Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 stability issues concerning G31 floating head on my plasma cutter.

« on: October 27, 2018, 11:02:50 PM »

Hello everyone: I have been working on the stability of Mach 3 for awhile. I started out with windows 7 and a laptop without good results. I had problems with inconsistent Z moves. mach wanted to reset zero all over the place one time and then cut fine the next. This was very frustrating. I now have a dual core 3.2 GHZ dell with 4 GB of ram. Standard on board video running on XP Pro. I am also running a Novuson NVEM Ethernet controller. (Mach version 3.043) I ran the first part with multiple profiles (letters) and it ran the first 3 letters fine and failed to stop on the G31 command (top of plate routine) on the 4th letter. This was odd. I went to the diagnostic screen and the probe light was on. I just rewound the program and hit start and it ran with out a hitch 5 times. The 6th time I over-road the feed bumped it to 70 inches a minute and it ran past the probe switch on the 8th letter. Again I just rewound the program, restarted and it ran flawlessly several times. I then bumped the feed down again and it ran past the probe switch again. After rewinding and restarting again it was ok. I have gone in and changed the start up to open nothing upon windows startup and erased several non essential programs. What am I missing? I can include some G code but this must run deeper than the code. should I create a macro with wait states in it to keep the computer in check? Can anyone help me here I am stumped. and very frustrated not being able to run a part reliably.  Is Mach 3 simply an unreliable program!!!!! 

Dave

2

Mach3 under Vista / problem with plasma cutter touch off control.

« on: September 25, 2018, 11:47:59 PM »

Hello all I am narrowing in on my home built cnc. However I am about to cry. I can not for the life of me get the touch off/ floating head to work properly.

I have a floating head with a limit switch attached to the probe input. I am using G31 and G92 in my touch off sequence. I have shamelessly stole the programming from this site. The machine will run down and touch off of the plate and set the dro to zero some times and some times not? usually it goes to -1.0 and then it will go to the next cut, and touch off. each cut it wants to raise another inch until it is out of stroke. I also have gone from version .066 to .062 with no help. What is odd is that it will sometimes runs some of the cuts right but never all. It is not consistent, the next time it will act up in a different spot in the program.

If you have seen this before or have a suggestion please help a brother out.

Thanks!

Frustrated Dave!

3

General Mach Discussion / Torch Height control Methodology.

« on: June 09, 2018, 07:41:06 PM »

I am working on a home built cnc and I am working on a Chinese purchased THC with purchased 24V Z lifter/floating head.

Here is what I see in Mach3

AntiDive settings (what output would mach use to communicate this to the THC) Output 5 that is turned on in the Mill options page? Does this go on and off with antidive?

THC up  I think these Two are straight forward and I will not use these because I am using a torch lifter.
THC Down

arc ok   This is also self explanatory. the machine will not move until an arc ok signal is received.

I need some help specifically with an antidive signal. can I write code to produce this output?

This has been brought up many times (THC items) and not a lot has been said. I hope people can expand on the Mach 3 THC controls because it is poorly documented.

Thanks in advance.