Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z Height Setting Woes

« on: February 01, 2013, 07:26:44 AM »

Could you attach a copy of the probing script that you are using please.

Tweakie.

Hey Tweakie,

Im uisng Gerrys screen, I havent changed the script he uses and not sure if it would be a breach of his terms if I posted it here? Would that be ok?

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z Height Setting Woes

« on: February 01, 2013, 06:43:32 AM »

Hi Brett,

Likewise we always gently touch the plate to ensure the light is green, as it always is.
We have a few variants, we have a clip and plate on one machine and the others are earthed so the plate creates a circuit which completes the circuit, both setups display this fault every now and then.

We change tools anything up to 40-50 times a day depending on jobs and in this time we may see the error once or twice. I really am at a loose end as I dont kinow what else to try. The debounce values are zero now and the problem still pops up every so often, no difference if they are set hgher neither.

Really strange and really annoying as each time we probe down were waiting for a problem.

Many thanks for your prompt reply.

3

General Mach Discussion / Z Height Setting Woes

« on: February 01, 2013, 06:20:43 AM »

Hi,

We have a few machines running mach3 and using both big tex and gerrys 2010 screens to set the Z height (we set the height using the plate manually at every tool change).

We keep having random problems on all machines whereby every so often the tools do not retract from the touch plate and push themselves down hard into the plates, this sometimes chips the end of the tool. We never have any limit errors or home errors and sure no noise exists in any of the machines, we have tried altering the debounce values however this makes no difference as the problem still randomly occurs so we leave now leave them at zero.

It is a really annoying problem and I wonder if anyone else has experienced this? The touch light is rock solid on all machines and from what we can see there's no obvious problem why this occurs. As the problem exists with both screens (only every now and then) I see the problem being elsewhere, although strange how it is on all machines.

All of the machines operate faultlessly, no missed steps on the stepper machines and no positon errors on the servo machines, just the annoying touch plate error every so often on all machines.

If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much.

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Strage Z Touch Plate Problem

« on: November 10, 2012, 02:41:24 AM »

Update: uc100 firmware has even updated to fix this problem, it was an error n the g31 code and as nw been fixed. Probe is working fine now. The manufacturer was very helpful and arranged to fix the bug very quickly.

I'd be lost without the use of the touch plate, invaluable!!

Cheers everyone.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Strage Z Touch Plate Problem

« on: November 07, 2012, 02:01:02 PM »

Yes I agree, they are looking into this and I will report back the findings to help others.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Strage Z Touch Plate Problem

« on: November 07, 2012, 11:38:47 AM »

Hi Gerry,

While the DRO's are counting the motors are still moving ever so slightly.
I belive the fault to be with the USB controller as switching back to the parallel port makes everything work as it should.

I dont belive there is any noise on the system, I have disconnected the VFD and with the USB controller attached it faults. The popup is your way of saying the Z is going higer than the home switch to stop it runninginto it.

I have emailed the manufacturer and waiting for them to get back to me, they were very quick to reply and are looking into it. The fault is the same on both your screen and big-tex and only present when the USB contoller is plugged in. Parallel port works fine.

I will update the post with progress as the manufacturers get back to me. For now its back to the good old parallel port!

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

7

General Mach Discussion / Strage Z Touch Plate Problem

« on: November 07, 2012, 09:05:27 AM »

Hi,

Ive recently completed a build and having problems getting the Z touch plate to work correctly.
The machine has DMM servos and drivers installed and the usb controller from CNC4PC. The machine and all limits work fine, the input is solid for the probe too.

The problem is after the first detection the Z goes very high and stops, looking at the DRO's they continue to count, Im not sure if this is the encoder doing its stuff or what.
Ive tried Gerrys 2010 screen and big-tex, both do the same thing? All home switches work fine, changing the debounce makes no difference either.

Ive posted a video here www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn4gAOuBIZI sorry for the poor quality but youtube flipped the video over and degraded the resolution.

ANy help would be much appreciated.