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General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 Display not showing G Code anymore

« on: August 19, 2016, 08:39:22 AM »

Did some testing. I have the Demo mode.

I loaded the road runner from the stock templates. I noticed that the scale of the road runner was larger than my table. I have a Little Machine shop 3990 (Sieg X2).
So no problem I reduced the scale to .5 next to the DRO read out. All seemed to be working fine. I executed some test runs with a marker and it drew the road runner for me exactly to the scale it presented in relation to my table. My table is accurate in that the cross hairs accurately represent the homing limits I have set up.

Then I imported some gcode I had created for a new cut by fusion360.

I tried some real live cuts with this new G Code. It worked fine on the piece. I did have some user error and now I am attempting to recut the piece, But somehow now the g code loaded and tollbooth regenerated the display tool window does not show my Gcode as very big for the custom piece. Matter of fact I can not see it hardly at all If I go back and load the roadrunner it is now VERY SMALL in relation to my table display!

I can only see the stock road runner. If I Regen the toolpath it does not make my custom piece bigger either.
I have to change the scale to 20x to generate an image that is as big as it was when I initially set it up to be.
Before I could see a toolpath of the G code on my custom piece. Now I cannot see anything. I even executed the code and it Cut it right. I go back to the same G code and load it and I get nothing.

Any thoughts?

2

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 Homing switches wiring with Gecko G540 and ESS SmoothStepper

« on: July 25, 2016, 09:46:34 AM »

Hi all.
I am having trouble getting my Homing switches to register within Mach 3.

See attached wiring diagram.

My motor power is 48 Volt. Steppers... I was wondering if this is correct of if the limits should be 5 volt signal?

This wiring schematic does not make sense to me as I read somewhere that the G540 puts out 5v+ to PC on terminal #1. If that is the case would not terminal #1 be common to all the limit switches with the individual load side of the switches landing in their respective unique terminal so you can show which axis is homed/limited in Mach3? (I am aware that you can place all the homing switches on one input and have mach home them one at a time.)

However in reading the Gecko literature I think I do have each limit switch appropriately set up to the proper ports and pins input within Mach 3.
If on ports and pins inputs, I x out the active low and x out the emulated button, on the diagnostics screen the LEDS for M1, M2, M3 homing are constantly lit. Under this wiring configuration when I trip a limit I do not see them blink. If I un-x the active low; Then inspect the diagnostics page I do not see a signal LED light up when I trip the limit switches. This tells me the limits are not communicating with Mach.

The cable to kimits I have is 12'- 18 awg.  I tested voltage to + terminal at the return terminal of the Gecko upon tripping the limit switch and it is 36v (starts at 48) so there is some voltage drop. Could this be the reason? I need to shorten the wire or increase the size?

My questions are: at what voltage should these operate at? I read somewhere that there is a pull up resistor that sends signal. But I don't know what type of wiring config I am supposed to be doing now as it's all convoluted...

 

3

General Mach Discussion / Jog Buttons reversed in Mach 3 after crashing Y axis

« on: June 20, 2016, 01:38:44 PM »

Hi guys,

Looking to glean info from seasoned vets in this forum. I bought a LMS 3990 and CNC Fusion kit. Homebuilt CNC with Mach 3 on Windows XP.
Last night I was jogging the X, Y Z axis and thought I set the 0 in a safe place, so I hit the button onscreen "Go to O" and my Y axis crashed into platform so I hit the soft stop/reset button.

Then when I Reset it, my Y buttons were reversed up moved the table down and vice versa. What should I do? I went into hot keys and hit Y++ to the Up arrow and Y-- to the Down arrow and it did not work. Y++ should be moving the table away from me? Previously the arrows worked in the way I wanted to jog the table.

Thoughts?