Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Spindle Delay DRO's

« on: November 01, 2012, 08:03:56 AM »

Are the Spindle delays in the Spindle Setup available in a variable or DRO?
I would like to retrieve the values and set them via macro.

CW Delay Spin up
CCW Delay Spin up
CW Delay Spin down
CCW Delay Spin down

Thanks,
Richard

2

General Mach Discussion / Mach + Smoothstepper and Dwell

« on: October 18, 2012, 09:46:01 AM »

I know that Dwell in milliseconds hadn't worked with the smoothstepper in some time.  I'm not sure it ever got fixed.

My question is, if Mach & Smooth stepper only supports Dwell in Seconds, then will fractions of a second not work?

G4 P0.5   This seems to be totally ignored and 1 second is way too long.

I'm doing tapping routines and I'm trying to fine tune the Dwell between the M4 and backing out of the hole. Anyone know a way around this?

(Mach 3.43.53)

Thanks,
Richard

3

SmoothStepper USB / SS does not back off of home switch

« on: January 19, 2012, 10:11:52 AM »

I have a smoothstepper and homing is working fine for XYZ Axis but on my C Axis, after it homes, it backs off just a tad and leaves the home switch acivated.
I can watch the Home LED and when it backs off the C I never see the LED go off.  C is a large rotary axis so it takes numerous steps to back off.
BTW, It's an optical interruptor switch H21A1.

Is there a fix for this other than me editing each and everyone of my Home Button Scripts for all my screens?

Richard

4

VB and the development of wizards / VB Help

« on: January 17, 2012, 11:09:30 PM »

Hello All.  It's been many years since I played with basic and I'm doing pretty good on some complex macros however I have two items I need to ask about.

1)  It seems the only way I can get messages to post to the message line and the errorlog is to make sure there is Code "something" afterwards.

Message("Send Test 1")
Code "G4 P0.5"
While IsMoving(0
  Sleep(10)
Wend

Any code will work, it doesn't have to be dwell.  But If I do not put code in there but just a sleep(10) or the While IsMoving() I stand a 50/50 chance the message will post.



2) Compound Booleans Test

If (RED=1 AND BLUE=1) OR
   (RED = 0 And Green = 1) Then
      do something
End If


Can multiple Boolean Tests be performed like this without using a lot of If Then Else and duplicating code?

Richard

5

Machscreen Screen Designer / DRO Question

« on: January 15, 2012, 01:19:08 PM »

Okay, I'm a newby and I'm creating my first screen.
I created a new screen for my Tool changer and I'm having an issue with a couple of DRO's.

When I add a DRO for Current Tool Number DRO - Code 24 it never actually displays the current tool, always Zero.
If I enter a number in there, it does update the Current Tool DRO on other pages, but mine still says Zero.

Also, I created another DRO and I'm trying display the value in the OEM DRO1200 but It always shows Zero as well.
I used the following:  OEM Code 12000

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Richard

6

General Mach Discussion / G84 SRT

« on: November 02, 2011, 01:31:55 PM »

Is there any configuration for the G84 tapping routine.  It doesn't have any type of dwell between the M4 and the Feed back out of the hole and it causes the tap to jump out at 0 Zed.

Richard

7

General Mach Discussion / I can't get the G95 feedrate to work properly in Macro

« on: November 02, 2011, 11:38:56 AM »

I took some snipits from the forum here and was trying to use a macro for tapping but it's not working.
When done in a sub, it works fine, when in a macro, the feed barely moves.

Subroutine that works:

G20 (Units: Inches)
G40 G90

(Set Editable Parameters)
#1=0.36         (Set Thread Depth)
#2=16.0         (Set Thread Pitch in Turns per Inch)
#3=400         (Set RPM)
#4=0.1      (Set Rapid Height)

(Internal Parameters)
#103=0.91      (Underfeed, 0.91 -> 9 %)
#104=[#103 * 1.0/#2]   (feed rate adjusted for under feed)

G0 X0 Y0
G0 Z#4
M98 P1
M5 M9
M30


O1
G95 F#104
S#3 M3 M8
G4P4
G1 Z[#103 * #1/-1]
S#3 M4
G4P0.5
G1 Z#4
G94
M99


Macro Doesn't work:

'M975.m1s  Tapping Macro
'
'Set Editable Parameters in Main Program
'#1=0.36         (Set Thread Depth)
'#2=16.0         (Set Thread Pitch in Turns per Inch)
'#3=400         (Set RPM)
'#4=0.1      (Set Rapid Height)

(Internal Parameters)

OrigFeed = GetOEMDRO(55)
CODE "#103=0.91"      'Underfeed, 0.91 -> 9 %
CODE "#104=[#103 * 1.0/#2]"  'feed rate adjusted for under feed

CODE "G95 F#104"
CODE "S#3 M3 M8"
CODE "G4 P4"
CODE "G1 Z[#103 * #1/-1]"
CODE "S#3 M4"
CODE "G4 P0.5"
CODE "G1 Z#4"
CODE "G94"
CODE "F" & OrigFeed

8

SmoothStepper USB / Smoothstepper - Endless Loop

« on: October 18, 2011, 05:47:56 PM »

I have my smoothstepper powered from my PMDX126 board via the ribbon cables.
The problem I'm seeing, if I ever start up mach3 with my control box not powered, or if I cycle the powere to the control box, I get endless dialog boxes stating there were Read and Write Errors.
The problem is, you can power the control box back up and these endless dialogs never go away and you can not escape from them without doing a 3 finger salute and End Task.

Is there a way to fix the above endless loop?

I figure I could power the smoothstepper from USB and leave the PMDX126 powered by it's AC Mains, but won't that start causing issues with different power supplies and grounds?

Thanks,
Richard

9

General Mach Discussion / ALT-S (STOP) Causes Mach3 to go into Reset Mode

« on: September 27, 2011, 10:43:29 PM »

I do not see this on my stepper based system so I think it's something to do with my Servo setup.

I'm running a PMDX126 board, G320 drives, and KelingInc Servos.  When I have G-Code running and I press the STOP button,
it automatically puts Mach3 into Flashing Reset Mode.  I click on reset and I can go again but I do not think this should be the case and I sure think I could loose my work positions.

Any idea what might be happening?

THanks,
Richard

10

Brains Development / How to handle VFD with no Coils

« on: May 12, 2011, 03:35:59 PM »

New at brains.  I had Fwd and Rev working with the Standard Serial Modbus, but now I swap over to brains and Plugin Modbus.

My Teco 7300EV only uses holding registers instead of Coils.
I have a Brain working to Start and Stop the Spindle, and another to set the RPM and Overide.
It works in Forward only at the moment.

What I would like to do is find out the state of CW and CCW and send the proper value to the Holding Register as a 16 bit value instead of a coil / bit.
Would it work to use some user vars to set Run in one and Direction in the other then just AND them together in a formula, then ship out to the register?

Bit 0 - Stop = 0, Run = 1
Bit 1 - Forward = 0, Reverse = 1

So, sending a 1 would be Run in Forward, Sending a 3 Would be Run in Reverse, and sending a Zero Stops the spindle.

Is there a better way to do this.