Messages

1

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Diagnostics Page Tutorial?

« on: January 14, 2016, 11:57:42 AM »

Overloaded:
I am away from the office/machine for two weeks, but I will try a resistor and see what happens. I'll post here if it works. For now, we are using a mechanical switch to "solve" the issue but I will continue to pursue this issue to find a prox switch that works and find out what the real issue is.

Thanks for the help,
Nikki

2

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Diagnostics Page Tutorial?

« on: January 08, 2016, 04:55:18 PM »

Overloaded: I am using the switches, mentioned above. I am retrofitting Mach3 on an existing CNC router. The equipment manufacturer built a custom circuit board that acts as a connection board for the smoothstepper (I communicate with Mach3 using an ESS). This custom circuit board is used to connect the switches and motors to the ESS. The voltage going to the switches is coming from the custom circuit board. I used a multimeter to measure the voltage across each of the switches when "open" and read 16.8V. When "closed" the voltage on both the y and z axes switches decrease to 4V but the x axis switch only decreases to 13V. I assume that the voltage decrease is not significant enough to be read by the machine on the x-axis switch.

BR549: I jumped the x-axis switch and used a mechanical switch to test the circuit board. The M1 Home light lit solid and the homing function worked properly when using the mechanical switch. The switch that is normally used on the z-axis worked properly when connected to the x-axis pins (the M1 Home light lit solid, too). This leads me to believe that the circuit board is fine, just the switch is bad (both switches that I bought). However, the voltage and current are within spec for the E2E2 switch on the x-axis.

3

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Diagnostics Page Tutorial?

« on: January 08, 2016, 03:21:17 PM »

Sixmile: Thank you for this information. It was what I was looking for.

I have been having issues with my x-axis not homing correctly. I am using two different types of switches on my machine, both DC two wire prox switches. The y and z axes use the OMRON E2E-X2D1-N switch while the X-axis uses an OMRON E2E2-X2D1 switch. The reason for the different switches is because of a length requirement on my machine.

My issue was that the light in the Input Signals current State section of the Diagnostics page had the M1 Home light blinking when the x-axis prox switch was tripped. It was not solid like the y and z axes. I also purchased a different prox switch and got a different blink pattern from the x-axis. That prox did not work, either. I am getting 16.8V to all 3 switches, so that should not be the issue. I connected the prox switch from my z-axis to the x-axis pins and the light in the diagnostics page was solid, no longer blinking. I purchased a second E2E2-X2D1 switch and received the same results as the first switch.

Do either of you know why this M1 Home light would blink in different patterns, but not stay solid? I assume that this indicates a bad switch, but I don't know if you may have run into this and could provide additional insight.

Tweakie: Thank you for this information.

4

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Z-Axis not Physically Homing & X Axis Not Always Moving off "Home" Limit

« on: December 29, 2015, 08:05:28 AM »

All three axes use prox switches as their home limit switches. There are no other limit switches on this machine.

Nikki

5

Mach3 under Vista / Diagnostics Page Tutorial?

« on: December 28, 2015, 04:12:56 PM »

Hello, All,

I am new to Mach3 and am trying to diagnose some issues with Mach3 and my milling machine. I cannot find a tutorial or guide that will explain what each of the lights/indicators on the diagnostics page mean. Does anyone have a link that they can post that would provide me some help to understand how to read the diagnostics page?

Thanks,
Nikki

6

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Z-Axis not Physically Homing & X Axis Not Always Moving off "Home" Limit

« on: December 28, 2015, 04:07:25 PM »

Ray,

Sorry about the late reply; the holiday kept me away from my computer and from Mach3 for a few days.

I tried to operate the switches manually. The axis does not back up once the switch is tripped. I press "Ref Home All", the router head begins moving, I manually trip the switch and the router head stops. It does not reverse direction. I then un-trip the limit switch and the router remains stopped.

I looked in the diagnostics tab and I found that the M1 Home light blinks when the X-axis is tripped. When the Z and Y Axes are tripped, the M3 Home and M2 Home (respectively) lights are lit solid. I cannot find anywhere why the M1 Home light is blinking. I also cannot find a tutorial or manual for the Diagnostics tab to explain what each option means.

I doubt that it is a hardware/machine issue since Mach3 is able to identify when the X-axis home limit proximity switch is tripped.

Advice?

Regards,
Nikki

7

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Z-Axis not Physically Homing & X Axis Not Always Moving off "Home" Limit

« on: December 23, 2015, 03:09:13 PM »

Ray,

Where is this "Debounce" setting?
------------

I adjusted the "Home" value in the "Noise Filtering of Inputs" section under PlugIn Control -> ESS-v10r2d1d Config     from 0 to 20 and then to 500 but still no difference; the X-axis still is not backing off of the home limit switch.

I updated my Mach3 download to Mach3 3.043.062. The issue with my Z-axis is no longer causing an issue. It homes properly and does back off after it hits the home limit.

Thoughts?
Nikki

8

Mach3 under Vista / Z-Axis not Physically Homing & X Axis Not Always Moving off "Home" Limit

« on: December 23, 2015, 10:42:25 AM »

Hello,

I am new to Mach3 and am trying to get a CNC mill up and running. I have numerous issues and have been looking through this forum and all of the Mach3 pdf files, among other resources, to solve my problems. Maybe you can help me:

1. The Z-Axis will not move back to home when I press the "Home All" button. Earlier, the position counter would reset to 0.0000 but would not move the machine tool at all. Now, it does not even reset the position counter for the Z axis. The X and Y Axis home just fine. I can control the Z axis by jogging it.

2. The X-Axis will not always move off of the "home" limit switch when homing. It will reach the limit switch and stop.

I have three independent proxy switches set-up for each axis as home limits. I do not have any other switch installed. Mach3 only has "X Home" "Y Home" and "Z Home" and "E-Stop" checked in Config -> Ports & Pins -> Input Signals. I am using Mach3 3.043.066. I understand that this is not "stable" based on what I have read on this forum, but I doubt that this "unstable version" would cause these issues. I can un-install this Mach3 and install Mach3 3.043.062 if needed. I am using an ESS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! This machine will be down until I can solve these issues.

--Nikki