Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / newbie on macros...M3 dwell

« on: November 11, 2009, 07:00:01 AM »

Hello experts on Mach!I have a problem i think can be solves with macros, but since i´m completely dumb on macro, I dont even know how to start. Here´s the thing: I´m running mach 3 on a laser cutting/marking machine for non-metalic material (wood,leather,acrylic, and so on) and every time the laser turns on to start a cut (M3), the axis moviments kinda dwells for about 0.5 seconds before following the path. As the laser beam is held for a while in a spot, this widens the cut, so theres always a hole where the cut starts. I´ve tried all sorts of menu configurations, hardware and tried also by Gcode, all useless. My thought was to make a dwell between the M3 code reading and the effective M3 activation of the laser. Theres any way that i can tell mach to hold for a while before sending the M3 signal to the hardware?

Many thanks for your kind support, sorry about the bad english....

Arturo Pugliesi
Brazil.

2

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / importing dxf file and setting feed rate - Problem

« on: June 17, 2009, 10:45:49 AM »

Hi everybody! I´m new around, since i just fishined building my laser cutting machine. I use it to cut mdf, acrylic, leather and alike, must of them arts, fonts, and signs made in Corel-Draw. Corel can provide me the file as dxf, and i´m using the dxf importer that comes with mach3 (no lazycam), to convert to g-code. Now here's the inconvenient, i set the feed rate through the option "Layer Control" and specify the feed for the layer in use, this way, everytime the program writes a line of M3 (turning on the laser), it writes the feed chosen right above, like F1000.
That´s a big problem cause i use to cut several materials with different feeds, but i can change the feed since it´s writen in the program. Sure i can open the program as txt and erase the Fs along the lines, but most of time i have a 50,000 lines program with more than 2,000 M3s!
I tried to put the feed as zero in the layer control, but it appears yet feed as 1  (F1)

Any chance that i can solve this problem?  

Thanks a lot to the experts.

Regards,

Arturo.