Topics

1

SmoothStepper USB / Using ESS port 3 in Mach 3

« on: November 03, 2014, 02:57:44 AM »

I have a very nice system that has been up and running for a long time, and am very familiar with mach 3, and just added a rotary axis for my plasma table using port 3 of the ESS.  Port 1 is BOB with 4 axis (1 slave) Port 2 is THC301D Torch Height Control.

I added a C10s board to the ESS port 3 and cannot get movement from the axis.  I do see there is no place to enter a port 3 address in Mach, is this my problem?  I see all over the place people mention using 3 ports with the ESS.  How do i get it to communicate.  right now i have the Rotary Axis hooked to port 3 pins 16 and 17 for step and direction, only thing hooked to the C10s board.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Brian

2

General Mach Discussion / constant velocity not working when using outside offset in sheetcam

« on: May 23, 2014, 01:25:50 AM »

I am trying to figure out why constant velocity is not working in mach 3, and a mach technician told me that because my g code file is producing arcs in the corners instead of just a 90 degree angle, it is not doing CV. This happens when using the outside offset feature of sheetcam to compensate for plasma kerf width, because it offsets the cut to the outside, which means the plasma cutter makes a small arc while hugging the shape in the corners, but this evidently cancels any potential to use CV and it will stay on that path entirely, instead of allowing it to cut the corner by my set tolerance to keep the speed more consistent.  Any way around this while still using outside offset (to produce true sized parts) and Constant Velocity (to prevent total slowdown in corners).  I am ok with some corner rounding on most parts, as just a little bit will allow much better movement and closer CV speeds to achieve less dross and heating in corners, especially on thin sheet.  Also on decorative cutting, where corner sharpness does not matter at all.

Brian

3

General Mach Discussion / parallel port inputs work, but outputs dont unless restart computer?

« on: September 19, 2011, 09:19:37 PM »

I tried searching for this, but had no luck, and as Im not sure what to search.

I switched computers awhile back, system was all working fine, but computer needed upgrading. Now using a Dell Dimension 3000. Everything works fine now, except it seems that if the computer sits long enough without me using it (not sure how long that is, or if its when it sleeps and wakes or what) I start mach 3 to cut something and i go to jog the motors, and the DROs show movement, but the motors do not move. I can see limit switches being switched on the diagnostic page if I push them, thats what gets me.  Its kinda like Mach sees the inputs on the port, but isn't sending the outputs.

It can all be solved by restarting the computer, but I need to figure out why so I dont have to restart everytime I want to use it.

I have the onboard Parallel port in Epp mode and then a pci double port card (used without any problems in the old pc) (although with the mill, I am only using the onboard port 1 at the moment) The PC has a 3.2 ghz processor in Hyperthreading mode, and 2 gigs of ram running 400mhz dual channel.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Brian =)