Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Epilog Summit Laser Retrofit

« on: April 28, 2014, 03:08:26 AM »

I have an older Epilog Summit laser engraver that I have been converting over to something I can support, instead of the Windows 3.1 software that it comes with.   I replaced the control board with a set of Gecko G320x and the up/down with a normal servo as it didn't come with an encoder as the Summirt was manual focus.   All that works and I can zip around at astounding speed.

On to the laser.

My end goal is to cut out shapes from .125 acrylic, some with a little text identifying marks.

Is this as simple as using an output pin as Spindle Motor output and setting the minimim to 2% to get that trickle the Syrad laser needs?

Will a simple G1 move cut a line if it's prefaced by the M11P1 commands?

2

General Mach Discussion / motor tuning - pulse setting relation to kernel speed

« on: June 16, 2013, 12:34:46 PM »

Like most of us, I'm perpetually tuning/tweaking my machine.   I had this issue that cropped up recently where, a G0 move of both X/Y at the same time would cause one of the motors to stall.   After trying all sorts of things from mechanical (there is no binding and rapid moves with just one axis were fine) to motor tuning I finally found that changing my step/direction pulse from 2 to 6 seems to have solved my issues.

I used to think that the pulse timing had to do more with my driver/motor combo, but since this only happened when X/Y moved at the same time, it was more on the Mach side.  Does having this set to 6 have any negative aspects?  I'm running the kernel speed at 25KHz, the system test runs fine at 60KHz, should I go to that rate and then can I drop the pulse timing?

3

General Mach Discussion / Hour Meter DRO

« on: April 24, 2012, 08:04:50 PM »

Is there such a thing as a hour meter DRO in Mach?   I generally do PM work when my router gets really dirty or stops doing exactly what I tell it to but I have no idea how many hours of running time I have logged?

It would be an interesting feature to be able to tell how long (and maybe even how far) my machine has been running.

4

General Mach Discussion / Home and absolute vs relative coordinates

« on: August 20, 2011, 01:13:20 PM »

After literally years of building, I finally am at the point of actually using my CNC router.    My Software Install/Config manual is pretty dog eared from figuring things out on on my own, but I'm stuck on what seems like a basic operation.

I am using limit switches at the end of the axis travel as my home switch.   But I want my 0.0 to be at the center of my 24" table.   So I have my offset set to 12 in the home/limits page and when I hit the ref all axis, it works like I expect, travels to home, and sets the absolute (machine coordinates) DRO to 12.   Perfect so far.

Here is where my lack of understanding makes it funky.   I then manually enter 12 in the incremental DRO and then hit the GoTo Zero button and it works like I want traveling right to the center.

Is there a better way, or can I change the button's to do what I want?   Travel to home switch, set DRO to 12, and go to 0.0.

5

LazyCam (Beta) / Lazy Cam (or other product) for doing GIF to SVG to GCode

« on: May 24, 2011, 06:03:17 PM »

I've been playing around with my CNC router for a while and am only now getting around to trying to do some real work.   

I need to use it to cut out some state shapes (like this one of Oregon) http://www.netstate.com/states/maps/images/or_outline.gif and I am thinking I need something to convert a GIF to SVG and then to GCode.   I just need the outline so I can use the router to cut out the shape, right now I am doing it by hand on a bandsaw.

I tried importing the image into LazyCam but cannot quite figure out how to make it work.

Am I on the right track here?