Topics

1

VB and the development of wizards / Axis Offset

« on: October 21, 2009, 03:48:14 PM »

My CNC machine is used for putting a texture on wood siding and such the like.  My main problem is having my spindle dig too deep or too shallow into the piece of wood, mainly from a defect like bow or crook.  I would love to have some sort of THC for this, but I need to get this going for the boss so I am going to try to fix a hardware problem with software. 

Is there a way to do an axis offset while the program is running?  So lets say the operator notices that the spindle is digging in too much, hit a button that adjusts the offset by + 0.05" without stopping the machine? 

I have thought of having a button that executes a VB code to pause the machine, move the z-axis to +/- 0.05, re-zero it, and then continue, but I would like to know if it's possible to do without stopping.

Thanks in advance!

Ryan


P.S. I didn't know if this is the right form or not.

2

SmoothStepper USB / E-Stop issue

« on: October 16, 2009, 07:57:43 PM »

Hello all,

What a deal for a Friday evening!  So what I have is a SmoothStepper connected to a C17 Master Control from CNC4PC, and also a C14 Dual relay board.  Everything works wonderful, all my axis's work, and everything else is going great until I turn off my coolant relay.   Every time I do that it trips the e-stop circuit of the C17 which stops everything!

Is there anybody else who has came across something like this? 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Ryan

3

SmoothStepper USB / 6-Axis SS Problem

« on: August 10, 2009, 04:52:53 PM »

Hello all,

I have read every topic in this group to see if I could find any info on the problem that I am having.  I purchased a SS + some BOB's about a month ago for replacing a controller on a machine we have here at work.  Right now I've got about 90% of the wiring done, and I'm testing/fixing the problems as they come up.  So far everything looks to be working as it should (at least on the bench).  

My problem is that the SS will only output 1.6v when I activate a output.  Everything else is working, I get good resolution on the charge pump (connect to a C17 Master Control), and from what I can tell all the axis's are looking good when connected to an oscilloscope.

Also, one more thing is that all of the Port 3 pins are active, as in they have voltage on them, and the diag window confirms this.  They don't have any thing connected to them though....

I am running the SmoothStepper Beta2 Ver 0.015obg plugin.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Ryan

4

General Mach Discussion / Best Controller for a 6 axis system

« on: July 07, 2009, 08:20:35 PM »

Hello all,

I am curious as to what to do now.  I currently have a 6-axis system from a vendor who does not need to be named.  I am looking at getting away from this current controller and move to a more reliable, "open ended" system.  I have spent all of today looking at different controllers, and I think i have a pretty good idea, but I would like to hear from YOU on what you think the best system for me might be.

What I need:
6-axis of movement, simultaneous
E-Stop/safety mechanism
6 output (can be relay or I can install manual relays)
1 analog output (0-10vDC), if I had two that would even be better.
.
..
...  And the big one...

Not parallel port controlled.  It can hook up to a device like the Smooth Stepper, but I don't want to use the parallel port on the computer.

My choices, in order of what I think will work the best:

DSPMC/IP from vital systems.
I think this would be the best controller, but I have some questions I need to talk to them about, mainly the servo control, and gecko drive compatability.

Smooth Stepper system
with the following boards from cnc4pc.com
C17 Master Control
C25 Smooth Stepper Terminal Board
C14 - Analog Signal converter

Earlier I was looking into using a G-REX system ,but after talking to the folks at gecko, they talked me out of it (maybe because they don't support it after the firmware flash)

So let me know what you think I should do.  I need to get something purchased this week (preferably the next day or two) to get this system up and going.

I look forward to hearing what you think I should use.

Thanks!!

5

General Mach Discussion / Please Wait...Generating Path

« on: January 15, 2009, 07:09:54 PM »

Hello all,

I currently am working on a 6-axis CNC Router for applying a custom texture to lumber.  This morning I finally updated to the latest version of Mach3, I was running version D1.90.072.  The main intention of this update was to loose the lag between blocks (our program is 500 lines, repeated 3 to 6 times depending on the length of the board).  After the update I keep on getting "Please Wait...Generating Path" dialog box comes up, and will not finish.  The progress meter in the box is full, but it wont close.  If I hit cancel it goes away, and I am able to run the program just as normal. 

The program still runs great, the tool path comes up, and everything else works as it should.  Our operators have more of a problem with it than I do.

Anybody else have something like this happen?

Thanks in advance!

Ryan