Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Motor tuning dillema

« on: March 23, 2011, 10:27:34 AM »

A couple of months ago a new guy was hired as a "machinist" for my team. The first thing that I wanted to know was if he could adjust to Mach after working with a more "commercial" type of cnc. The 1st assignment that I gave him was to familiarize himself with the mill. I gave him the manual and told him to try some things. The next afternoon he quit with no explanation. My mill has not been the same since. Motors were out of tune Homing didn't work. I must have suffered from an enormous brain fart because I didn't retain a backup copy of the xml file. (Please don't rub it in, as I plan to burn the xml to a disc with a backup on the network.) I went into the xml backup folder and all the contents were gone. Empty. After spending the next hour swearing and beating my self up, I began the process of retuning. I got ALMOST everything done I still have a problem with the X axis. It seems to run fine during normal operation, but when I try to jog it, it growls, stalls, and when I attempt to reverse direction it tries to go in the same direction that I was going into previously. At times it faults and then I have to power down to reset it. HELP!!!!! I have tried and tried to retune it but nothing seems to work. Any ideas??

2

General Mach Discussion / Tool compensation in copycat

« on: October 21, 2009, 12:45:28 PM »

Can anyone please help me figure how to set the tool compensation in copycat? I went thru the manual, but it doesn't seem to address this.

Thanks,

Keith

3

General Mach Discussion / 5vdc source

« on: August 24, 2009, 10:32:21 AM »

I know this has probably been brought up before, but do I use a 5 vdc source from my PC power supply to activate things like relays, pulse +/-, enable +/- , dir +/- , limit switches, etc, or do I need to use a separate power supply for this? I have 1 on order just in case. Will there be a conflict with the + or ground with the PC ? I'm ready to wire, but I don't want to burn anything up. .

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated as the deadline on this project is drawing nearer.

Keith

4

General Mach Discussion / Linear encoders and steppers (newbie ?)

« on: August 10, 2009, 02:16:52 PM »

Well, I got stuck with this project at work, and I am green when it comes to CNC setup and conversion, so please bear with me.

I'm currently researching what I need to retrofit a "Handyman" knee mill. I'll be replacing everything. I've been reading in the posts about position loss using stepper motors, and a question came to mind.

Can I use feedback from the glass scales currently installed on the mill with the new stepper motors to create a closed loop system for positioning and running? If I can, I'll use a double parallel port so that I have enough input. (Anybody know of a good double BOB?)

I am hoping this is the case as it would eliminate problems with both loss of position, and backlash.