-fuel.  We've not done anything with Macros yet.  Is there a manual about them that you could point me to? 

2

General Mach Discussion / Run From Here Z DRO trouble

« on: January 11, 2013, 06:29:26 PM »

When we do a "run from here" move in Mach3 our X and Y DROs stay the same and we get the prompt from Mach to make an initial move before running, but our Z DRO changes drastically and messes with the height.  The last run we did was of a batch of 8 flanges and we stopped (not feedhold that hasn't worked for us) within the 4th flange (we stopped right after the M05 line) and when we hit the "run from here" it changed the Z DRO to around -3 and some decimal points, so we basically had to re-zero the Z before we could continue with the cut.  Has anyone come across this before and/or know a way to fix it?  Your help is appreciated.  Thank you.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Importing DXF files

« on: November 29, 2012, 11:38:57 AM »

Oh ok I think ours came with lazycam as well.  Maybe I just misinterpreted what the manual said.  Now, there were a lot of different post processors (I believe I'm using the correct term for the type of gcode being written), and I didn't know which one would be exactly what we'd need to work with our hypertherm Plasma with height control and plate marker.  In Sheetcam for instance there is Mach3, Mach3 Plasma, Plasma THC, Plasma with plate marker, etc.  I've looked into the basics of gcode, however, I'm not confident enough to write my own for anything other than simple shapes.

4

General Mach Discussion / Importing DXF files

« on: November 29, 2012, 11:00:34 AM »

In the Mach3 manual, it has a chapter on importing dxf files and being able to convert that into gcode directly in Mach3.  The manual says that its in the file menu, but we don't have an option for importing them in our copy of Mach3.  Our copy is licensed; so I don't know if that's for a different version of Mach3 or something is wrong with our copy. 

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Axis movement problem

« on: November 15, 2012, 09:50:27 AM »

Yes, we had and it was around the 25,000 Hz like the manual suggested, I think it was a little over but not by a substancial amount.  Although I was just told Mach3 wont run as smooth on a laptop, and we are using one, so we're going to swap that out and see if that helps.  Only problem is we have to find a desktop to use.

6

General Mach Discussion / Axis movement problem

« on: November 14, 2012, 06:00:54 PM »

Hello, my name is Amanda I'm the secretary here at Heiss Welding.  We have a 5 motor plasma cnc table set up with Mach3 as the controller.  We have a plasma holder, plate marker, and oxy-fuel holder.  On Monday we had begun to configure the motors and ensure that the direction was correct.  We got the gantry moving, the axises moving, that was all working fine except the direction on the y, but it was the end of the day so we put it aside to work on today.  Now when we tried to run the x or y, it was very choppy and wouldn't run smooth.  Also when we tried to run the x axis, the z axis started to move up at the same time and made a grinding noise.  We disconnected all the motors and just had the x plugged in to see if we restarted we could find the problem, however, even with just the x axis moving we still have the same problem.  Its very choppy and isn't running correctly.   Any help on the matter would be appreciated.  Thank you.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Beginner Questions

« on: October 15, 2012, 10:34:12 AM »

I have a few of the manuals downloaded, but honestly most of this is over my head.  I'm just the secretary for the welding company I work for and I'm trying to get it all set up and ready for when they use it.  Thank you for your help and inputs ^_^

8

General Mach Discussion / Beginner Questions

« on: October 13, 2012, 11:17:59 AM »

The Welding company I work for has recently purchased Mach3 for a Plasma table.  We also have the bladerunner program running with it.  I have installed all of it onto a desktop we will be using with the table.  My first question is, is there a help guide for the engine configuration?  It did come preset, however, I'm unsure if these will be the settings we need.  Also, while I was running a g-code to test the output, it wouldn't start the program.  A red light kept flashing, and when I hit reset it continued to blink and wouldn't run the code.  I'm unsure if this is because I didn't have it hooked up to the table, but the manuals examples said I wouldn't need to be hooked up to test it.  Any help will be appreciated, thank you.