Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / mach3 and PC communication problem

« on: April 23, 2013, 02:24:15 PM »

Hi

I have quite an odd problem. 
I testran my router yesterday. After several hours i got it work except spindle. As soon i hit spindle button, the Estop came on, saying limit switch triggered. All the limit switches were off actually. After playing around with some pins i disabled the x++ x-- etc. Only X,Y and Z home was enabled. Then somehow spindle worked.
But there started problems with coordinates. After loading an cut code suddenly the coornidates were like 17000 and so on. Before the calibration was ok. I understood that the rev per must be off, so i tried changing the rev per and i had to set it like 3700 something. This was abnormal but the coordinates looked ok. After pressing some buttons the coordinates were off again so i had to change the rev. per to original settings and then it was correct. I got tired and shut it off for this day.
Today i was going to fix the problems but after 4 hrs i just gave up. All the settings are the same as yesterday but spindle does not work again. Pressing spindle button just lits Estop and then, when pressing again with no reason it shows that spindle is working but only in program, not actually. The inverter shows RUN but no RPM on display.

Is this a PC problem? PC is not very old, 4-5y. maybe. Running XP. I tested also second PC today, new and more speed. But still could not get spindle working. I also uploaded bluescreen probe but tool change macro does not work properly, it stops were it should not etc. But both, masch standard and blue screen work perfect in my brand new laptop. Too bad i  have only LPT port on mach3 board not USB to try my laptop and see if there is computer problem or mach3 board problem or communication betwwen mach bob and PC.

There is a mach3 board and there are some red leds. When mach3 is not opened there are two leds glowing but after mach loaded, only one stays on, is it normal?



thanks in advance
Taniel

2

General Mach Discussion / (manual)auto tool change + auto zero z setup

« on: April 22, 2013, 06:32:35 AM »

Hi everyone,

I`m a newbie using mach3.

I´ve been searching auto tool and auto zero makros and setup but what i`ve found so far is the pieces of info which are quite confusing for beginner. I know there is a lots of info about this topic, but its difficult to put all the pieces together.

The issue:
I am using V-carve pro for code. So far i have saved all the different tools in different codes. So running, for excample 5 different tool job, i have to save 5 different codes and load these one by one to mach3. And change the tools after loading a new code. Now, what i wanna do is save all the different tool path in the same code, load it to mach. Ok, for code i choose now ATC postprocessor in v-carve pro and this is ok. Enable tool change in mach. I`ve tried it and it works so far- after each tool code, it stops and waits for tool change.
Now i want is that after every tool path, mach will go to certain tool change position (where ever it is), Z goes up, i change the tool, goes to fixed Z auto zero probe and continous cutting.
Probably simple question for most of you.

Is there an simple step by step tutorial to set this up? setting macro and setting fixture for auto zero


appriciate your input.
Taniel