Topics

1

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / PCB-Gcode - No milling code in the file...

« on: March 11, 2013, 10:14:02 PM »

I am getting up to speed, have engraved  a  few test boards' traces, am ready now to integrate drilling and milling out the board....
The drill nc file looks great, but haven't run it yet....but despite checking the box to have a mill file generated, which I assume is the file to cut out the board's outline in the dimension layer, the code consists of the following:
G20
(Absolute Coordinates)
G90
G00 X0.0000  Y0.0000  
M03
G04 P1.000000
G00 Z0.5000  
M05
M02

That's all I get every time.  What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for any input....

2

General Mach Discussion / 2nd Tool Head and related offset settings

« on: January 08, 2013, 09:39:01 AM »

I have an engraving table which I replace the z axis with a real variable height axis in lieu of the air-driven up/down affair, and it works great for engraving and minor soft materials machining.
But the spindle only accepts 1/8" top-load engraving cutters.  A great machine in its own right now, but I need to be able to use other tools.  

So I machined mounts and added a 1/4" trim router adjacent to the existing spindle. It's a double headed monster now :-) Can load 1/8" shank tooling, and 1/4" as well.  Now I can ostensibly do printed circuit boards and the like.  Here's my question...tool and fixture offsets are confusing enough in their own right, but how does one tell the machine to start in a particular job with one head, then continue with the other?  For example, I would set my work offsets for the engraving spindle, cut all the traces, then wish to drill using the trim router...Where do I store the "difference" in locations between the 2 heads and switch to it?  I should be able to select the other offset for x and y, then drop down and set z as you always would...but aren;t standard offsets relational to machine zero, not some arbitrary difference as I seem to require?
 I can field determine their locations easily enough...  can somebody explain this?  Thanks so much.

3

General Mach Discussion / Problems with gcode exported to MAch from pcb-gcode...

« on: December 18, 2012, 08:30:29 PM »

I am fairly familiar now with Mach3, have run a  few parts.  Next I need to engrave some printed circuit boards.
Got to the point where I can run the pcb-gcode add-on in Cadsoft Eagle, and have respectable gcode, and a decent looking board file.
But the gcode despite being told to be MAch3 compatible in the setup, won't run...it stops early on, at M3 code, and if I skip it, it finds more incompatible gcode errors.....am I missing something?   some of the code follows...

(.../EAGLE-6.3.0/ulp/PCB-GCODE/pcb-gcode.ulp)
(Copyright 2005 - 2009 by John Johnson)
(See readme.txt for licensing terms.)
(This file generated from the board:)
(.../fuel flow large enclosure.brd)
(Current profile is .../ulp/PCB-GCODE/profiles/mach.pp  )
(This file generated 12/18/2012 2:58:16 PM)
(Settings from pcb-machine.h)
(  Tool Size)
(0.0070  )
(Z Axis Settings)
(  High     Up        Down     Drill)
(0.5000     0.1000     -0.0070    -0.0320 )
(spindle on time = 1.0000)
(milling depth = -0.0100)
(text depth = -0.0050)
(tool change at 0.0000  0.0000  5.0000  )
(feed rate xy = F20    )
(feed rate z  = F10    )
(Settings from pcb-defaults.h)
(Default isolate = 0.0010)
(isolate max = 0.0200)
(isolate step = 0.0050)
(Generated top outlines, top drill, bottom outlines, )
(Unit of measure: inch)
(Inch Mode)
G20
(Absolute Coordinates)
G90
G00 X0.0000  Y0.0000  
M3  
G04 P1.000000
G00 Z0.1000  
G00 X1.4277  Y1.7565  
G01 Z-0.0070 F10    
G01 X1.4277  Y1.7639  F20    
G01 X1.4262  Y1.7712  

4

SmoothStepper USB / Smoothstepper USB and z axis

« on: December 08, 2012, 06:36:23 PM »

I just installled the USB smoothstepper and the x and y axes are humming smoothly.  But while troubleshooting the z axis, and a few missing steps, somehow the configuration has gotten trashed, and both up and down commands cause downward moves.  Is this stored in the smoothstepper.xml file?  What needs done at this point?  The z used to work both directions....I uninstalled the driver an config files, and restarted, but it didn't help.  Not knowing exactly what;s going on software wise, I am in  a quandary here.

5

General Mach Discussion / DriverTest - Pulsing Too Fast

« on: October 11, 2012, 01:03:35 PM »

I know, some of you've likely answered this one a hundred times.
 Here's the rub....I have 2 identical Dell Inspiron 8100 laptops, with XP SP3 freshly loaded just recently, and both now give up the same pulsing too fast error in drivertest, and lose steps while running live.
But I used this same laptop years ago, for both this engraver and a full sized mill.  So I know the hardware is fine, it used to run drivertest in the green with System Excellent all the time.  I almost couldn't get it out of the green status, as I recall, except by specifying a really high pulse rate.

So I removed and reloaded the driver, - no help.  Tried the alternate special driver and rebooted, - no help.
Eliminated all the unnecessary windows and applications processes in winconfig that I felt comfortable doing - still no help. 
I have NO extra applications loaded or running.
DriverTest will run in the yellow, pulsing too fast about 80% of the time, then occasionally go green for a few seconds, and back to pulsing too fast,  yellow.

Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.

6

General Mach Discussion / A couple setup problems - 3 axis engraver

« on: September 30, 2012, 03:52:33 PM »

Getting up to speed, learning how to set the home position versus limit switches, etc.
My machine consists of a 3 axis engraver table, table itself moves in Y direction, tool moves in X, and head moves up down in Z of course.
Stepper motor drives, with one limit switch at bottom left most tool position in y,one at leftmost position in x, and the z has a limit switch at top and bottom limits of travel.  Total 4 switches in series.
   
Question 1:  Not sure I am setting things up right...the z motor never references upwards properly to the switch and back off of it, like it should, it often goes up (correct direction) half an inch or so, stops as if the switch was made, then goes on to reference the x and y axes, which it ALWAYS does perfectly.   The Z limit switch port pins are all identical to the other limit switches, since they all share the same line. So that is correct.  What would cause the z not to go up to the switch and reference correctly?   All axes are set up properly for direction and speed and acceleration and distance calibration.  They all jog fine.

Question 2:  I have never seen the capability to limit manual jogging to stop on limit switch.  Mine just tries to plow through past the switches.  I Can't find a setting for that.   But I guess once I have figured out the procedure for machine limits versus soft limits versus offsets, the machine won't jog past the soft limits.   ....it's all a bit confusing really.

Any assistance would be most appreciated.

7

General Mach Discussion / Help! Problem with Mach3 ~ oscillations in control lines or something

« on: October 29, 2008, 02:33:52 PM »

This is the weirdest problem! I spent 2 days trying to find the solution and am about to give up.  I have a laptop running Mach3, on a small engraving table previously run with a Vision Engravers proprietary controller unit, and all has been well for the past 3 weeks during setup and tweaking the drivers and motor tuning...while I upgraded the z axis and the stepper driver to a nice Intelligent Motion Systems driver to match the other 2. 

Never had a problem setting up the driver or issues with noise or anything...now all of a sudden, after replacing the old crappy z driver with the IMS driver, and setting up the motor steps and acceleration, all hell has broken loose.  There is some kind of ground loop or oscillation on the lines, causing all the controlled devices in the control box, including the 3 axes and their motors, the 3 output relays to bounce open and closed, making all kinds of noise and the steppers are running wildly, intermittently, growling.

I thought maybe I had killed my laptop's parallel port. Luckily I have an identical Inspiron 8100 laptop, so I swapped everything except the hard drive, no help. Again, it worked beautifully these past 3 weeks during testing and setup.  Uninstalled and reinstalled the Mach engine, it reinstalls and tests with the driver test program, just fine, it is and always was rock solid.

Checked for bad grounds, power lines, all ok. Disconnected the new z axis, still same problem with the other 2, cannot even reset Mach3, it thinks the emergency stop button is pressed, which it isn't, and its continuity tests out ok.

With the parallel port cable off, everything is ok, the drives just sit there, no oscillation of motors or relay chattering.

With the laptop turned off, still ok.  As soon as  laptop  is powered on, the problem starts.  Disconnect the step lines from the stepper controllers, the motors stop chattering or moving, just as you would expect.

Any thoughts as to what might cause this? THanks

8

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / General newbie cnc question

« on: September 26, 2007, 01:33:37 AM »

I converted a heavy duty overarm mill to cnc and am prepping to make the first part!  I have off and on worked on setting up the axes, etc but have a nagging question.  My y axis has only 5 inches of travel and sometimes I
will want to make a wider part.  I understand that an intermediary point can be selected as a reference say, halfway across the part to re-orient the machine after moving the piece (actually in my case, moving the stationary overarm cutter head)- here's the million dollar question....how do I make the g-code (whether using a CAM program or simple 2D batch files within Mach3) to stay within the limits of the machine, but still make the bigger part?

Do I have to make 2 complete parts in code, which just happen to coincide?

Thanks so much, soon I will be cutting parts!