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1

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Mach3 Turn G81 & G83 don't do anything

« on: May 02, 2022, 12:44:48 PM »

Hey guys!  I've got a simple program to center drill and then peck drill a part.  Neither of the G81 or G83 codes do anything.  In the following code, the lathe turns the spindle on, then moves to X0, Z5.14 properly.  The it simply goes right through the G81 cycle without moving the drill, and continues on to end the program.  I feel like there's something simple I'm missing here.  Anyone still using Mach3 turn out there that can help me out?

%
O1001 (ALL FEATURES)
N10 G98 G18 G40 G80
N11 G20
N12 G50 S3000

(DRILL2)
N13 T0101
N14 M0 (CHANGE-TOOL)
N15 G54
N16 G98
N17 G97 S840 M3
N18 G0 X0. Z5.14
N19 G0 Z4.74
N20 Z5.14
N21 Z4.74
N22 G81 X0. Z4.4387 R4.6888 F5.
N23 G80
N24 Z5.14

N25 M5
N26 M30
%

Is Mach4 any better?  Would it be worth upgrading?

-Darren

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Arrggghhh!! Mach3, Win XP, ESS, and MB3 Spindle RPMs erratic

« on: February 02, 2020, 11:26:27 AM »

Hi Craig, thanks for the detailed response!  That's exactly what I was looking for.  Even though I thought I was being very logical in how I was testing things, you brought up even further, more detailed ways of testing each component.  I will try to test further in the next couple days.

And I think you are 100% spot on in that PID isn't needed for 99% of what is going to be done.  The only thing that I would like it for is for threading when using the lathe part of the machine - but I don't have an immediate need for that anyways.

- Darren

3

General Mach Discussion / Arrggghhh!! Mach3, Win XP, ESS, and MB3 Spindle RPMs erratic

« on: February 01, 2020, 05:38:21 PM »

Hey guys - I'm stumped with my CNC mill / lathe setup.  I'm starting to lean towards a stick of dynamite to fix it.

I started out with a functioning machine using stepper motors with a Gecko, and a Nowforever VFD for spindle control.  The VFD was stable and worked just fine, but the steppers were small, cheap, and constantly lost steps unless I ran the machine *really* slow.
So I upgraded to servo motors on X, Y, and Z - and bought a cheap chinese cnc controller.  Hooked everything up, and got the servos running great!  But the spindle speed fluctuated all over the place.  I did some research and found that a lot of the cheap controllers couldn't read the index pulse fast enough - so I decided to go a little further and I just bought an ESS and an MB3 board.  Now I've got that setup running the servos just fine .... and .... you guessed it!!  My spindle speeds are all over the place still.

A.) I've tried a bunch of different settings in Mach, including the original settings that worked with the Gecko, but nothing ever stabilizes the spindle speed.

B.) I've got the 0-10v analog output from the MB3 running to the VFD, and when I connect everything and set a speed of 2,500rpm in Mach (max is 5,000), the voltage output varies constantly, causing the speed "hunting".
If I connect 5v from another source to the VFD, I get a nearly perfect and constant 2,500 rpm out of the spindle.  So I feel that the VFD is fine.

C.) Strange thing is that if I disconnect the VFD and measure the output of the MB3 open-circuit, I get damn near 5v and it's steady.  So it seems that the ESS/MB3 is fine as well.

But when I connect them together, voltage output from the ESS/MB3 immediately starts varying, and spindle speed jumps around from say 500 rpm all the way to nearly 5,000rpm.
My commons are all connected between the MB3 and the VFD and ohm out as good connections.

I'm running my index sensors at 24v, which the MB3 board is designed for (and they are on the high-speed inputs, supposedly capable of up to 1,710,000 rpm!!!).  I get a pretty clean signal on my oscilloscope all the way through max rpm.  If I run the VFD manually and vary the speed, I can see the LED on the MB3 board lighting extremely consistently (at slower speeds at least, lol.  My eyes can't see the flashing at higher speeds!)  But in Mach3, the rpm display isn't always steady.  It'll read pretty constant, then jump way up, then read constant, then jump around again.  Shouldn't the ESS be interpreting the RPM and simply sending a value to Mach?  Or is the ESS somehow sending irregular pulses to Mach for the index?  Or is Mach just glitching?

I'm running an older Dell desktop with Windows XP on it.  The only thing installed are the factory drivers and Mach3.
I thought maybe the software was corrupted, so I formatted the PC yesterday, reloaded Windows, and reinstalled the latest version of Mach.  Went through all the setup, and it still acts exactly the same way.

There has to be some simple thing I'm just not thinking of, right? 

Please enlighten me as to what I am doing wrong!!!

-Darren