Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Which MACH3 or MACH4 Can Cycle is suitable for these do-it-all bits?

« on: September 24, 2020, 12:11:28 AM »

Assuming I can slow down the spindle speed and only doing thru-holes,
Which MACH3 or MACH4 G-CODE Can Cycle would be suitable for these do-it-all bits?

2

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Easy Mount Color markers and Ball point pen Holder

« on: September 19, 2020, 11:51:03 PM »

(I gave away my A3 color printer to my daughter because my Grand Children had to study at home because of Coronavirus Lockdown and needed to print out lessons from Internet.)

So I made a pen holder to use the MACH3 powered CNC router to plot color drawings and pictures.
This Easy Mount Pen holder is made compatible to OFF supermarket BIC Atlantis  ball point pens and the Sharpie Ultra Fine (0.3mm) color Permanent markers - for low running cost.

Reuel

3

General Mach Discussion / EdytorNC support for MACH3 in NEXT release?

« on: April 30, 2019, 06:47:44 PM »

FYI
I edited the CNC-tips.txt file to include 100% of G and M codes for MACH3.
Unfortunately EdytorNC had been hard-coded to only support
[OKUMA]
[FANUC]
[SINUMERIK]
[SINUMERIK_840]
[HEIDENHAIN]
[HEIDENHAIN_ISO]
[LinuxCNC]

I sent my entries to author EdytorNC of Artur Koziol who then said he will include MACH3 tips in the global tooltips list of the NEXT RELEASE of EdytorNC.

In the meantime, I have put MACH3 G & M codes under [HEIDENHAIN_ISO] and am able use them successfully.

Many thanks to Artur Koziol.

4

Mach3 under Vista / Safety FIRST: Stop Windows from initializing the Parallel Port(s)

« on: April 28, 2019, 08:31:07 AM »

When Windows 7 boots up, it usually INITIALIZE the parallel port.
This is bad if you are NOT using a BOB (bread out Board) with a "CHARGE PUMP" or at least "an enable pin" to turn off the drive motors until MACH3 is in control.

But even  when using "CHARGE PUMP" or "an enable pin", the VFD Spindle & coolant pumps motors  may still start BEFORE MACH3 takes control.

The way to stop THAT (FOR SAFTEY REASONS) is to edit a registry key to STOP WINDOWS from INITIALIZING the parallel port on boot up.

1.   Click Start, Run, type ‘regedit‘ and press Enter, to open your registry editor
2.   Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport
3.   Double-click on the REG_DWORD “Start”
4.   In the window that popups, replace 3 with 4 and click OK.
5.     Reboot

(This patch does NOT work with Windows XP!)

5

VB and the development of wizards / A faster [REF ALL HOME] script for MACH3

« on: April 25, 2019, 06:28:58 PM »

' Faster Ref. ALL Home script by Reuel
Speak (" FASTER Referencing all home.") 'VOICE Alert

Message "************ FASTER Reference all home Started************"
Sleep (1000) ' Pause 1 second
CurrentFeed = GetOemDRO(818) 'Get the current feedrate to return to later
CurrentAbsInc = GetOemLED(48) 'Get the current G90/G91 state
CurrentGmode = GetOemDRO(819) 'Get the current G0/G1 state

DoOEMButton( 1024 ) ' Ref (home) Z Axis
While IsMoving()
Wend
DoOEMButton(135)  ' Zero Z Encoder

Code "G90"
Code "G53 G0 Y25"  '25 mm may be change to 1 inch
While IsMoving()
Wend
Code "G53 G0 X25"  '25 mm may be change to 1 inch
While IsMoving()
Wend

Code "F1200"
DoOEMButton( 1023 ) ' Ref Y Axis
DoOEMButton( 1022 )' Ref X Axis
DoOEMButton( 1025 )' Ref A Axis

DoOEMButton(134)  ' Zero Y Encoder
DoOEMButton(133)  ' Zero X Encoder
DoOEMButton(136)  ' Zero A Encoder
While IsMoving()
Wend

Code "G54"
If CurrentAbsInc = 0 Then 'if G91 was in effect before then return to it
Code "G91"
End If
If CurrentGMode = 0 Then 'if G0 was in effect before then return to it
Code "G0"
End If   


Speak ("FASTER Reference all home Completed") 'Voice Alert
Message "************  FASTER Reference all home Completed************"     



'idea is to get Z to the top slowly first (for safety) then move Y and X at G0 speed to 25mm from home switches and then move slowly towards the switch. The slow speed part is still controlled by speed % settings in config || motor home/soft limits as usual.
' Change 25 (mm) to 1 (inch) in 2 places if you use inches units.

'suggestions to improve on it welcomed

6

Share Your GCode / Trust in the LORD V-carving sign for free sharing

« on: April 21, 2019, 10:02:24 PM »

Attached is gcode file generated by FREEWARE F-engrave (a poor man's VCarve Pro)
Material should be flat and at least 204mm x 150mm in size
Tool used is a cheap 22mm 60deg CNC V-Carve bit from ebay (you may substitute with 60deg 3/4" V-Carve bit)
Origin is mid-center  and z =0 is on top of the surface.
F =600 mm/min and S =12,000 rev/min cuts MDF well.
Change F & S to suit your material.

7

General Mach Discussion / MACH3 G & M codes language definition for Notepad++

« on: April 09, 2019, 09:05:18 PM »

Anyone using Notepad++ as Mach3 Gcode editor?
I have just defined ALL (100% of them) G & M codes used by MACH3 for NOTEPAD++
(Mach4 already has a better editor)

Attached is language file you can import into NOTEPAD++

You can change your default gcode editor to notpad++ in Mach3 config|general config.

Ask if you are stuck.

8

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Made a drag knife spending just AUD$4

« on: March 15, 2019, 07:17:51 AM »

I want to make a Tangential knife with a stepper controlling the tangential rotation.

First step is to make a working "drag knife" that can be used as a tangential knife later.
Since my router's ER11 Spindle can already provide rotation, I made a Working Drag knife by
lathe machining down part of a $2.95 Craftright Scapel knife holder that has an 7.8mm diameter Aluminum down to 6.8mm to fit a 7mm ER11 collet.  Then cutting it to length.
The scalpel blade was found to be too soft for cardboard. So I just snap off one section of 18mm wide Olfa cutter, grind off part of it so that it will fit Craftright Scapel knife holder
and I have a $4 dollar Drag-knife.

Works like a dream based on "caster-wheel principle" cutting packing cardboard.
Of course the THE SPINDLE must be switched off.

9

General Mach Discussion / Run Mach3 using RD Client on 10.1 inch Android Tablet

« on: March 12, 2019, 09:24:01 PM »

FYI
It is possible to run MACH3 on Win7 remotely using a CHEAP 10.1" Android tablet. Wirelessly.
What you add are
1.Touch Screen capability
2. Remote monitoring of tool path progress
3. Emergency start stop while having lunch

Android tablet cost me AUD$95.

10

Mach3 under Vista / Win7 32 bits Mach3 with parallel port pulsing at 100K

« on: March 02, 2019, 02:34:31 AM »

I have a spare new ASUS H110M-D motherboard on-board parallel port.
So I put in Intel I5 7600CPU 3.5GHZ and 16GB RAM and loaded up Windows 7 32bits to test.
(I intend to dual boot Win7 32bits and win 10 64bits)

MACH 3 parallel port pulse NOW can run at 100K Hz with “excellent” results with almost NO NEED for any “XP type Optimization Procedures”.

Motherboard:
ASUS H110M-D which has parallel port, USB3, VGA & HDMI ports on motherboard.
CPU:
I5 7600 3.5MHz with Intel 630 Graphics on CPU
ASUS has 32bits  VIDEO driver for Windows 7 ONLY (but not 8.1 nor 10)
Memory:
16GB DDR4  (I intend to dual boot win 7 32bits and latest “troublesome” Win 10 64bits on this same PC
500GB old HDD to be converted to new 512 SSD later.
Hurdles to overcome:
1.All Microsoft  Windows 7 update had to be initially done manually 2 times BEFORE automatic updates will work
2. Annoying “unsupported hardware'' popups can be silenced by removing 4 Updates that are installed.
3. 2 registry entries must be added for MACH3 to work with all latest window 7 updates
(it is in Mach3 forum)

UNFORTUNATELY
Time is running out to get Windows 7 and Motherboard and CPUs that will support Win7.