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« on: April 26, 2009, 03:31:53 PM »
Hello my name is Oscar and im new in here.
Im working as an Automation engineer in sweden.
I have an 3 axis CNC mill at home with an old Bosch cnc system on that im planning to change to something new and i have been looking alot at the Mach 3 and i have some questions i hope some one could help me with?
First i wanna say that i have been looking at some other systems also like, Fanuc, Beckhoff and so on. But the price is far alot more money.
1) I wounder how good is the performance in the Mach 3, compared to more expensive systems like, fanuc, siemens?
2) If i have the right Servo amplifiers and motors and my mechanical on my machine is good, can this system then performace the same quality as the big systems from Siemens, Fanuc ?
3) I have been looking at Omron Sigma II drives at 2kw (8Nm on motor) for the axis movements, Is there any idea to use Absolut encoders on the motors or that is just overkill? Or inkremental is good enought?
4) I have also been looking at the SmoothStepper USB card, is this something to recommend when i use drives like this? Or maybe this is something to recommend anyway now that is excists?
5) Is the SmoothStepper card more stable than the parallelport system?
6) Is there any special good breakout card that you guys would recommend me to buy? Is it good to have the Chargepump function on the breakout card?
7) If i would like to have an MPG i think it's called. this hand held pendant with an handwheel on and with switches. Do i connect this to the breakout card? Some one know were i can this that is compatible with the Mach 3!
8 ) Is it possible to connect the pulse train from the drives to the Mach 3? Or this is there no meaning with it? If i have got it right there is no closed loop in the mach with the drives?
9) Can the mach 3 calculate the load of the axis drives and show it on the monitor, like fanuc and all other systems have? or do i need to connect an feedback from my drives to the mach 3 if its possible? Maybe over the Modbus from an PLC system?
10 ) Can i use an Axis drive like the 4th servo axis and use it for my spindle on the mill? Or the only spindle control is on the PWM output from the breakoutcard?
11) Is it possible to use the spindle control for more advanced functions like making threads? Fast ramping down, driving on low controled speed?
12) How many rows with G-codes can i have in an program? Is it the harddrive on my computer that will do the limit?
I hope some one maybe could help me with my questions.
Best Regards
Oscar Larsson