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General Mach Discussion / Zeroing machine coordinates
« on: August 22, 2010, 06:14:05 PM »
Hi,
I am quite new to all of this CNC-stuff, but I have successfully got my milling machine up and running and have run my very first program.
But, I have trouble with changing tools within the same program. I change tools manually, and I don't have any home-switches or means of detecting tool length.
So, the way I run a program now is:
Mount tool #1
Jog down until tool-tip touches table
Zero Z machine-coordinate
Jog to corner of work piece with tool-tip touching the top, which is my (0,0,0) in the CAM-program (and (0,0,0) in G54 fixture)
Run until next tool change
Mount tool #2
Jog down until tool-tip touches table
Zero Z machine-coordinate
Run rest of program
I plan to semi-automate the Z-zeroing using a switch later.
Anyway, all this works just fine. The problem is that I can not just press the ZeroZ-button to zero that coordinate (nothing happens). I must use the "REF ALL HOME", with auto-zero enabled only for Z. As I have no home-switches, the only effect is that Z is zeroed. This also means that to actually home the machine, I'll have to turn of the drivers, move to home, enable auto-zero for all axis, "REF ALL HOME" and turn on the drivers. Then I have to disable auto-zero for X and Y before doing the program run procedure above.
Sure, it's not very hard to do, but it would be much better if I could just click the ZeroZ-button and have it zero that machine coordinate (and not affecting the work piece coordinate system G54).
Is there a better way, or can I enable the ZeroZ-button, or could I perhaps do this with a script of some sort?
Regards
Alex
I am quite new to all of this CNC-stuff, but I have successfully got my milling machine up and running and have run my very first program.
But, I have trouble with changing tools within the same program. I change tools manually, and I don't have any home-switches or means of detecting tool length.
So, the way I run a program now is:
Mount tool #1
Jog down until tool-tip touches table
Zero Z machine-coordinate
Jog to corner of work piece with tool-tip touching the top, which is my (0,0,0) in the CAM-program (and (0,0,0) in G54 fixture)
Run until next tool change
Mount tool #2
Jog down until tool-tip touches table
Zero Z machine-coordinate
Run rest of program
I plan to semi-automate the Z-zeroing using a switch later.
Anyway, all this works just fine. The problem is that I can not just press the ZeroZ-button to zero that coordinate (nothing happens). I must use the "REF ALL HOME", with auto-zero enabled only for Z. As I have no home-switches, the only effect is that Z is zeroed. This also means that to actually home the machine, I'll have to turn of the drivers, move to home, enable auto-zero for all axis, "REF ALL HOME" and turn on the drivers. Then I have to disable auto-zero for X and Y before doing the program run procedure above.
Sure, it's not very hard to do, but it would be much better if I could just click the ZeroZ-button and have it zero that machine coordinate (and not affecting the work piece coordinate system G54).
Is there a better way, or can I enable the ZeroZ-button, or could I perhaps do this with a script of some sort?
Regards
Alex