Topics

1

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Mach and Android

« on: January 30, 2011, 05:05:03 AM »

I see that there is a way to run/control mach via an iPhone. Does anybody know of any Anndroid apps that will work with Mach?

TIA

2

VB and the development of wizards / The equal sign in VB

« on: January 06, 2010, 05:31:15 PM »

Please bare with me. I am trying to learn VB so the some of the questions may seem silly or stupid. Up until now, the Cypress VB doc is only partially helpful. I seem to have better luck by reading actual known/working scripts and deciphering the operation.

The questions I have (today) are in regards to "DIM" and "=".

1. If I where to assign values/names using the "=", can I therefore just use that name in script that follows instead?
2. What does "DIM" do?

Again not trying to ask silly/stupid questions. Just trying to get a handle on VB.

TIA

3

General Mach Discussion / Homing Problem

« on: January 02, 2009, 01:52:11 PM »

Happy New Everybody!

Slowly but surely getting to where I want to be with my machine. Its maiden voyage went great and the issue with the backlash seems to have been corrected with adjustment of the shuttle.

I have have another issue that I am am trying to figure out. 99% of the time, referencing to home works great. On occasion it seems to act up and I cannot see what I am doing wrong. I am playing with setting a couple different table offsets and auto squaring of the dual-drive gantry. When double checking that the machine will do what I want it to do, I will jog the machine away from home and again select "reference all home". Sometimes the machine will properly home to the neg, hit the proxy, stop, and trigger an e-stop. (The machine has to proxies on the X and one on the Y)

Under most circumstances I will click RESET and everything is fine. 1% of the time though when I click on RESET I get that box that says that there is an external influence preventing the machine from re-engaging. looking at the diagnostic screen shows that there are no inputs active. The option of "fix this for me" does not work. In order to get around it I must shut Mach down and restart.

I have tried a few different things such as selecting "Home Sw. Safety" on and off (not sure what it does) and have tried various levels of debounce. Neither of these have provided a remedy.

Another "sometimes" issue is that if I have the limits enabled in port and pins (home switches and limits are the same proxies) I will get an e-stop when referencing all to home. Turning off the limits stops it but I would rather not have them disabled if at all possible.

I have posted a copy of my XML if anybody can see what I am doing wrong.

4

General Mach Discussion / Neep help with Auto-Zero touch plate

« on: December 31, 2008, 07:16:48 PM »

I definitely have to be overlooking something. I have tried setting up the touch off plate using the attached macros and brain (originally from here). In ports and pins I originally had the input set to Input #1 and saw that the brain was looking for #4. I made the input and the brain match, and could see that the brain saw the input. For whatever reason, the script does not see when the plate/wire makes contact. (I actually am using just a wire and directly touching the signal ground, both of which the brain and diagnostic page see as active on contact)

This is the last thing that I have to configure before I get to start making noise and mess (other than cursing and throwing things  )

A safe and Happy New Year to everyone!

5

General Mach Discussion / Anti-backlash acting crazy when jogging - Updated

« on: December 29, 2008, 10:51:16 AM »

Hello Guys!

Just finished building a new machine with a rack and pinion, with an A-axis slaved to the X-axis. Right now I am in the process of configuring Mach. The default screen set is different than the Mach 2 I was familiar with but so far everything seems to work with the exception of the anti-backlash.

When Anti-Backlash is enabled I can get the gantry to move properly in one direction. The motors sound good with no vibration/resonance, missing, etc. If I switch directions to move in the opposite the motors seem to run at half-power, grumble and growl, miss steps and then to add the icing on the cake after a bit of travel one the motors will reverse direction and cause the gantry to rack. I believe it is definitely related to the anti-backlash because of it gets disabled the motors will jog back and forth all day long without any issues. Making things a little crazier is that I can reactivate the anti-backlash after disabling and jogging all while in the same session and it seems to function properly.

Knowing that they do not always get along I have CV disabled. I have tried anti-backlash speeds of 20, 100, and 200 percent. What am I missing?

UPDATE:

To further add to my mystery I have found that if I try and jog more than 1 axis at a time (as in X and Y) the Y-axis will only move at half speed moving in the opposite direction and when it does do this the X motors (X and A) go out of sync and cause the gantry to rack. Again, doing nothing else but turning off the anti-backlash causes everything to operate smoothly. I have searched the forum and have not found any solution. Anybody have any ideas about why the anti-backlash makes the machine act crazy?

6

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Editing/Customizing Post Processor

« on: May 13, 2008, 10:16:52 AM »

I have the PP for ArtCam that allows for the TC (manual of course). It uses M0 instead of M6 (not sure what the final difference is). What I am trying to do is get the machine to return to "home" for the tool change, and then pickup where it left off. I think that I understand that the G28 and G30 will return the machine to home. The reason I want to go to home is to ensue that I get the same tool height (a couple of the bits are longer than the others)

The questions are...Where would I add the line in the PP? Will G28 or G30 achieve what I want? I have included the PP just in case it makes it any easier.

A big Thanks in advance.

7

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Newbie Can't Get Files into Mach

« on: August 04, 2007, 11:19:05 AM »

I am new to the world of CNC and could use some help to develop a reliable way to get usable files into Mach 2 or 3. The machine and the Mach interface work fine. My problem seems to be from LazyCam to the demo version of Mach. The software used to create and generate the DXF and files is Corel Draw X3. The DXF files have been exported as AutoCad 2004 files.

When opening/importing files to LazyCam, the preview looks fine. When the g-code is generated and opened in Mach, I get nothing that even resembles what I was able to see in LazyCam. Reading the g-code in Mach, although I am no expert, it is very obvious that a good number of the coordinates/lines are missing. I originally that this was due to trying to start with a somewhat complex 2D file that was just too many lines (and too many arcs) of G-code for the Mach 2 demo. I also that that the problem was possibly related to the file being an incorrect scale that was out limits. That is definitely not the case. I then tried some simple files (square, circle, triangle, all separate and combined) , and it still seems to be a hit or miss situation when it is converted to g-code.

I presumed that because I was able to preview the file in LazyCam, that the DXF file had no issue with the original DXF from Corel. Just to be sure and eliminate any possibility of a DXF issue, I did use the DXF converters, which changed nothing, regardless of which version of DXF I used. I do not have AutoCad loaded on the machine, although I know I can purchase an older version of r12 or r13, if it gives better assurances.

Using Mach's jog controls, the machine works properly and I am confident with the Mach Controller interface.

The current budget does not allow for the investment of thousands in software, but I do not mind investing a little bit into some software to start. I also have SignLab from Cadlink, which can generate NC files specifically for Mach (Cadlink recommends to keep using the Mach interface), but that method did not work either, and I am not even concentrating on that, for the sake of simplicity and minimizing confusion. I also have no problem purchasing the Mach license, if this is related to the "demo".

Any help from the much more seasoned people here will be greatly appreciated. I just want to have a reliable way to get g-code to Mach.

In advance - Thank you.