Messages

1

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Blomqvist CNC3000 Lathe

« on: May 23, 2006, 02:59:30 PM »

I have some pics of my lathe on my blog.  I just started cutting some pieces today using Mach3 Turn with Gecko 201's and the Sound Logic Combo Breakout Board.  Check it out...

http://greglehman.blogspot.com/

Comments are welcome 

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st timer...Mach 3 help

« on: May 16, 2006, 05:04:41 AM »

ok the clicking noise was caused by a bad printer cable.  changed the cable and the relays now light up as they should with no extra clicking noises.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: 1st timer...Mach 3 help

« on: May 12, 2006, 05:37:39 AM »

on the gecko's ive hooked up the step, dir, and com from the breakout board.....all properly connected.  they are also connected to a power supply along with a load capacitor on each gecko.  from there i have wired them to the motors.

ive tuned the motors in mach3 and they sound good and have good speed and torque.

i have 8 wire  step motors, but ive only hooked up 4 wires so far just to see if it would work.  i'll be paralell connecting the rest of the wires on monday.  have to see if that will make any difference.

i'll also get the limit switches hooked up and see what happens with those.

4

General Mach Discussion / 1st timer...Mach 3 help

« on: May 11, 2006, 08:28:56 AM »

hi

im starting a project to rebuild an old cnc lathe.  im a mechanical engineer, so i have little knowledge of electronics and such.

what im using is mach3 turn with Gecko 201's on each of the 2 axis along with the combo breakout board from campbell.

so far ive hooked up the steppers to the gecko's and breakout board to the pc.  ive done some jogging and adjusted the turning options to suit the threading on my axels.

i have some questions about the electrical side of this though. 

1. the Z-axis, when set up according to the instructions with campbell's board (active low), the z-limit starts blinking (limits are not connected yet) and the only way to resolve this is to set the signal to active high, contrary to the instructions of the breakout board.  x works fine with active low.  what could be going on here?

2.  The Z-axis/gecko is hooked into the Z outputs on the breakout board, but the LED board blinks on the A-axis when i jog Z.  what does this mean?

3.  There is a bit of clicking noise coming from the breakout board when jogging around.  is this bad?

Thanks for any help regarding these concerns of mine.  remember im new to this, and any answers in plain laguage are greatly appreciated.

-g