Topics

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General Mach Discussion / It may be time to start over...NEED HELP

« on: April 06, 2021, 06:04:08 PM »

yeah I know that it's a deep well but I need help.
I have a Tree J325 that I retrofitted, a long time ago, with a set of Gecko G320 a Campbell design breakout board and Mach3. Since I was - and still am - new to machine control I have several areas that I need to prospect for information on.

The machine has generally been unreliable and it's probably operator error. For example, I ran the Geckos with the error/reset pin 5 connected to pin 7. Now that I have them disconnected I am running into  fault conditions that I didn't have - now they are a constant problem. For example when I do a "home all" I will get the z and x drives to fault - not sure why y is doesn't fault... Is it possible limit switches are involved? I am terrible a troubleshooting...At this point I probably need to go through the entire setup of Mach3 from the beginning but there are other areas I want to address along the way.
- I would like all axes to stop on error. I've had situations where an axis got off track and the machine kept running and ruined parts
- I don't have any relays, contactors etc set up to help with e-stop. I don't know anything about the requirements, circuit etc. But I need to learn.

I spent some time considering an improved control system like Centroid Acorn or Allin1dc but for the next short period of time I want to see what improvements can help towards getting a reliable machine that I feel confident using.
I feel the machine is in good shape and capable of much more than I have done with it - with that said I have done some small surfacing jobs but the last time I tried to make a surfaced item the machine got out of control.

I could go on and on but for now I want to focus on Mach3 and Geckos

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General Mach Discussion / Spindle speed control

« on: October 13, 2010, 11:14:33 PM »

This past weekend I decided to try the spindle calibration procedure...that was a mistake... Prior to doing this I could type in a spindle speed and use the slider to raise or lower the speed but after the calibration the spindle only goes full speed. If I re run the calibration it will start slow and speed up so some kind of control is possible but just not usable. Does the calibration change something in a file that I can either disable or fix?

Bill

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General Mach Discussion / Limit - Homing Problem

« on: December 03, 2009, 08:33:48 PM »

I watched the video and read a bunch of posts but it seems my answer wasn't there...
I have a couple problems

1. When I start the machine and reference all the axes the Machine coordinates go to 0.500 just like they should, because I have it set to move 0.50 off the limit switch. The problem is that I am nowhere near the limit switch and the machine thinks its home...I'm sure there is some setting that is off ?t I don't recall changing anything and it was working ok.

2. I currently have the y axis set to Home Negative because it won't home to +Y. Any Ideas - are these two problems related?
I'm pretty new to all this and thought maybe the problem is caused by soft limits - I extended the soft limits to beyond the travel the table id capable of and no real change..unless I didn't push the magic butoon or something...

I'm going out to have another go at it because it seems that after I write about a problem it goes away...8-)


Bill