Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Router Profile vs. Mill Screen

« on: December 02, 2018, 08:51:18 PM »

Can someone tell me the difference between the Router Profile and Mill Profile? I notice a few differences, but nothing major. I use Mach 4 Mill for my CNC Router so I was wondering if maybe there was something different, something that would be really useful for my router?

2

General Mach Discussion / Auto Tool Setting with SUPER Small Bits, Help.

« on: November 27, 2018, 05:52:15 PM »

So I've never used a touch plate to set the Z height of tooling before, but would like to set it up in Mach 4. I'm sure there's lots of posts about this, but the search function is still not working, but my question is this I use some super small bits .0156" to be exact. I mean they are tiny. If I use the auto tool set feature in Mach 4 and it brings a .0156" bit down to a touch plate is that going to break my bit. I mean once conductivity is present how quickly does Mach 4 and my Pokeys57CNC react?

3

Mach4 General Discussion / How to get step .001 jog function on a button

« on: November 27, 2018, 05:48:48 PM »

I need to use one of my Pokeys 57CNC's pins to be able to step jog .001. In the Pokeys pendent screen there is a Step .001, Step .01, etc. and there is Inc. Jog, but when I enable them nothing works. The button input is working as it changes states when pressed in pokeys.

How do I accomplish this? I need to it to function like when you hit the CTRL key on the keyboard and it allows you to jog the increment you set in Mach.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / HELP Mach 4 Not Backing Off Enough After Referencing Machine

« on: November 25, 2018, 01:50:02 PM »

So my router has been working for some time with Mach 4, but I never hooked up the limit switches until now. They work during normal use, but when hitting Ref All upon start up of the machine its not backing off the limit completely. So it will home Z, then X, then start to do Y and then fault out from a limit switch being tripped. They're just regular snap action switches that I've used on a ton of systems.  It's weird because Mach 4 in another of my machines with the same Pokeys 57CNC board works fine.

P.S. Search function is not working and I couldn't find anything by looking manually.

Any help would be appreciated.

5

General Mach Discussion / Can you wire a proximity sensor directly to a motion control board like a pokeys

« on: April 12, 2018, 10:27:00 PM »

I'm going to use some proximity sensors for limit switches, they're NPN. Can I wire those directly to my Pokeys57CNC pins? I'm guessing I can't because it'll only provide a sinking signal to the pin and not act like a relay and have the board COM pass onto that pin?

So I'm guessing I have to wire the proximity sensor to a relay and then use that to bridge the COM to the pin?

6

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 Syncing Dual Y Motors, Help.

« on: April 10, 2018, 10:51:09 AM »

I'm sure this is on here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. Might be calling it the wrong thing. I'm using Mach 3 for my Plasma Table I just built and I'm using Master and Slave Y Axis Motors. Lots of people do it so I'm sure it's just some setting somewhere.

How do I home Motor 2 and Motor 4 together, but when one reaches it's own limit switch it's stops and the other motor continues on until it reaches it's own limit switch? That way the system will self align the Y axis from racking.

Thanks.

7

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 and Setting up a plasma system, help.

« on: April 06, 2018, 01:43:16 PM »

Ok so I went a different route. Didn't add to my cnc router, but built an entirely new CNC machine for plasma. I don't see a lot of info so I'm trying to figure out the specific things I need for plasma. I understand most of what I need, but then there's the little things.

1. I'm using a Promo THC and I understand I wire that to my Pokeys57CNC and set the pin assignments in Mach 3 and Plugins. Does the Promo THC unit, with it's two wires going to my Hypertherm, actually fire the torch or do I do that in Mach 3 and a relay like anything else?
2. The floating head system I built uses a limit switch, I've just based my design off what I've seen and understand the mechanical aspect. That limit switch is above the floating head. Do I wire that limit switch to Z Home? Then I jog manually, once, with mach finding the actual distance from hitting limit switch to the floating head being completely down, so when the program tells it to find the top of the work piece, it can go down > hit the work piece > touch the limit switch > and move the Z axis up to the correct offset distance? And that offset is the number I put in Z Home?
3. Does all that sequence, finding the work top with floating head, happen in the CAM I'm using, namely SheetCam? Or is there a macro I need to install?

Thanks.

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Lathe Problems with Mach Motion Wizards, Is this Gcode Good?

« on: April 05, 2018, 11:06:51 PM »

So I made a different post months ago about all the errors I get when posting from Mach Motion Wizards. I think one of the creators tried to help, but wasn't getting the same errors as I was. Not sure if it's a software or computer hardware problem. I'm running all the latest Mach 4 and associated drivers. Anywho, I was making some parts the other day and noticed when i was threading the lathe carriage was jerking when it was going back to home position, move violently than normal. Then when I changed out parts and ran the same program for threading the tool was now off, by maybe 1/16", in the X axis. So I tried lots of things, re-tuned the servos for slower speed in Mach Config. That didn't work. So then i thought maybe I'm losing steps, but it' servos and if it loses position I imagine it would fault and give me an error. So I ran the program without the threading cycle and everything was dead nuts perfect. Then I ran the threading and that's where the position was off.

Here is my Gcode, does anyone see anything wrong with it?

What I ended up doing was run the threading cycle, rehome the machine, put a new part in and thread, rehome, etc... that worked, but everytime it finished a threading cycle it was off.

N0000 (Machine type - MachMotion Lathe Canned Cycles)
N0005 (Filename: C:\Mach4Hobby\GcodeFiles\Temporary - Copy.tap)
N0010 (Generated on 04/05/18 at 19:57:00)

N0015 %
N0020 G00 G40 G18 G54 G64 G80 G90.1 G99 G20 (Safe Start Block)
N0025 %

N0030 (Starting Gcode for Threading Cycle: ThreadingCycle-0)
N0035 G50 S4100 (Spindle Speed Cap)

N0040 %
N0045 G00 G40 G18 G54 G64 G80 G90.1 G99 G20 (Safe Start Block)
N0050 %

N0055 T0808 (Tool Change)
N0060 G99 (Feed per Revolution)
N0065 G97 S400 (Constant Speed)
N0070 M04 (Spindle Reverse)
N0075 M08 (Flood)
N0080 G00 X0.5750 Z0.1600  (Rapid move to Clearance Height)
N0085 G76 P040060 Q0.01 R0.005 K0
N0090 G76 X0.2965 Z-0.5 R0 P0.0785 Q0.01 F0.0625
N0095 G80
N0100 G00 X0.5750 Z0.1600  (Rapid move to Clearance Height)
N0105 (End Gcode for Threading Cycle: ThreadingCycle-0)

N0110 %
N0115 (Custom Footer Block)
N0120 G00G53X-0.25Z-0.25
N0125 %

N0130 %
N0135 M09
N0140 M05
N0145 M30
N0150 %
N0155 (End Gcode file)
N0160 %

9

General Mach Discussion / CNC Router Convert to Plasma Questions

« on: March 12, 2018, 09:57:00 PM »

Ok so I've got a CNC router I built decades ago, recently rebuilt it with a Pokerys57CNC and Mach 4 to bring it up to modern times. I need to plasma cut some parts and figured I'd slide a water table onto it and cut away!!!

I know nothing about CNC plasma cutting or very little. So questions...

1. Any advise about using a nice cnc router with a plasma cutter so I don't screw anything up? I plan on using a slide on water table to capture all the bad stuff.
2. Do I need to modify anything or can I use it as is? I assume I'd only need a THC if I were cutting all the time on it and/or warped or multi level parts.
3. I assume Mach 4 Plasma works like Mach Mill and just runs the machine with coordinates and all the other stuff like torch cut width compensation and so forth is all adjusted in the CAM program.
4. Normally I use RhinoCAD and RhinoCAM to generate my GCode. What do I use for plasma, cause I assume it has special settings for width of the plasma stream (don't cross the streams), etc... I know people use sheetcam, but is there anything I can do in my current CAD/CAM?
5. If I'm not using A THC is there a specific height I use for all materials that the torch should be from the workpiece?
6. I assume I can just turn on my plasma torch with it's existing CNC port and a relay hooked up to my Pokeys57CNC? Do I need to do anything to protect the electronics from the plasma system?
7. Last question! I hope. Feeds and Speeds for plasma, is there a chart then just tweak from there?

Thanks in advance. I can guess and research most of this, but I like the opinions of you people as you know best.

10

Mach4 General Discussion / API Function Codes Help

« on: January 28, 2018, 01:28:25 AM »

I looked through all of Mach 4 Core API for the function codes, but can't seem to find them.

I want to add some physical buttons to my pendant and need the codes so I can add them to the lua script.

1. Ref All Axis.
2. Zero Fixture Z

Any help would be appreciated.