Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Arrow keys don't work after a run

« on: August 02, 2018, 01:29:58 PM »

Weird. My USB keyboard arrow keys + Pg down, page up - don't work within Mach 3 - but they DO work if I'm in another app like Notepad. Sometimes they don't work from the get go - today, they worked after initial boot, but after running a job, they didn't work. The Home key worked, and I can type letters and numbers into the MDI field. I re-checked if the keys worked in Notepad - they did.

It isn't the presence/absence of the onscreen pendant you bring up with the Tab key.

Quitting and restarting Mach3 brought them back just now - but hasn't always in the past.

Any ideas?

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis rapid speed control

« on: June 13, 2018, 02:44:34 AM »

Beyond the fact that it is a 1 year old Syil X5, and I'm driving it form a PC with a parallel port - I have no idea. The syil guys are really good with support so I will hit them up ...

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis rapid speed control

« on: June 12, 2018, 01:22:12 PM »

Thanks again. Much appreciated.

What's concerning is I already have the velocity turned down a good bit - the Z axis rapids are less than half the speed of the x and y which give me no trouble. And it is inconsistent. But yesterday I snapped 2 1/8" end mills and ruined an hours worth of lathe-turned and polished blank. Aaarrgh. I will follow up with Syil too.

Cheers!

P.S. - When they come out right, they look like this:

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis rapid speed control

« on: June 12, 2018, 11:58:09 AM »

Thank you, Craig

Am I correct that this will ALSO reduce the G1 speed?

5

General Mach Discussion / Z axis rapid speed control

« on: June 12, 2018, 10:54:56 AM »

My system (Mach 3, Syil X5)  occasionally loses steps on Z axis rapid retracts. Which of course means the tool doesn't clear the work before an XY move and all hell breaks loose. I've gone to G1 retracts but ....

1) What is the right way to control the speed of Z axis rapids without affecting other axes?

2) I already have the acceleration set very low.  But this problem seems intermittent. The machine is quite new. Any suggestions for a good way to diagnose the real culprit?

Thanks in advance - perennial newbie.

/Greg
http://www.blowsmeaway.com

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Easy question, I think - 4th axis feed speed

« on: September 17, 2014, 01:10:04 PM »

Figured it out. Before the "rotation radius" in Settings will work, you have to turn on "use radius for feed rate" (and maybe "A Rotations Enabled") in Config:toolpath

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3 Axis to 4 axis Gcode conversion utility?

« on: September 17, 2014, 12:14:50 AM »

Doesn't make sense. Y is in inches. Z is in degrees. 1 inch is certainly nowhere close to 1 degree....

However for a given radius I can see that you could use a math function to convert Y to A, for example. Is that what you meant?

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3 Axis to 4 axis Gcode conversion utility?

« on: September 16, 2014, 10:50:44 PM »

So - the trial does what it is supposed to do - I coded a 1" test square and it did the right thing. But what I really want this for is engraving - and the software barfs at GCODE with arcs in it. I use the Engraving Wizard to generate my letter code. Is there another utility that can deal with arcs - or a way to force the wizard to use line segments?

9

General Mach Discussion / Easy question, I think - 4th axis feed speed

« on: September 16, 2014, 10:48:48 PM »

So I'm playing with my new 4th axis to learn it. G0 moves are fine. G1 A moves are PAINFULLY slow - about 1 degree every 5 seconds at F2. Now - I understand that the diameter of the work being turned impacts surface IPS- and some googling suggested there was a setting for diameter somewhere - but I cannot find it. I tried the alt-F6/Settings A axis radius setting - didn't seem to make any difference.

I can wrap all the A moves in my code with F100 and back to F2 after - and that works - but ... there must be a way to get a reasonable feed rate with 1-3" diameter work somewhere equivalent to the X and Y axis feed speed.

??

Thanks

/Greg
http://www.blowsmeaway.com

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3 Axis to 4 axis Gcode conversion utility?

« on: September 14, 2014, 02:37:28 PM »

That was fast. Thank you! That is exactly what (I think ) I want. Downlaoding the trial now....

/Greg
http://www.BlowsMeAway.com