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1

General Mach Discussion / Cannot probe in inverse time feed mode error

« on: September 10, 2018, 06:55:21 PM »

Mach 3 is set up and running with a Galil controller and servo motors. I can jog all three axes. However when I enter a G-code command G31 X-1 F30 I get this error and no motion. "Cannot probe in inverse time feed mode error". Any clue what that means I have done, or need to do? Everything works fine in Galil SmartTerminal.

2

Galil / Problems with Galil_ST Galil MP3 ver 4.6 plugin

« on: September 10, 2018, 02:30:21 PM »

I have had a lot of grief with ver 4.6 plugin. For one thing, it will not let me config the plugin a second time, Mach3 locks up due to a time out error.

Second problem, the DROs do not seem to read the motor encoders the way they are supposed to. This often leads to gross position errors. Manually moving the motors does not change the encoder under any condition I could find. The DROs only change when the motor is commanded to move from Mach3, and will change on a G31 command or a jog command even with the power disconnected from the motors and therefore no motiion. A G31 X1 F30 command will move the X encoder to 1.000 even though the motor and encoder never move! This would be normal with a stepper motor since all the DROs have to work with is the number of pulses and direction sent to the stepper.

The DP counter in Galil SmartTerminal is being incremented during manual motor moves.

Ver 4.4 seems to work correctly in both regards mentioned above. Smurf seeems to have lost all his copies of ver 4.4, but I have a copy that I am willing to send anyone who sends me a private message with their e-mail address, or you can contact me at bbutcher85@yahoo.com. I do not check my private messages very often.
Bob Butcher

3

Galil / Gross loss of position using servos and encoders with Galil

« on: September 09, 2018, 01:57:07 AM »

I have a weird problem. I am running a DMC 1750 Galil controller with servo motors and US Digital encoders. I have two Mach 3 profiles that I can use, and in one profile the DROs update while manually turning the motors. In the second profile, the DROs do not update while manually turning the motors. The DROs work correctly in both profiles when the motors are being driven.  With motors off, I can move one or two inches and restart the motors with the DRO now updating from the old position (a loss of position of 1-2 inches, i.e. 20000 to 40000 encoder counts in my system).


This is with the two profiles operating on the same hardware with no changes other than opening a different profile. Both profiles are configured to disable the motor amplifiers on E-stop.

I still seem to be communicating with the Galil controller since I can activate a limit switch and see the change on the diagnostic page, both with and without motors activated.

4

Galil / Limit Switch Connection question

« on: September 08, 2018, 09:38:45 AM »

I had my 3 axis system connected and running fine, but decided to add a 4th axis and rewire my controller to make room for the additional motor amp (all motor amps are Copely 306A). These motor amps take a +/- 10V signal for the input rather than a step and direction signal. I had my limit switches connected only to the motor amps in the old system, and therefore Mach3 was not aware they existed. If any axis hit a limit, the motor would stop for that axis only until it was commanded to move away from the limit, but Mach3 would continue running the program as if nothing was wrong. This led to some interesting shaped parts at times but not exactly what I wanted of course.

My revised controller now connects the limit switches to the Galil ICM 1900 break-out board, and uses the AMPEN(x,y,z) pin to enable the motor amp. The motors, encoders, and limit switches were set up using SmartTerminal to get all motors running the correct direction, not running away, and stopping when they hit a limit switch. I only have limit switches connected to the X,Y,&Z axis. I did discover that I got an error22 in SmartTerminal when the unused limit switch connections were not grounded for the FLSW and RLSW pins on ICM 1900. Do I need to ground other unused limit switch pins?

I then set up Mach 3 and the Galil plugin to match the configuration, but was not sure if my limit switches are active high or active low. I mapped them to the appropriate Mach3 pins per the instructions in the GalilPlugIn.pdf file. When I look at the Mach3 diagnostic screen, I see the limit switches all activated if I configure them as active low in the Ports & Pins setup screen, and not activated if I use Active high.

In either active high or active low, when I reset the controller and try to move a motor, I get an error message about limits and the motor does not move. The motors come on and lock in position when I perform the reset, just no motion. I may have selected the wrong limit switch condition when configuring the Galil plugin, but am unable to run configure a second time without locking up Mach3.

A simplified schematic showing the old and new limit switch connections and the ICM to motor amp connections is attached, along with the limit switch mapping for the GalilPlugIn.

5

Galil / DRO working differently on two different MACH3 profiles & config problem

« on: September 06, 2018, 06:53:35 PM »

I have a DMC1750 with ICM1900 connected to three axes with servo motors and encoders. High and low limit switches on all axes. Windows 2000 OS, licensed Mach 3 Version R3.043.066, Galil-ST plugin ver 4.6. All connections to ICM1900 verified, and correctly mapped into Mach3 and tested using diagnostics screen.

I am adding a 4th axis and rewired my controller. The result of rewiring is I now have a servo motor reversed on the X axis, but this was worked out in Galil SmartTerm. When I click on the yellow config button in Config plugins, I get an error message "timed out waiting for a response" or something like that. Mach 3 screen locks up and must be closed. The only way I can change my motor configuration is to create a new profile, which I have done and have it configured and all 3 axes moving, limits working, and DROs working accurately while motors are being driven or jogged. The 4th axis is not enabled yet. However when I click Reset and move the stage manually the DRO does not change (same on all 3 axes). I also cannot config the Galil ST ver 4.6 plugin a second time without creating another new profile.

When I load my old profile, I can move the stages and the DROs follow the movement accurately, which they did for years before the changes. Of course I cannot Reset since my X-axis motor takes off, being reversed from what it was previously. I have checked every config screen I can find, and they are identical between the two profiles. Of course I cannot check my galil ST plugin configuration on the original profile. Since the old profile works as before regarding the DROs, I do not believe it to be a wiring issue.

Two questions, how do I get the new profile DRO to follow the motor encoders when manually moving with reset activated. Second question how do I fix the Galil config problem.

6

General Mach Discussion / Confused about work offsets

« on: October 24, 2015, 07:22:38 PM »

I have Mach3 interfaced with a Galil plug-in running a 3 axis Bridgeport that I converted to CNC. For a year or two, everything was fine, but now I seem to have somehow assigned work offsets that I do not want. I cannot seem to set the offsets to zero since that just changes the DRO reading, and setting the DRO to zero changes the offset. For example my X offset is -3.6 inches and Y is 1.6 inches (G54). I have tried using other Fixtures (G55, etc) to no avail. I also tried using G53 in my G-Code to run in machine coordinates, which works sometimes, but then the offset will appear later in the program.

I want to set the corner of my vice to be X0 & Y0 and lower the tool until touching the part and set Z0 at this point. In fact I have added a tool change subroutine at the end of my G-code that is called whenever a tool change is required (no auto tool changer). The subroutine executes an M0 command where I can press Stop and use the button jog to lower the tool to the correct height. Then I click on Cycle Start to continue the program.

I am using BobCad CAM to generate the G-code, and I always select "Override Offsets" which seems to only apply to tool offsets. I have gone into the code and edited to replace all instances of G54 with G53, which seems to work sometimes.

One possible problem area is that my limit switches are wired directly to my motor amplifiers to stop motion by disabling the amplifier when a limit switch is reached. There is no connection for X Home, Y Home, or Z Home in Mach3.

Since I am interfacing with a Galil card, the parallel ports are disabled, and if I need to hardwire a home switch in I need to use the digital inputs on the Galil card instead and assign the pin to a higher number (pin45 is Galil digital Input 5 for example).

I am attaching a G-code that I am presently trying to run. This code is supposed to peck drill a series of holes using T1 (1/4 dia drill bit), which it does drill in the correct location. After the tool change called by line N31, tool T2 (1/4 dia end mill) is supposed to cut the drilled holes into slots. The slot cutting operation occurs several inches off my part, determined by the work offset G54. I also get an error in line N37 stating that the arc end and start have a different radius. This error is displayed when I load the code, but it seems to run OK up through line N33.

I have a copy of Mach3 on another computer that I use for testing my code, and the program runs fine with no error shown for line N37. Of course this computer is not connected to any machine, so I would not see an offset error.

I noticed it is possible to assign a Hot Key for the Home positions, but I am not sure just how to use that to simulate a home position. Any suggestions for how to fix this would be appreciated.

Bob Butcher

7

Galil / odd problem with DRO's

« on: November 19, 2014, 08:31:51 AM »

I have an interesting problem. I have Mach3 with a Galil DMC-1840 controller set up in Windows XP, with the Galil-ST plugin. This is connected to a Bridgeport knee mill with 3 axis servo motors. The servo motors are all connected and tuned. Mach 3 connects to the Galil controller and the motors all move in the correct direction and what seems to be the correct amount. My problem is that the DRO values for the X,Y,and Z axis do not change when the motors move. Even when not connected to the motors, when I input a move from either MDI or the MPG jog mode the DRO still reads zero. If I teach a program and run it, the simulator shows movement, but no DRO change. However if I click on the To Go button the DRO counts down the move and works as I think it should.

I have another system running Windows 2000 with a DMC-1750 controller and the DRO's read as they should. Did I miss something in set-up or what could be causing this?

8

General Mach Discussion / Odd problem with DRO in Mach3

« on: November 18, 2014, 08:43:58 AM »

I have an interesting problem. I have Mach3 with a Galil DMC-1840 controller set up in Windows XP, with the Galil-ST plugin. This is connected to a Bridgeport knee mill with 3 axis servo motors. The servo motors are all connected and tuned. Mach 3 connects to the Galil controller and the motors all move in the correct direction and what seems to be the correct amount. My problem is that the DRO values for the X,Y,and Z axis do not change when the motors move. Even when not connected to the motors, when I input a move from either MDI or the MPG jog mode the DRO still reads zero. If I teach a program and run it, the simulator shows movement, but no DRO change. However if I click on the To Go button the DRO counts down the move and works as I think it should.

I have another system running Windows 2000 with a DMC-1750 controller and the DRO's read as they should. Did I miss something in set-up or what could be causing this?

9

Galil / PC requirements for Galil and Mach3

« on: August 04, 2014, 07:24:32 AM »

Since the Galil card (DMC-1750 in my case) handles most of the work, it would seem that the PC processor speed would not be such a large factor using Mach3. I can see why speed is important when using the parallel port, but from what I understand Mach3 is just feeding a stream of 3D points for the DMC-1750 to use with linear interpolation.

My problem is that my Galil card uses the ISA bus and it is difficult (or expensive) to find a motherboard that will run at 1 GHz and that has an ISA port. I have located a used board in China for about $80 that should handle the 478 socket Celeron processor that I have from another PC. Right now I am running with the Galil Terminal program on an ancient Pentium 3 or 4 processor in Windows 98. I just purchased BobCad and would really like to upgrade to Mach3 for a more user friendly interface to my 3 axis Bridgeport mill. I have considered buying a PCI version such as DCM-1830 which might end up costing about the same as upgrading the motherboard.

Does anyone have experience with Mach3 (or Mach2) using a slower PC? I am not sure my old PC will even run with Windows 2000 or XP, but I think it might work. I probably will need to upgrade my video card in any case. Tech support agrees with my opening comment, but they cannot say that it will work with a slow PC since they cannot be certain and do not want warranty problems. I am open to other suggestions, but would prefer to spend my limited money on tooling if I do not really need the faster PC.

Bob Butcher

10

General Mach Discussion / Introducing myself

« on: October 07, 2008, 10:18:11 AM »

Hi All,
My name is Bob Butcher, and I am working on a CNC conversion of my old J-head Bridgeport mill. I have about half the hardware done, and at this time I plan to use a Galil DMC 1850 control card to drive the three axis servo motors. I could program it using the Galil programming language, but that language is different from G-codes, so I probably will use Mach to interface with the control card.

I am a retired electrical engineer, and as most retired folks, have more time than money. I bought three NEMA 34 servo motors, rated for 600 oz-in, along with Gecko G-320 servo drives. I plan to use timing belts to reduce the motor speed 2:1 for more torque. I am going to build my own power supplies using old microwave oven transformers. I am designing and building all the hardware that I can, including even the timing pulleys. Building it is at least half the fun!

Bob