Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 strange behaviour Z axis on lathe

« on: April 10, 2020, 02:30:42 AM »

Hi, it's been a while since I was here, but like a bad penny I keep turning up.
I had a problem with my Spindle on the lathe which turned out to be a faulty servo controller, so for the time being I have gone back to my VFD and 3 phase motor setup. This issue occurs regardless of the spindle running or not, also I'm using an ESS, so I doubt it's caused by interference from the VFD.
After getting the spindle working, I thought I'd give things a try and attempted to bore a 40mm wide x 25mm deep hole in a tube. The Z axis, however was unwilling to co-operate.
The problem when I run the job is as follows:
The X axis moves to the commanded position
The Z axis remains stationary, but the DROs on the computer count down as if it is moving.
Upon reaching the commanded depth (25mm) on the Z axis (but not actually moving Z) it moves back 25 mm and this time it actually moves Z, so it is actually 25mm away from the job on the Z axis.
This repeats, as it thinks it is doing cuts, so the Z axis is further and further away by 25mm a time from the job.
I am using step and direction to control the Z axis servo driver, so to test things, I commanded G0z0 when the Z axis was at 25mm. The z moved as expected. I then commanded G1f100z0 from 25mm and got no z movement, although the Z DRO showed the axis moving to 0.
I'm a bit perplexed by this behaviour and I'm hoping someone will have something for me to try.
Cheers and stay well
Dave

2

General Mach Discussion / How to stop servo spindle gracefully on Estop or stop button?

« on: October 09, 2019, 11:12:45 PM »

Hi, it's been a while since I posted, but there is a minor issue with my lathe that I have been meaning to ask for help about for a couple of years.
The issue is as follows: When I start and stop the servo spindle using M3 and M5, or the spindle on / off button, the spindle starts and stops gently, it takes a couple of seconds to stop.
If I panic for some reason and hit Estop or the stop button, the axis movement stops immediately and the spindle tries to stop immediately with a loud clunk. Unfortunately this overloads the servo controller and it comes up with the appropriate error.
I think the error is something like "what the hell did you just do to me?".
There is probably a setting somewhere in Mach3 to tell it to be more gentle when stopping the spindle, even in an Estop situation.

3

General Mach Discussion / Intermittent probing

« on: April 30, 2019, 06:54:50 PM »

Hi everyone, is been a long time between visits to this forum, but I've finally realised a need for probing on my cnc router.
I am using an Ethernet smooth stepper with the latest plugin for motion control.
To keep things simple and avoid complications I am initially using the standard Mach3 router screen set.
I have the tool on the router connected to signal gnd and pin 16 on parallel port2 connected to a piece of circuit board material. The input for the probe is configured in Mach3 to match these physical connections.
When I jog the Z axis tool down, upon touching the for surface of the board, it always lights the probe led in the mach3 diagnostics screen.
My probing results are inconsistent however, using G31 Z, for example, sometimes Z motion will stop when the probe touches the surface of the board (as expected) other times, despite the led in diagnostics coming on to show the input for probing as active, the Z axis to will continue to bury itself in the circuit board until I hit stop, or the Z axis motor stalls.
Other than this new issue, all of the inputs and outputs work well on what has been a workhorse router.

4

General Mach Discussion / Spindle servo on lathe is 10% fast

« on: April 11, 2018, 06:43:25 PM »

Hi, while I was on a roll, I thought I might ask if there are any suggestions as to why M3 reports my spindle as travelling at 10% faster than the commanded speed. I use a hall element from a car distributor as the spindle rpm sensor (index). A steel plate with a single slot attached to the spindle supplies the pulse. When I command S1000 M3, I get a readout of 1100. If I command S500 M3, I get 550 on the readout. I am using an ESS, with the spindle servo driver configured in Step / Dir mode.
Thanks in advance
Dave

5

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 suddenly fails to load

« on: April 10, 2018, 03:30:16 AM »

Hi, it's been a while since I asked for help, but I need some now. Mach3 has suddenly stopped loading. I am running windows 10 with the latest updates from MS. I haven't changed anything on the PC that I know of, but the PC has installed updates automatically from MS.
I am using an ESS as the motion control device. When I try to load M3 it displays the splash screen for a few seconds and then exits with no error message.

I tried the following solutions to fix the issue:
1/ Renamed the plugins folder and created another empty plugins folder. No change in symptoms

2/ Renamed the M3 folder and then did a clean install of M3 V3.043.062. No change in symptoms

3/ Installed M3 on a different PC and then copied my M3 folder from the PC with the issue to the different PC. At this point M3 worked again, with all of the settings that it had on the PC that had the original issue.

It looks like I will need to reinstall the OS, but I'd really like to avoid that since I have a lot of other software on the PC, which will take a lot of time to reconfigure. All of this other software cohabited happily with M3.

The application logs on the PC show the following errors:
Fault bucket -1376468173, type 1
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: Mach3.exe
P2: 1.0.0.1
P3: 4f7cadb7
P4: Mach3.exe
P5: 1.0.0.1
P6: 4f7cadb7
P7: c0000005
P8: 000e1696
P9:
P10:

Attached files:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERE087.tmp.mdmp
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERE105.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERE125.tmp.xml
WPR_initiated_DiagTrackMiniLogger_One Trace User Logger_20180330 Event Collector_0_inject.etl
\\?\C:\Users\dpm\AppData\Local\Temp\WERE1B3.tmp.etl
WPR_initiated_DiagTrackMiniLogger_WPR System Collector_inject.etl
\\?\C:\Users\dpm\AppData\Local\Temp\WERE1C4.tmp.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERE1D3.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERE1F4.tmp.txt

These files may be available here:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Mach3.exe_b2b3438a4b22577a6836222a244524a992d7ab_569f85ca_09f9e7ea

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 71328820-d961-4f95-9ebb-4c0b0e059eef
Report Status: 268435456
Hashed bucket: 239de0f3940b78b735d12a64897ec5cc
Cab Guid: 0

and

Faulting application name: Mach3.exe, version: 1.0.0.1, time stamp: 0x4f7cadb7
Faulting module name: Mach3.exe, version: 1.0.0.1, time stamp: 0x4f7cadb7
Exception code: 0xc000041d
Fault offset: 0x000e1696
Faulting process id: 0x1e60
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3d09aef897873
Faulting application path: C:\Mach3\Mach3.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Mach3\Mach3.exe
Report Id: 21f5633b-f323-4587-be7e-bd77b6946436
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Help?

6

General Mach Discussion / Turning a Helix or Ramp mach3

« on: December 26, 2017, 05:27:07 PM »

Hi everybody, a Very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
I have made a furnace, and want to turn a ramp or helix for its swinging lid. This is in order to make it lift up as it swings to the side. The lid will be in the way of the crucible of molten metal if it opens conventionally with an upwards movement. I realise that I could fairly easily fabricate a ramp, but you see, I've got new servo motors on my lathe, and I'm sure it is capable of machining a ramp onto a bit of round bar.
All I need to get me started are some ideas about how to do it. I haven't been able to find a ramp wizard.

Dave

7

General Mach Discussion / Make a pipe bender die

« on: October 26, 2017, 08:32:53 PM »

Hi all
I need to make a pipe bender die for 1/2 inch tube, to bend the tube to a 2 inch radius. I assumed there would be a wizard in mach3 turn that does this, but cant find one. Basically it is the mirror image, or reverse of the Od ARC3 wizard that I am trying to achieve. I want what appears as a raised section on the wizard diagram, to be the lowered section with the same dimensions.
I was hoping that someone would know of a wizard, or a method of doing this
Thanks
David

8

General Mach Discussion / OD Arc wizard

« on: October 15, 2017, 03:00:51 AM »

I am trying to use the OD Arc wizard under Mach3 turn to cut a radius on the end of a rod. Here is the scenario:
I have a piece of hex bar that I want to cut a radius on the end of. I am making a few wheel nuts.
The bar is 20.4mm across the points of the hex. I want a radius that is 3mm below the edges of the hex, and covers all of the end of the bar. I am fairly sure that I have done this type of thing successfully in the past, and I seem to have in my mind that I specified a sphere diameter that was larger than the end of the bar, then used the graphic in the wizard that shows where it will cut, to fine tune the arc until it covered the end.
I am using these parameters: Z center 0, Z start 10.2, Z end 7.2. X start 10.2 X end 0
With the sphere diameter set to 20.4mm, the wizard does what I would expect, and proposes cutting a 1/2 sphere, finishing 10.2mm down the nut.
If I put a larger sphere diameter into the wizard, the image on the screen in the preview, is nothing that I am able to understand.

9

General Mach Discussion / Servos progressing well, but question about index

« on: September 22, 2017, 12:35:51 AM »

As mentioned in my last post, my problem with the Z axis was resolved and things have proceeded on the stepper to servo conversion of the lathe . I now have servos working well on the Z and X axis. The Spindle servo is also working (you'll notice I didn't say "well" there). According to my laser tachometer it is spinning at whatever rpm I command, and since it is a servo, I thought that M3 would take this on trust and display the commanded speed in the "Actual RPM" DRO. As I post this I am realising that M3 probably needs some type of spindle index sensor, since it would otherwise have no way of compensating for speed fluctuations when threading etc.
No point really in proceeding with my question.
Bye

10

General Mach Discussion / Unusual stepper issue on lathe

« on: August 30, 2017, 10:04:22 PM »

A couple of days ago, I played with my VFD settings, I don't remember what I did, but I didn't think I had altered anything that would upset Mach3 on the lathe.
Today, I decided to bore a pulley, but when I started the spindle, I had no Z axis movement. I stopped the spindle and both axis are moving as per usual, but running a Gcode file generated with the boring wizard, or even starting the spindle with the spindle on button results in no motion from the Z axis. I have tested the X axis, it works as expected.
I am perplexed.
I am expecting it to be something I've done when playing with the spindle, but maybe not.
Thanks for your help
Dave