Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Jogging here and there with arrow keys, Page Up and Page Down...?

« on: March 12, 2015, 01:55:20 PM »

I often jog around with the arrow keys and the Page Up/Page Down buttons.

Those times when I want to ease my spinning cutting bit down to the surface level of a workpiece I lightly touch Page Down a few times. But when I am .03 or .02 inches away from the surface I cannot quickly enough bump the Page Down without the cutting bit plunging below the surface level. I want to be able to tell the machine to go down by a specified distance.

Is there some way in the Mach3 interface where I can simply type in G00 Z -.02 to command the machine to drop down .02 inches?

If so, where do I type this in? ~Or how else can I jog down by these tiny, specified increments?

2

General Mach Discussion / Jog Speed versus Move speed??

« on: March 12, 2015, 11:35:27 AM »

When I go into "Config:Motor Tuning and Setup" and change spees it only affects the Jog speed. How to change the move/cut speed in Mach3?

The speed is not set in my cut files (I assume it is possible there), but of course, don't know how to do that either.

Here are the 1st few lines of code:

('Tool Name   = V-Bit 90 deg 1.125")
G00 Z 0.7874
G00 X 0 Y 0
G00 X 0.240669 Y 0.250669 Z 0.2362
G01 X 0.240669 Y 0.250669 Z -0.240669 F 1.7

3

General Mach Discussion / Y carriage rolling back and forth in terrible, KLUNKY, struggling manner!

« on: March 02, 2015, 11:53:35 PM »

I'm moving this machine the first few times... and am using Mach3. I starting cutting some wood, v-carving-type stuff. It seemed to be going to slowly so I stopped. Then I sped up the 3 axes' speeds. When I went to restart it I may have accidentally inadvertently had it start from an unfortunate spot.

It did a clunky thing then began to bury its router bit in the throw-away mdf tabletop. I hit the emergency stop. But then, when I tried to restart it, the Y axis was moving in this really clunky fashion. I thought maybe one of its stepper motors quit working so I disconnected them to see if they'd spin properly when I told it to move in the Y axis. They both spun fine.

Then I thought maybe it was because the rack and pinion was dusty/greasy. I carefully cleaned. Maybe it was slightly better, but still very clunky, not smoothly gliding back and forth on the Y axis. So then I thought maybe the two Y axis cogwheels were out of sync with each other... that maybe the Y carriage was binding. I dropped one Y-axis cogwheel, then rolled the carriage back and forth a time or two. This was my first & only time to do this. But it seemed to roll fine. I re-attached the Y-axis cog wheel then told it to move in the Y axis with a Mach3 command and it still was struggling to roll in a terribly clunky, miserable fashion as I hit the arrow keys on my keyboard trying to make it roll back and forth. Any ideas?

Here's a video of the Y carriage rolling back and forth in terrible, KLUNKY, struggling manner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYTAfYTNjXM

4

General Mach Discussion / Spindle, spindle, please turn again...

« on: March 01, 2015, 08:22:45 PM »

I have a heavy-duty cnc (+ Mach3) machine with no paperwork. I got all the axes moving and calibrated. The spindle would spin when I connected power to the control box. While I realize Mach3 can control spindles, I was okay to just turn it on separately, thinking that was easier.

Yesterday I had the machine mill a fancy, but engraving in wood to test my ability to operate Mach. This evening I was going to surface the table.......BUT........

Now the spindle isn't spinning when I connect power to it!! The H200 and the little STOP light are flashing on the VFD (shown in here in a photo). It seems if I knew:

a.) how to tell the VFD to resume spinning, or
b.) if I could tell the Mach3 to quit interfering with the VFD resuming spinning (IF THAT'S WHY THE VFD is not spinning today)...

then I'd be home free!!! I push the RUN button on the VFD and that doesn't do it.

Does anyone have any idea how to get my VFD spinning again??!??

5

General Mach Discussion / Is there a Quick Reference Guide to Mach3 gcode ??

« on: December 02, 2014, 11:12:35 AM »

Shopbot cnc machine gcode is easy to find on the following sheet. Any idea where I might find such a simple list of Mach3 gcode? 


http://www.shopbottools.com/files/SBDocs/SBG00109090803CommandQuickRefLaminate.pdf

6

General Mach Discussion / Super Simple Gcode translation (I hope)

« on: December 02, 2014, 11:10:17 AM »

hi here is some sample simple Shopbot cnc code. I want to cut this with my Mach3 cnc. Can someone please tell me how this code would be written in Mach3 gcode?   

MS,1.7,0.5
JZ,0.787402
J2,0.000000,0.000000
J3,1.462340,-5.889563,0.236220
M3,1.462340,-5.889563,-0.137086
M3,1.275624,-6.612135,-0.136735
M3,1.271747,-6.642036,-0.132859
M3,1.560218,-5.506177,-0.136568
M3,1.462340,-5.889563,-0.137086
J3,1.462340,-5.889563,0.236220
JZ,0.787402
END

7

General Mach Discussion / How to set spindle speed..?

« on: November 14, 2014, 11:50:42 PM »

I'm sure this is an all-time dumb question, but how do I change the spindle speed from within Mach3?     

I have this XHC-MK4 motion control card:

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/breakout-boards/cnc-mach3-usb-card-xhc-mk6-4-axis-motion-control-card-usb2-0-interface-wshell

8

General Mach Discussion / Up is Down!! Z axis is moving in the Wrong direction.

« on: November 11, 2014, 09:11:45 PM »

hi,

My Z axis is moving in the Wrong direction! (by which I mean up=down & down=up) Any idea how to fix it? Is it switching wires? Wonder which ones. And do you think I can hurt anything by switching the wrong ones?

Here's the machine's Motion Control Card:



 

9

General Mach Discussion / which 2 wires to hook board to Variable Frequency Drive

« on: November 08, 2014, 10:43:01 PM »

 You guys are awesome! Thanks to my last (& 1st) post I can now move my cnc in X, Y & Z.

Now I hope to get the VFD spinning. I replaced a control board in a big cnc machine I brought from China. The new board is an XHC-MK4:
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/breakout-boards/cnc-mach3-usb-card-xhc-mk6-4-axis-motion-control-card-usb2-0-interface-wshell

The VFD had been connected to the original control board with TWO wires. On the VFD the wire connections are a blue wire connected to "S1" and a bit thicker yellow wire connected to "DCM".

Does anyone have any where I might connect these wires to the new control board? There are five spindle connections options on the card: PWM, FWD, 10V, VI, and COM.

I assume maybe one wire is for spindle speed and the other might be, for what, spindle on/off? Which do you think I should connect?  

10

General Mach Discussion / Software Great, CNC Machine doesn't move

« on: November 08, 2014, 11:04:05 AM »

I bought a big, heavy-duty Chinese cnc machine. It came with type3 software. I couldn't interpret the Chinglish (minimal) documentation so I bought a USB2.0 MACH3 USB Card XHC-MK4, this one. I bought this new card thinking I could get tech support with it. I even paid an extra $50. for tech support. But I'm not so sure it will be coming.

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/breakout-boards/cnc-mach3-usb-card-xhc-mk6-4-axis-motion-control-card-usb2-0-interface-wshell

I see $50. breakout boards. I thought this was a good quality one. I also bought a power supply from this vendor and a copy of Mach3 software. Then hooked it all up. When I try to jog one of the axes is the Mach 3 software it shows movement on the screen, but the machine doesn't actually move. I really need to get this machine going soon. Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can get the computer to actually talk to the cnc machine?? I can't figure out why it won't move. Can anyone here help diagnose or recommend a consultant or whatever. I am in Durham, NC, skype? phone, chat, email, help please!

Hopefully I won't have to replace more hardware. But bottom line is I need to do whatever is necessary to get this machine working. I have tried it with a 64-bit Windows 8.1 laptop and also with a 32-bit XP SP3 desktop. I see the drivertest.exe at 2.2.1 at:
http://www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf

is that supposed to help diagnose with a usb connection or just a parallel port connection.

Friends, I'm feeling kind of desperate. I'm not sure where to go for help. ANY and EVERY sugggestion would be greatly appreciated. I am not a total dunce, I've build half a dozen computers and successfully used a shopbot cnc machine for a decade, but no longer have it.