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1

General Mach Discussion / Getting DROs to read MM or Inches

« on: February 28, 2007, 11:23:55 AM »

Hi all,

    I'm having trouble with the whole MM versus Inches problem.  Looking on the forums, there does seem to be a lot of confusion, but nothing seems to answer my questions.

The machine I have is:
    A 5 axis mill, with 3 axes in inches, and 2 in degrees.

What I want is:
    To tune the axes in their native units (inches) because they numbers will be exact.
    Everything else to be in MM (the programs and the DROs especially)

But it's like this:
    The axes are tuned in inches or degrees where appropriate 
    The Programs run in MM (with a G21 at the start)   
    The X, Y and Z DROs are still in inches.   
    The A and B DROs are not in degrees. Dunno what they think they are.   

The settings I have are:
    The Native Units (in the config menu) are set to Inches
    The Units (in the settings tab) are set to MM
    The A, B and C axes are set to Angular in the General Logic Config screen

I wish that:
    Everything was totally explicit.  I would be nice if everything shows its units. The DROs should say 0.513mm or 0.531º not just 0.531.  Then there could never be any question as to what they were.


Many thanks for any help you can give me.

Hugo Elias

2

General Mach Discussion / Can't get 5 axes to work

« on: February 23, 2007, 08:02:47 AM »

Hi all,

I'm trying to get 5 axes to work on Mach 3.
They are all on the same parallel port.
X, Y, Z and A work fine, B does nothing.
The motor definitely works, because, if I swap the A and B pin assignments, then I can get that motor to move.
I am using the 6 axis screen set.
As far as I can tell, the B axis is enabled.
I have set up hotkeys for the B axis, but it still won't go round.

Please help. Is there something I'm missing?

Many thanks

Hugo Elias  -  Shadow Robot Co Ltd