Messages

1

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: Huanyang VFD controller plugin

« on: December 08, 2011, 06:13:56 AM »

From my experience, the EMI from these VFD's are transmitted along the wires. Physical separation has little effect. Make sure you have a decent toroidal ferrite on the motor wires. I wouldn't rely on those clip-on ones but i think some people have got them to work. I think you should be fine putting it on the same box. Heat/thermal issues may be a different story.
Again, this is just form my experience....

Cheers
Matt

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Diagonal Lines not smooth - Router

« on: December 05, 2011, 05:58:38 PM »

What kind of motion control are you using? Can't see much info in your .xml file. I figure you're not using the parallel port? And i can't see any of you Stepper, Velocity or acceleration values....

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing offsets for slaved axes

« on: December 05, 2011, 05:18:18 AM »

Thanks Mark. Will consider that if i put servos on my machine but its not in the plans at the moment. (need to let it sink in though, still a bit muddy) ;-)

My gantry racks a fair bit as it is with the way Mach3 does gantry homing. I'm using inductive sensors and its hard to position them accurately. Installed height has a big impact. I have them within about 0.2mm but i think i'm at the point where i'll be chasing my tail. Unfortunately the Mechmate design didn't allow well for this kind of thing.

I just want to be able to measure the offset with calipers and input the value into Mach3. Didn't think that was asking too much. Not sure if Mach3 doesn't do it or if the SS doesn't.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Diagonal Lines not smooth - Router

« on: December 04, 2011, 11:39:59 PM »

I'm stilll pondering about this. I would have though mechanical binding would cuase a less repeatable error. Maybe there is some damage to the rack in that location? a damaged tooth? some swarf/grit in the rack? just thoughts....

Are all the other letters perfectly smooth or do they all exhibit a little of this stepping?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Diagonal Lines not smooth - Router

« on: December 04, 2011, 11:14:23 PM »

We have re-run the same file, and re-programmed the entire fill-file again but it follows exactly the same line/mistakes.

When you said you re-programmed and re-ran the file, was that on a new workpiece or over the same one? If it was the same workpiece, that means it followed that path under effectively no-load. Sounds very much like a mechanical binding...

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Diagonal Lines not smooth - Router

« on: December 04, 2011, 10:37:33 PM »

One way you might be able to test that is to recut the same file but shift the orign point by say 100mm in X & Y and see if the problem follows the letters or stays in the same location on the table. Does that make sense?

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Diagonal Lines not smooth - Router

« on: December 04, 2011, 10:14:07 PM »

Can you send me your Mach3 profile .xml file. If you don't know what this is, right click on the icon you use to start Mach3. There should be a link to C:\Mach3\Mach3.exe /p <something>
The <something> is the name of your Mach3 profile. There should be a file in C:\Mach3 called <something>.xml This is the file i'd like to look at.
(if you don't want to post it publicly, you can email it to me mziebarth@gmail.com)

The belt reduction is a mechanical mod I did to my machine (homemade Mechmate) to add a belt reduction between the motor and the pinion to get more torque and resolution. Its not a software mod.

It just seems the cutter is digging in. I might be wrong. What happens if you run the profile in the opposite direction (ie climb vs conventional)?

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Diagonal Lines not smooth - Router

« on: December 04, 2011, 09:47:06 PM »

Can post a little more info about your machine? motors, reduction? step per mm settings in Mach3

My first guess is that your motors aren't capable of holding their position during microstepping. Are you using a new sharp bit with lubricant? What happens if you do another pass but only take of a small amount around the edges? Does it improve?

I used to get line like that on my machine. Adding a belt deduction vastly improved it. Anytime I get lines now, i just do a small final pass around the perimeter to skim the edges.

HTH

9

General Mach Discussion / Homing offsets for slaved axes

« on: December 04, 2011, 06:38:15 PM »

Hi,

I've posted this question over at Warp9 as I'm using a Smoothstepper but i think its more of a Mach3 question.

I'm trying to use homing to square my gantry. I have a limit switch on both side of the gantry. Problem is, my switches on either side of the gantry aren't aligned perfectly. I can't easily adjust the position of my sensors. I was hoping to be to provide a different home offset for either side of the gantry. If i set different homing offsets for the two axes, the slaved axis offset is ignored.

The only way i can imagine i can do this is to unslave the two axis, home simultaneously and reslave. Can i do this? I've tried but it seems to go all wrong and axes end up mot re-slaving properly.

Cheers,
Matty

10

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: Huanyang VFD controller plugin

« on: July 21, 2010, 08:53:22 AM »

@Mark
Thanks. Yeah i'm getting good sleep now. I got your email a while back but haven't had a chance to look at it.

@BK
Got your PM. Will send you an email.

@Mikie
The problem with your old VFD sounds suspiciously like a EMI/EMC noice issue. Do you get a Mach3 'reset' wehn trying to sop or change the speed? When i had noise issues, after the spindle got up to a certain speed, the speed data stopped being updated and VFD wouldn't get any stop commands. Once the noise issue was fixed the commands worked fine.

It seems like the new VFD may have a slightly different MODBUS implementation. Maybe a proper implementation?? :-)