Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Parallel port driver

« on: December 24, 2021, 01:28:42 PM »

Dumb question. Is it possible to use an older parallel port driver (v2.63) on a newer version of mach3 (v3.043.045). I know these are installed when mach3 is installed but is it possible to change it?

2

General Mach Discussion / driver watchdog question

« on: August 17, 2021, 03:31:46 PM »

I have wondered this for years. I always uncheck watchdog under general config and mach3 is happy. It will randomly recheck itself about once a month or so. I thought i would look into screen4 and just remove the checkbox so mach3 couldn't recheck it. But it looks like that is not possible. I cannot find the config page in screen4. Is there anyway to permanently disable this?

3

General Mach Discussion / c axis spindle on a lathe strange problem

« on: August 08, 2021, 08:45:24 PM »

I have a lathe that uses an ac servo for the spindle motor. It is set up to function as a spindle motor but also a servo for c axis positioning. I've always struggled with the steps per unit (degrees). If i rotate at 10000 degrees per minute i get a different amount of rotation than if i rotate at 90000 degrees per minute. I've never been able to figure out why. I'm using version 3.043.045 as this allows the pokeys plugin and also better rapids than .062. I do not use rot 360 rollover so i can program 1000's of degrees to rigid tap to depth. So why does rotational speed affect the steps per degrees?

4

General Mach Discussion / Cutting a square thread

« on: March 28, 2020, 02:00:25 PM »

I hate this job. This is the 3rd or 4th time ive done it. Everytime its a struggle. The O.D. is .370, minor diameter is .275, 1/8" thread, 4 TPI. The length of thread is about 5.4". It is supported with a tailstock and a button as pictured. It takes alot of thread relief to allow for the helix under the cutting edge. Cheap Shars inserts just break right off. It has to be done with quality top notch inserts. I use 1/16" grooving inserts because 1/8" causes too much deflection. Now, my problem is that the first 1-1.5 turns of the thread is too wide. I have 4 spring passes programmed and it is pretty much cutting nothing when it finishes. It seems like the acceleration in the z axis is too fast for the first 1/2" or so. (overshoot maybe) I can only start off the part by about 1/4". I've tried lowering the rpm but it still does the same thing. The motor acceleration is pretty fast as it is ac servos. I tried turning off cv also. The last time i did these it was with a much older version of mach3. I don't know what else to try.

5

General Mach Discussion / UC400ETH soft limit problem

« on: April 22, 2019, 01:23:56 PM »

SO. i'm finally messing with an external motion controller. I've tried smoothstepper and didn't care for it. Now i have a uc400eth motion controller on the machine. The problem i have is software limits now cause the system to estop. Which of course de powers the servos and position is lost. Parallel ports never had this problem. Is this just the way it is? Because there really isn't alot of settings to be changed with the motion controller or am i missing something?

6

General Mach Discussion / Windows xp vs Windows 7

« on: January 02, 2019, 03:13:26 PM »

I realize this has probably been hashed to death. I like windows 7 better except for one problem. If the machine sits idle for too long early in the day, mach3 stops communicating with the B.O.B. or it looses the charge pump or something like that.  (parallel ports) I have several machines with win7 and they all do it. Of course i've disabled the screensaver, sleep function and all that stuff but they all still do this if they sit too long. If they keep running parts all morning, they are fine. Windows xp doesn't have this problem but it is getting more difficult to load xp on newer computers with solid state drives. I've read that it is related to mach3's parallel port driver but no one has solved it. Can anyone shed some light on this. Are there earlier versions of mach3 that do not do this?

7

General Mach Discussion / scripter compile error

« on: December 10, 2018, 05:08:05 PM »

I have a lathe with a tool changer. Been running for years. In past years, maybe once a year i would have a scripter compile error and it would fail to change tools and crash. The past 4 months i've had it happen at least 4 times. Twice i caught it and the other two....well it knocked the turret out of alignment. Restart mach and it will be fine. So my question is, why does this randomly happen? How can i make it stop executing code if an error occurs?

8

General Mach Discussion / port 2 pin 2-9 as inputs

« on: November 11, 2018, 02:31:56 PM »

First off, i cannot search, i keep getting an error:

2: pspell_new(): PSPELL couldn't open the dictionary. reason: No word lists can be found for the language "en".
File: /var/www/vhosts/machsupport.com/forum.machsupport.com/forum/Sources/Search.php
Line: 700

Now to my real problem. I can't get mach to see port 2 pin 2-9 as inputs. I have it checked on ports and pins page. Address is right because outputs work. My pci parallel card is the same as i have in other machines and is capable of ecp, epp, and spp modes. Windows 7 will only show it as ecp LPT port  in device manager.  I thought this was the problem but my other windows 7 machines show the same thing. In bios, i cannot set it for epp only, my only choice is ecp/epp mode. I guess at this point, i need to probe the cable and make sure the signal is getting all the way back to the pci card. Pretty sure it is though.

9

SmoothStepper USB / backlash and feedhold questions

« on: March 22, 2018, 10:56:46 AM »

I have a Tormach 440 up and running with a usb smoothstepper. I have two problems that i have not sorted out yet. I have  backlash enabled and proper numbers in there (.0012" in z). When taking a cut across x axis, the cut starts and about mid way thru the cut the z moves .0012" and then finishes the x cut back at z0.  If i disable backlash, it does not do this. The machine is set up to home off of switches. The second problem i have is that feedhold is about useless. It was never that great with parallel ports but with the SS, it goes even longer before finally stopping. Is this normal?

10

General Mach Discussion / ALLEN BRADLEY 2090-UCSR-A300

« on: March 08, 2018, 06:16:16 PM »

Hello everybody,
I've got an Allen Bradley dsd-020 drive and motor as a spindle motor. Motor turns 5k and spindle turns 7500. It has quite a bit of regeneration when decelerating. I added an ALLEN BRADLEY 2090-UCSR-A300 shunt module. Well, i tried to anyway. I bought a used one on eBay and it wouldn't activate and the drive would get bus over voltage alarms. I tried turning the adjust screw all the way down but the shunt never activates. So i bought another one. Same thing. Am i missing something or have i just gotten two bad drives in a row now.