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General Mach Discussion / New member, some mach 3 setup questions and UC100 intermittent connection issue
« on: February 03, 2021, 09:28:36 AM »
Hello everyone, my Name is Rob Gore. I purchased a ZenBot 48"x96" CNC router last year, and it has been up and running for a while. We are using a gecko g540 4 axis control box and a UC 100 connected to the computer via double ferrite beaded USB cable. We have used this setup with and older windows 7 laptop and with a windows 10 (64 bit) tower (current setup).
I have some general questions, and a specific one related to an issue we are having.
General questions (please direct me to the correct place in the forum for these)
1. Is there a guide for setting up the machine coordinate system and homing functions? Currently we have none of that setup, we just zero to somewhere on the stock or part, make sure that location is zero in the CAM software (Fusion 360), and rock and roll. I'd like to have it setup correctly though, and I do not really know where to start. The machine has switches for x y and z but they currently do nothing.
2. Is there are best practices document somewhere, and/or a tuning guide for setting all the parameters in mach 3?
Specific question about an issue:
1. We have an intermittent UC100 connection issue. It will either have a sync error, or fully lose connection maybe once every other day (every 3-4 machine hours). I have taken the following steps to reduce the noise seen by the UC100 and USB cable.
a. double ferrite bead USB cable
b. VFD for spindle is in a thick steel box
c. UC100 chassis is grounded to computer chassis
d. Ensure USB power settings are not putting ports to sleep
Since doing these, the problem happens less frequently, but it still happens and is unacceptable. It also happened with the laptop we were using. I need a robust solution. This computer does not have a serial port. Please advise.
FWIW, I am a mechanical engineer and have tons of traditional machine shop and fabrication experience (built my own car from scratch), but I am definitely a bit of a noob regarding setting up and running CNC machines. Any help or advice is appreciated.
I have some general questions, and a specific one related to an issue we are having.
General questions (please direct me to the correct place in the forum for these)
1. Is there a guide for setting up the machine coordinate system and homing functions? Currently we have none of that setup, we just zero to somewhere on the stock or part, make sure that location is zero in the CAM software (Fusion 360), and rock and roll. I'd like to have it setup correctly though, and I do not really know where to start. The machine has switches for x y and z but they currently do nothing.
2. Is there are best practices document somewhere, and/or a tuning guide for setting all the parameters in mach 3?
Specific question about an issue:
1. We have an intermittent UC100 connection issue. It will either have a sync error, or fully lose connection maybe once every other day (every 3-4 machine hours). I have taken the following steps to reduce the noise seen by the UC100 and USB cable.
a. double ferrite bead USB cable
b. VFD for spindle is in a thick steel box
c. UC100 chassis is grounded to computer chassis
d. Ensure USB power settings are not putting ports to sleep
Since doing these, the problem happens less frequently, but it still happens and is unacceptable. It also happened with the laptop we were using. I need a robust solution. This computer does not have a serial port. Please advise.
FWIW, I am a mechanical engineer and have tons of traditional machine shop and fabrication experience (built my own car from scratch), but I am definitely a bit of a noob regarding setting up and running CNC machines. Any help or advice is appreciated.