Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Help getting running after hard drive swap

« on: March 25, 2016, 09:19:22 PM »

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong place, please move if necessary.

I have been using Mach3 on my lathe for the past 5 or 6 years with no problems at all. I have been using smooth stepper and havent made any changes in years and honestly havent kept up with any updates etc as the lathe has run perfectly.

A couple of days ago we had a brown out do to a loose connection in our service panel. The hard drive was damaged, I was able to make copies of most everything on the hard drive using puppy linux.

Installed a new hard drive, same computer no other changes. I loaded Mach3 again, same version/build, dropped in my license, plugged in the smooth stepper, directed windows to the folder with the exact same driver that was working properly.  Found my latest smooth stepper xml backup (from last month) and placed it in the mach3 directory.

 I launch Mach3 loader and chose Smooth Stepper, Mach3 launches with wrong kernel speed message, seems to be set at 25k, Change it back to 45k and thats about where my notes end.

When I look at ports and pins, general config and motor tuning everything looks correct but I am unable to jog or turn on spindle.

I know these is quite a reach but could someone guide me in the right direction to get back up and running, I am sure there are a few port settings or something in smooth stepper setup I have missed since it seems like a comm problem.

Thanks RIchard

2

General Mach Discussion / Motion wont stop after keyboard jog

« on: January 31, 2011, 11:16:42 AM »

I have had a strang issue creap up today that I hope is just a case of me accidently changing a setting.

I havent made any changes to my system in well over a year. This morning I was turning and threading parts on the lathe. once the part is done I place a new part in the chuck and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to slowly jog over and touch the end of the part then press the Z zero button on screen and then cycle start to begin machining the part.

I ran about 15 parts this morning and then out of the blue the machine started continuing to move after the arrow key on the keyboard is released. At this point none of the keyboard inputs are recognized and all my external inputs , cycle start estop and pause , do not work.  Once I click the Stop button on screen the machine stops moving and the external inputs work again . All the other keyboard comands work fine and dont cause this issue, just the slow jog. The rapid jog (hold shift and press arrow key) works fine and doesnt cause this issue.

Since things have worked fine until this point  I would imagine I have changed something somehow this morning while pressing the jog (arrow) keys on the keyboard.

Any thoughts or help greatly appreciated.

3

General Mach Discussion / script error 1076.ins ? another threading problem

« on: October 14, 2009, 08:14:43 PM »

I cut about 30 sets of internal threads  no problem today , pushed the cycle start button as I have 60+ time eariler in the day , spindle and coolant turn on as they should, tool moves to start position , g76 line is high lighted in code and nothing happens.  Line at the lower left of the mach turn window says script error 1076.ins and then a few more charcters than will fit in the display.

What has happened and how do I get back up and running?  Tryed rebooting computer no change . I have no idea what happened, no change in program , no power surge etc

4

General Mach Discussion / g76 problem with lathe

« on: September 08, 2009, 05:52:06 PM »

I have experienced a new problem today .  I am using the same g76 file I have used hundreds of times to thread on the lathe.

This machine has not been powered up in about a week . When my program runs the correct tool loads , moves to the correct position, spindle starts but the feed rate on the z axis is way off.  Usualy the feed rate is fairly high and sncs with the spindle speed and all is well.   Today the feed rate is just what ever the pitch value in the g76 line is.  In this case the thread is 20tpi so the pitch is .05  , the feed rate window reads .05 and the tool moves in the z axis at .05 IPM ,  change the p value to .1 , machine moves .1 IPM etc.


What has changed, why and how do I get the machine to thread again?  Is there a macro that needs to reloaded?

5

General Mach Discussion / saving spindle auto calibration

« on: July 01, 2009, 09:53:53 PM »

After running the spindle  calibration is there anyway to save the setting so it doesnt have to be run each time mach is launched? I have clicked the save setting box that pops up when done and clicked save settings from the pull down menu  but everytime I launch mach it seems I need to run the spindle auto calibrate routine

6

General Mach Discussion / couple of things I have noticed with mach /g83 problem

« on: June 12, 2009, 10:17:05 PM »

I have been using my big lathe quite a bit with mach this week . I have upgraded from an earlier version of mach and installed a smooth stepper at the same time so i am not sure which one is causing the problem . When i peck drill I cant get the depths called out .  G84 q.1 z-2.5  f1.00 r.1 only drills to a depth of 1.6"   I have run a number of drill files that were drilling to the proper depths before the upgrades that will not drill to the proper depth now
Machine moves the proper distance in all other functions.

I have noticed a couple of other things, that while they dont cause problems in Mach , are not std and do cause problems in other commercial cnc controllers. Just observations so please dont take ay of this the wrong way .
I am running Yasnac mx3 , milltronics cent7, sinumerik 802c and the latest thin controller from HAAS .

Some of the Mach wizards generate coordinates that are 5 decimal places , the haas controller, sinumerik and the Yasnac on mazaks and other eguip will only accept numbers to 4 places or they fault .

all the wizards seem to generate coordinates that sometimes do not have a decimal point if they fall on a whole number x1 , y3 etc . All  of the commercial controllers I am running have problems with any numbers that dont have decimal points .
quite often feed rates are generated with out a decimal point , same problem as above.

I realize 99% of the time files generated are run only in mach and all the wizard were/are written with this in mind , I am only pointing these things out as I am guessing the goal is to make everything as close to std gcode/programing as possible and the decimal point thing seems to cause problems on a number of machines

7

General Mach Discussion / M9 doesnt turn off coolant

« on: June 05, 2009, 10:13:41 PM »

I can turn on coolant with m8 as expected but cannot turn it off via m9, also does not turn off when m30 is called out either.  Should there be an m8 and m9 file in macros? Possibly some setting I have missed?

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General Mach Discussion / g95 lathe feed per rev mode?

« on: June 03, 2009, 10:39:04 PM »

could someone give me an example with quick explanation of using g95 feed per rev mode in mach turn?

Also curios if canned cycle g71 might be usable in the future

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General Mach Discussion / can mach be set to remember which tool is loaded on shut down?

« on: May 25, 2009, 05:49:52 PM »

can mach be set to remember which tool is loaded on shut down?

When I reboot I need mach to remember which tool is loaded. If i forget to manualy enter the tool number thats loaded when i start the machine and the program run calls out the tool already loaded it jams my tool changer which takes about 15 minutes to disassemble and resolve

10

General Mach Discussion / Lost communication with PLC after SS instal

« on: May 20, 2009, 07:31:35 PM »

My apologies for posting a SS related question in the general forum but I was afraid with the limited traffic in the SS forum my post there might get overlooked and I need to turn a bunch of parts tommorow.

I installed a smooth stepper board yesterday and have almost everything up and working nicely, but since the instal Mach will no longer communicate wuth the PLC that operates my tool changer . What do I need to look at or change to get Mach to communicate with the PLC?