Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Setting up Soft Limits Help

« on: January 20, 2021, 07:48:28 PM »

So I've never used soft limits, but now I have a VistaCNC Pendant and want to setup them up on my Mori Seiki Lathe. From what I'm reading in the Mach 4 manual I use the numbers from the DRO in Machine POS Toggle. Well with my tool changer in the upper right hand corner of my lathe and then backed off the limit switches for safety I'm using -.125 for both X and Z, then for X max, I jog my machine near the max X limit switch which is X-3.4 and Z is -7.8. So input those into the soft limits the only way Mach allowed me and saved it and restarted mach for extra measure and then homed the machine and when I restarted I tried jogging toward the soft limit and it did nothing. I went right past them. What am I doing wrong? See pic for my settings.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / CNC Plasma NOT Working Error Code Please Help.

« on: January 14, 2021, 06:39:34 PM »

Ok i've never got this CNC plasma running correctly. I built it from scratch 3 or so years ago. And it runs, but not consistently. Most of the time the torch moves to the start position, turns on, start the arc and then does nothing and gives me the error MACRO ALARM: 3 MERROR_TIMED_OUT. I usually have to restart mach or the computer or both to get it to cut.

I'm using a brand new Hypertherm 85 Plasma Cutter, Pokeys57CNC (which I'm very good at using, I have this motion controller on 3 of my machines with no problems.), Pokeys Plasma Sens THC Module (thought it might be that as I started with the Proma THC 150, but that didn't change anything).

The main problem I've always had is the THC doesn't follow the contours of the metal. I've tried everything and all the equipment works, but it never seems to move the torch head. I've never had good luck with laptops and cnc, but the plasma is outside in a pop up sealed tent thing so I used it for that. I just changed to a desktop to see if that made a difference, but it was an old PC I pulled from work as it was running slow. I reinstalled windows 10, re-setup the entire system. When I cut the torched finally moved, but I couldn't always get it to actually run as after it started the arc I'd get this error MACRO ALARM: 3 MERROR_TIMED_OUT. So I bought a new old computer from amazon, re-setup everything and tried again. Now it won't run even after restarting mach or anything. Arc starts and then I get this error. I'm at my wits end.

Any help would be appreciated.

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Fanuc 6 Axis Robot Arm Help with Concept

« on: January 10, 2021, 03:51:59 AM »

Hi all. I just won at auction a full sized Fanuc S-420iw Robot Arm. I've been watching Lignum Videos on Youtube for years. For those how haven't seen it they have a robot arm CNC'd with a Router head. Pretty awesome. Big work envelope; well not so much big as versatile.

So I'd like to do the same. I guess the questions are when controlling a robot do I run all the programming, g-code, through the controller that it comes with? Or do I run mach 4 through it's controller or do I bypass it all together and wire it as I would any CNC machine I've built from scratch?

I guess that would be a good place to start for some help. I've never used a robot before so I have the most basic understanding of how they work.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Threading Problem When Changing Motor Speed! WEIRD

« on: November 26, 2019, 05:42:15 PM »

Ok so I've got a 1978 Mori Seiki Lathe that I rebuilt and redid all the electronics and programming. Works well. Now I usually only cut short thread, 1/2" - 3/4" long, and usually 1/4-20. Then over the last few days I've been making a lot of parts using the machine for like 12 hours a day. I've always had some weird quirks with this machine and the Mach Motion built in wizards, see other posts in you're interested.

To make a long story short sometimes I have missed steps, whatever you call in with servos, so using the machine a lot lately I'm running into the problem more frequently. The machine loses steps when moving short distances using rapid. So at the end of cut when the tool goes back to X.75 Z0 (the beginning of the part) then back to home. So I figured I never cut at full speed I'll slow the servos down. I went from 80 Velocity and 20 Acceleration to 40 Velocity and 5 Acceleration to see if that was the problem. Didn't completely work, but worked well enough. The motors, mind you, were still smooth running.

So then I went to cut some 1"-8 threads that I was cutting the day before and the thread pitch was WAY off. More like 1"-20. I have no idea of why this would change anything. I just changed the motor speeds not the steps per inch.

Can anyone tell me what the deal is and how to correct this. Looking back to a couple days ago I noticed that the first 1/2" of the 1"-8 threads were pretty dam close, but 1" further down the pitch was off. I figured it was my original ball screw which is execllent, but NOT perfect. So now I realize that the pitch being off was not the ball screw but the motor speeds. As a side note when cutting lengths on Z the measurements are alwasy accurate.

5

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?

6

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?

7

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.

8

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.

9

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?

10

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.