Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / ramping speed on turns

« on: August 30, 2013, 08:57:40 AM »

Hi.  I am not sure what has changed, but when I rand Mach3 over the years it always slowed down for radius turns.  It is now overshooting the turns.   Slowing down the feed rate helps some, but it is still an issue and slowing down the machine on straight shots make the job take longer.   I have a custom built CNC router and it seems to have started being an issue after I did maintenance and lined everything up, but I could have sworn the machine used to slow down for turns before.  I could not find settings to this.   Should I be dealing with the motor tuning and change the acceleration and deceleration? or is there a specific knob for radius % speed? 

Thanks,
Charlie

2

General Mach Discussion / 4th rotaray axis

« on: September 22, 2011, 03:19:13 PM »

Hi.  I am finishing up a 4 axis CNC router table. The forth axis is a rotary table.  I have it working, but in the motor tuning, I do not want inches per pulse, I want dgrees per pulse.   I also want to the readouts to be in degrees instead of inches.   Is there a way to do that?

Thanks,
Charlie

3

General Mach Discussion / Spindle On/Off

« on: September 22, 2011, 03:16:33 PM »

Hi.  I am finishing up a 4 axis CNC router table.   I wanted to turn my spindal (router) on and off.  I could not find anything to set the spindle on a simple IO line like the sptepper motors, etc.  I do not want to use a PWM, etc, just on/off remotely using the program.   I do not have speed control.  Just want to pull in a relay.  I have a relay board that will pull in with a simple TTL input from the parallel card, just not sure how to set it up.   I am assuming this is fairly easy, just need some help doing this?

Thanks,
Charlie

4

LazyCam (Beta) / Lazycam can't find mach3

« on: May 25, 2011, 09:36:14 AM »

Hi.  Just crashed my old PC and finished installing and setting up LazyCam and MACH3 on new computer.  All works fine so far except when I am in lazycam and hit the post to mach3 button I get a message that it cant find mach3 running.  I have it running, but it does not know it.   Any ideas,  I really liked this feature, makes life a lot easier to make sure I am using the latest G code, etc.   Thanks!

5

LazyCam (Beta) / Offsets not being created in LazyCam

« on: January 04, 2011, 07:15:09 PM »

Im trying to create an offset, on the far right end of the drawing but cannot seem to find anything to make it work.  I am trying to use an 1/8 endmill to do the entire part so I dont want to change tools.  The slots are suppose to be .125."  I have changed the tool diameter and the size of the slots but cannot seem to find a way to get them all to work.  They are identical parts but only two of the eight slots are being offset.  Any tips on this?   I have tried changing the tolerances as well

6

General Mach Discussion / cumulative error

« on: February 11, 2010, 05:30:46 PM »

I am getting cumulative error that i have not noticed before.   I am using a simple 3 axis router table and after running just a little while, i hit the verify button and pretty high error.  I recently upgraded the computer that is using an PCI Parallel card.  I have tried slowing down the acceleration and speed, but it does not seem to help.   I have run the driver test and it starts by saying pulsing too fast, then it restarts and says my connection is excellent, but the green bar is only about half way.  Everything seems real tight on the machine and its well lubricated.   I suspect the new computer/configuration since I have never noticed the error before on much larger routines it would always keep up.  Any ideas what I can try.

Thanks,
Charlie

7

Screen designer tips and tutorials / Sorry for the hopefully simple basic question

« on: February 10, 2010, 02:03:40 PM »

I have never made a custom screen before, but need to.  I saw the tuturial on screen4, not sure if that is the right thing to use.  The main issue is I can even find the program.   I do not want to create one from scratch.  I want to just make a couple changes to the main standard screen and add some of the control pendant features onto the same screen.   I have a touch screen LCD and want to be able to jog, etc without using the keyboard and hiting tab to show the jog pendent.  I don't have spindal control, so I was just going to put the jog buttons in the spindal area and delete the spidal controls.   I assume I should make a custom screen versus modifiing the existing.  Can someone give me some real quick pointers as far as what program I use and where it is and how to do some copy and paste of the existing functions to make my custom screen. 

Thanks!
Charlie

8

Mach Screens / new touchscreen questions

« on: February 01, 2010, 10:50:47 PM »

I got a deal on some LCD touchscreens for $10 and they work great.  So now i want to captitalize on my investment...

Hopefully simple questions so I can elimiate using the keyboard to some degree when cutting and setting up.

How do I get the pendent to pop up and disapear (<TAB> on the keyboard)

This one may be a little more complex.  There is a jog on/off button off way to the right of the pendent screen (<ctrl-Alt-J>), how can I move this so I don't have to take up the whole screen, its a great feature so I can run slow or step or move quickly by just touching the screen only.

Thanks,
Charlie

9

General Mach Discussion / rolling to a new computer

« on: January 26, 2010, 12:35:26 PM »

Is there a set of files/folders, etc to copy from my existing PC to put on my new PC that I will be using Mach3 and LazyCam on?  Or can I just copy the entire directory?   I don't want to lose my stepper motor setup, limits, etc, licences, etc.   I am currently using XP, and the new computer is supposed to come with a dual install of either XP or Windows 7, so I plan on sticking with XP.  Is there anything else I need to calibrate, etc since the new computer will be a lot faster than the dinosaur I currently use.

Thanks,
Charlie

10

LazyCam (Beta) / pockets messing up

« on: December 19, 2009, 01:11:15 AM »

Hi.  I am trying to get a pocket to work.  Its a rather complex shape, but its not working at all. I have fiddles with all the settings and have had no luck.  All the radius are 1/16 and I plan on using a 1/8 endmill.   I will not create a pocket.  As shown in the blue the pocket is actually going beyond the chain and not filling into the inner island.  I tried a 1/16 end mill and it kept it inside the chain, but did only one sweep and did not fill the pocket.  I have played with the connection tollerances too.   Please help.   Screen shot attached.