Topics

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Third party software and hardware support forums. / Z-Axis not responding / moving - Help debugging

« on: February 20, 2018, 07:16:56 AM »

My DIY gantry is being uncooperative with the Z axis control. I had added a torch height controller a few months back so the control of the Z axis was now being done by the THC. From a physical standpoint the only change was the step and direction commands came from the THC unit instead of from MACH3. SO the THC decided to become uncooperative  and I removed it from the system.
Hooked the cable from the BOB back to the driver board and nothing from the Z axis controls.
Switched the cable from the Y axis to t he Z axis driver board and it drives the Z axis well.. Switching the cables back and changing the pin assignments in Ports and Pins and the "failure" follows the pins. They are enabled in Ports and Pins (6 and 7). I am certain that there is somewhere the pins are disabled but I am at a loss as to where.

I'm using Mach3, WinXP

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General Mach Discussion / System Freezes - Plasma mode

« on: February 16, 2012, 04:34:04 PM »

I am running the demo version of Mach3 Version R3.043.022 on a system with Vista with the Vista patch.
When my plasma torch fails to strike, the program interface locks up - the program continues to run but the
controller freezes as well as do the keyboard and mouse. I thought it might be noise interference between the
torch and the controller box as it was fairly close to the unit. However I have moved the control box farther
away and put a metal shield between them but it still freezes. Is this Vista related or still a shielding issue?

3

General Mach Discussion / M7 and M9 controls

« on: February 01, 2012, 10:17:02 AM »

I have a DIY CNC Gantry that I use for plasma cutting. My torch is a cheapo Chinese unit that works great when hand cutting but not for the CNC. I am adding an electronic spark starter system so the arc starts reliably but am having some diffiulties in making the system work the way I want it to. Once the arc starts, I want to turn off the starter circuit. My initiall thought was to use the mist coolant on (M7) to fire off the starter circuit and then All Coolant Off (M9) to shut the circuit down. Problem is that the M9 shuts off the plasma cutter as well.
Is the response to the M9 correct? I'm using M3 to start the torch and M5 to stop.
John