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Mach4 General Discussion / Maybe WHB04B is a liability
« on: March 25, 2024, 08:20:26 AM »
Hi all,
The puzzling series of events that have visited my workshop as of late would test the patience of Jobe.
I was a little anxious to make metal chips for the first time. Much of the stress comes from the lack of experience, and the guess work at feeds and speeds possible with mist coolant and a 2.2kW spindle. They have a lousy power to torque in the lower rpm range.
I have run it much lower than I thought possible.
As I was wrapping my head around how my VFD was all of a sudden running the spindle in reverse, and that would explain the ridiculous results on the facing toolpath attempt #1, I was taking a call outside the shop when the XHC pendant sent a "Start" command unattended. Moments later it blanked out, and sent the gantry off at full speed, narrowly missing a backstop. The show came to a crashing halt. I did a teardown of the pendant in hopes of finding some stray sliver of metal that was shorting out some minute trace on the PCB but none was found. Noticed the impressive build quality that is the guts of the WHB04B and pondered if the corded version would be any better. Tried to get my Xbox controller to work but no luck, it's obviously a copy.
During the second attempt at the first toolpath, my compressor went ballistic and sent EMF or surge that took out the monitor, then the graphics card and finally the PC died two days later. Not so good for the confidence. Hard on the pocket book. But hey, I can deal with that. I can deal with the two unscheduled power outages. I can get over the two bent stylus on the crappy 3D edge finder. Having to reinstall the ESS plugin, seems like a cake walk.
But I take exception to the MPG. The thing I really just can't tolerate is the lack of updating of the speed selected in both CON and STP as axis selection changes.
So as you move from the Ref All Home coordinates to the new offset that is the fixture or WCS as defined in the CAM setup, one tends to go from quick jogging speed to slow jogging as you approach the stock to establish a distance that is inline with the Prep distance that you have chosen in the Probe dialogue. Obtaining the new Y- and X- using the probe feature should be predictable. But the WHB04B is not, it is apparently incapable of updating the speed as is indicated on the speed dial once the axis has changed. In all cases the speed you deal with is the same as what it was the last time you were using that axis. The only way to avoid potential damage to probe and tools (and ones demeanor) is to rotate the MPG effecting a move away from the target, just briefly, to check the velocity that is currently at play, and often followed by a reselection of the speed to register with the HID or dongle. Have I bored you all to tears yet?
In other words, I have had quite enough. I don't understand why people are so invested in them. Maybe this one is faulty. Who knows. Not buying another.
Manual tool change with ER20 collets eats a lot of time. I have also, on many occasions, had to make several probe sequences on just one edge or face to get Mach4 to do its thing. Way too often the contact is made but Mach4 disables itself. Button goes green, but my face is getting red.
Xmas will come early this year.
Time for a Vista CNC solution
The puzzling series of events that have visited my workshop as of late would test the patience of Jobe.
I was a little anxious to make metal chips for the first time. Much of the stress comes from the lack of experience, and the guess work at feeds and speeds possible with mist coolant and a 2.2kW spindle. They have a lousy power to torque in the lower rpm range.
I have run it much lower than I thought possible.
As I was wrapping my head around how my VFD was all of a sudden running the spindle in reverse, and that would explain the ridiculous results on the facing toolpath attempt #1, I was taking a call outside the shop when the XHC pendant sent a "Start" command unattended. Moments later it blanked out, and sent the gantry off at full speed, narrowly missing a backstop. The show came to a crashing halt. I did a teardown of the pendant in hopes of finding some stray sliver of metal that was shorting out some minute trace on the PCB but none was found. Noticed the impressive build quality that is the guts of the WHB04B and pondered if the corded version would be any better. Tried to get my Xbox controller to work but no luck, it's obviously a copy.
During the second attempt at the first toolpath, my compressor went ballistic and sent EMF or surge that took out the monitor, then the graphics card and finally the PC died two days later. Not so good for the confidence. Hard on the pocket book. But hey, I can deal with that. I can deal with the two unscheduled power outages. I can get over the two bent stylus on the crappy 3D edge finder. Having to reinstall the ESS plugin, seems like a cake walk.
But I take exception to the MPG. The thing I really just can't tolerate is the lack of updating of the speed selected in both CON and STP as axis selection changes.
So as you move from the Ref All Home coordinates to the new offset that is the fixture or WCS as defined in the CAM setup, one tends to go from quick jogging speed to slow jogging as you approach the stock to establish a distance that is inline with the Prep distance that you have chosen in the Probe dialogue. Obtaining the new Y- and X- using the probe feature should be predictable. But the WHB04B is not, it is apparently incapable of updating the speed as is indicated on the speed dial once the axis has changed. In all cases the speed you deal with is the same as what it was the last time you were using that axis. The only way to avoid potential damage to probe and tools (and ones demeanor) is to rotate the MPG effecting a move away from the target, just briefly, to check the velocity that is currently at play, and often followed by a reselection of the speed to register with the HID or dongle. Have I bored you all to tears yet?
In other words, I have had quite enough. I don't understand why people are so invested in them. Maybe this one is faulty. Who knows. Not buying another.
Manual tool change with ER20 collets eats a lot of time. I have also, on many occasions, had to make several probe sequences on just one edge or face to get Mach4 to do its thing. Way too often the contact is made but Mach4 disables itself. Button goes green, but my face is getting red.
Xmas will come early this year.
Time for a Vista CNC solution
it's cheap, and sticks to anything. It was a wood carving, so not demanding ultra high accuracy. In that case I changed the value in the Probe Plate Height variable to 0.04mm 
Really didn't know what to do next. But the clock was ticking, and my patience was just about done. So I really appreciate the info you have shared. Thank you. I can finally go back to work. Oh yes...and I can return my ShuttlePRO V2 and put the cash into material purchases.