Topics

1

Mach Screens / New Plasma Screen Detail help

« on: May 04, 2015, 11:35:33 AM »

Hi all.

This is probably a little nit picky but I'm getting a light witness lines below and to the right of my DROs and inputs. I set the Background and DRO color to the same color I had set in cad when designing the background. Also the size in the Machscreen shows larger then when I actually run it in Mach3.

Another issue I'm have is with the LED indicators I have positioned inside my Image Buttons. The Reset Button LED works fine but the Start LED would only show for a split second unless I set it to Blink.

Thanks for any help.

2

General Mach Discussion / Should I Upgrade, I'm running R2.63

« on: September 11, 2009, 04:06:58 PM »

I mostly do plasma cutting w/thc and routing on plastics and wood.

And if I do upgrade can R2.63 and the new version coexist?

Thx

3

General Mach Discussion / Plasma Probing question

« on: July 16, 2009, 11:21:50 AM »

I use Unigraphics CAD/CAM to generate all my solids and Gcode which has a nice user programming interface to aid in automation of Gcode creation. I now have a program that will take a solid CAD part and automagically create Gcode and send it to my computer running Mach3 after just inputing the material and thickness. My only issue is all starts are either with or without a probe and probing every start on a large part is time consuming. At the moment I have all the probing commands in a macro called M300. Is there a wizard or something available that will only probe if the next start point is a certain distance away for the last? I just recently found the nesting wizard which is very nice.

Thanks in advance for any info.

4

General Mach Discussion / Z height problem

« on: February 05, 2008, 08:15:27 AM »

I have been experiencing a Z height error on my machine. After about 30 minutes into a program machining a block of nylon, the Z would correctly raise up to 0.000 at the completion of a path, the gcode is calling for another 1/8 inch deeper cut, the DROs read correctly but the tool is 1/2 too high, cutting only air. Everything is very tight on the Z axis. It's a pinned lead screw drive and the axis is never under load at the time of the error. You can hear and see that the tool never touches the work. I can restart the program at the point of error and it continues correctly for some time and then the same Z axis error will occur, but I just keep re-zeroing the Z and restarting the program and completed the part. The error has always occured on the -Z instruction.

I mostly use the machine for Plasma cutting with a Bob Campbell THC controller and have never had this issue while plasma cutting. The THC was on at the time but the THC button in Mach3 was inactive. I'm running a 2 1/4 hp Hitachi Router Spindle.

I have not updated Mach3 for over a year. I'm at work right now, not sure what revision I'm running.

Does this sound like it could be a controller problem?

Thanks in advance for any help.

5

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 thinks it's moving Z from THC but Torch height unchanged

« on: December 13, 2006, 09:02:16 AM »

I emailed Jim Cullins about this issue also. The last thing Jim had me do is add a grounding rod near the table and ground the plasma chassis and table with a 1 inch copper strap.

The problem is consistent. The THC300 sends up and down signals to Mach3 and Mach3 thinks it's moving the z axis, according to the DROs and It will quickly get to the maximum correction of +/- 1.000 inches, but when I physically measure the z on the table it is unchanged or at least no where near 1 inch of change.

The software and table function fine as a 3 axis mill including the z axis and I can plasma cut parts all day long without the THC as long as my material is flat.

Below is the simple GCode I'm using for testing.

N0030 G20 (Units: Inches)
N0040 G53 G90 G40
N150 M3
N200 G1 Y20 F90
N300 M5
N310 M30

Thx for any help.

6

General Mach Discussion / Success Story with Mach3

« on: September 28, 2006, 11:18:24 AM »

Since I've only posted about some small issues I've had setting up my home built plasma cutter, I'd just like to post how happy I am with the Mach3 software. Best $150 dollars I ever spent. You can see some samples of the parts off my table at http://www.hausmetalworks.com/page3.html. Also very happy with the steppers, breakout board and THC300 purchased from www.campbelldesigns.com. You can see some pics of my table in the Show & Tell section. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=690.0

So far this is just a side business but I have no doubt I'll probably be doing it full time in the near future.

Great Software.

Thanks for the support.

Bill H.

7

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 sometimes doesnt move with THC on

« on: September 18, 2006, 10:27:20 PM »

I'm having some trouble getting my THC300 working consistently. Many times directly after the arc fires with the m3 command Mach3 will not continue with the program even though I get an Arc OK inside Mach3 and on the THC300 controller. I'm sure it's probably something in my profile. I am testing with a very simple straight line cut.

N0030 G20 (Units: Inches)
N0040 G53 G90 G40
N150 M3
N200 G1 Y48 F100
N300 M5
N310 M30

M3 is just DoSpinCW() and I have my metal on a slight slant to test. Sometimes it works well and other times Mach3 will not move on to line no N200 but I can see the z axis changing from the THC. I am using no dwell.

Thanks for any help.

8

General Mach Discussion / False limit switch trigger

« on: August 04, 2006, 09:06:07 AM »

The program will stop in the middle of a program due to a limit switch triggered on the Z axis but the switch was not triggered mechanically. I thought since they were cheap unsealed switches maybe they were dirty so I dissembled the switches and they were clean as a whistle and also check the wiring. All good. Is it possible that the metallic smoke from the cutting is triggering the switch?

Also when this occurs I try to recover the program by cursoring down the where the program quit, manually triggering the torch and hit "Run From Here" but the torch usually cuts thru the part where is shouldn't. The only way I've been able to recover is to shut off the Plasma, turn on "Single BLK" and step thru to the where it left off (very time consuming on a large part), turn off "Single BLK", turn on the Plasma, manually trigger the torch and then Hit "Run From Here". Is that the correct procedure?

Thanks in advance for any help.

9

General Mach Discussion / Trouble activating relay thru breakout board.

« on: May 24, 2006, 09:20:12 AM »

I'm still having problems trying to activate a relay to turn on/off my plasma torch. I have the relay hooked up to the out 1 terminals on the breakout board from Campbell designs and I was trying to activate it with the spindle toggle button on the Diagnostics page with no success. When I hit the flood and mist buttons the respective lights glow on the Diagnostics page but still did not activate the outputs on the breakout board for output 1, 2 or 3.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

10

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Pics of my Plasma table

« on: May 19, 2006, 10:23:56 AM »

I still haven't actually cut any metal but I have a pencil mounted and can draw scorpions.