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1

General Mach Discussion / K2 KG3925 settings for Mach3 here

« on: November 11, 2006, 05:39:49 PM »

A number of people, myself included, have been looking for setup files for K2’s KG3925 router for Mach3.

Using a file posted by Zealous (many thanks), I’ve been working on a configuration for my 2006 model KG3925, and I’ve posted it here in the hope it may be useful.

All my comments on orientation refer to the image at the bottom of this post.

What’s in this setup

• The motor tuning has been left unchanged from Zealous’s file – 10160 steps per unit, 200ipm max velocity, 18.3 inches/sec/sec acceleration.
• The axes have been setup with the 39” as X, the 25” as Y.
• The origin (X=0, Y=0) is at the front left of the working area – to achieve this, Dir LowActive is not set for the Y Axis on Config->Ports and Pins->Motor Outputs
• In Config->Homing/Limits the Home Neg settings will move the X axis left, Y axis away and Z axis up when the REF ALL HOME button is pressed. This will move to the locations of the home switches on this machine (as desired).
• Once referenced, the Home Off. settings will set the axes to X=0, Y=24.25, Z=0. This means that when moved to X=0, Y=0, the Y axis is about 0.25” above the limit of the axis.
• In Config->Homing/Limits the Soft Max and Min values will cause the machine to slow and stop (when jogging) about 0.25” from the front edge (Y=0) and right edge (X=38.75) of the machine (as well as slowing and stopping just before the ends with the home switches (X=0 and Y=24.25). Because I often set Z=0 as the top of a work piece (i.e. generally mess about with Z) I’ve left the soft limits for Z as +5” and –5”.

EDIT: Important - these config files were setup in v1.84.001 of Mach3. It would appear that v2.0.009 works sufficiently differently that the settings will be incorrect. Make sure you read the later posts in this thread for details.

I did try to increase the axis speeds, and got to 265ipm, which works, but the control box seemed to keep cutting out, so I’ve left them at 200ipm.

I’ve also attached a metric version – where I’ve redone the motor tuning, limits and home values to mm numbers close to their inch equivalents. This looks OK, but for some reason the soft limits don’t seem to have any affect (the machine will bump into the X+ and Y- limits). I’m not yet sure if this is a Mach bug, or something I’ve done wrong.

Any comments welcome...

2

General Mach Discussion / DriverTest.exe results

« on: September 11, 2006, 04:43:17 AM »

Hi all,

I’ve just put together a PC for use with a forthcoming CNC machine. It’s a 1gig P3, and I’ve installed Windows XP and run through the optimisation XP text file.

DriverTest.exe reports the CPU speed as 996, and the pulse per second in 25Khz mode as 24394. The timing graph generally shows the line as pretty flat, but with the occasional vertical line that extends from ‘32’ to ‘48’.

Reading the Mach3 doc, I see it notes “There should be no lines longer than 1/4 inch or so on an (sic) 17” screen on most systems". This line is much longer, so, without a CNC machine to test it on, is this a subtle hint I should be looking to find another PC?

Thanks,

Gordon.