Messages

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General Mach Discussion / SOLVED! It was the Mach kernel speed!

« on: November 01, 2008, 11:38:13 AM »

Hi Guys!

Nah, it's not the bed.   This has been a long road troubleshooting this thing, and I've slowly eliminated mechanical problems and electronic problems.   I've been posting in the Joe 2006 CNC forum and the Vectric folk's forum simultaneously but I didn't keep up as well here in mach...

Anyhoo, long story short, I figured it out finally!

It was the Mach Kernel setting.   At some point I had bumped it up to 60,000 and forgotten about it.   Well, my athlon CNC computer handled 60,000 just fine until it came to those super-complicated text V-carving movements.   Apparantly that was just too much for it.   I set it back down to 25,000 and everything is hunkey dorey again!

Thanks everybody for all your help and suggestions!   Now, if you'll excuse me there is sawdust to be made!

Cheers, Jim

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General Mach Discussion / Re: crazy circles from an ARC PP on one machine, OK on another!

« on: October 31, 2008, 03:41:06 PM »

Hey Gang!

Well, changing the IJ setting sure solved the giant circle problem, but I'm still wrestling with the disappearing part problem.

It looks like lost steps, but it happens every time I use V-carve pro, and never in any other program  (cut3d, photoVcarve, mach wizards)

Check this out:

anyone got any ideas?

Thanks!  -Jim

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General Mach Discussion / Re: crazy circles from an ARC PP on one machine, OK on another!

« on: October 30, 2008, 04:28:54 PM »

Sweet!   Will do!   Thanks Graham!

crossing my fingers and heading home!

Cheers, Jim

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General Mach Discussion / crazy circles from an ARC PP on one machine, OK on another!

« on: October 30, 2008, 04:12:50 PM »

Hi Gang!

I've got a perplexing problem with Vectric's V-carve.   I had it generate some Gcode using the G-code (ARCS) PP in Vcarve.   The gcode loads in my CNC machine showing huge concentric circles on most of the movements- circles that are far larger than my machine.

BUT!  When I loaded the job on my laptop to examine the G-code, it shows a nice normal toolpath.   Is there some setting in Mach that would affect the way it interprets arcs?

I discovered this because I've been having issues with the Gcode that Vcarve produces:  The cutter gradually climbs out of the job, apparantly by tiny fractions of an inch, until eventually the cutter isn't even in the material any more.   It has the appearance of lost steps, but Cut3d and PhotoVcarve don't have any issues, and slowing the Z axis way way down doesn't seem to solve it.  I tried encoding the part in each of the PPs that are compatible with mach and when I saw the ARC style PPs whirling circles all over the place I almost lost my mind!

I'm running on a Joe 2x4 hybrid using Keling 4030 drivers and 425oz motors.

Thanks gang!

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Greetings and..I need help with DROS that won't zero and DROs in bold...

« on: October 19, 2008, 02:44:41 PM »

Alrighty, here's a screen cap of the mach screen with the bolded DRO

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Greetings and..I need help with DROS that won't zero and DROs in bold...

« on: October 19, 2008, 02:35:07 PM »

Hi There!

That was my first thought too....  I just went out and checked it again.  No, it's definitely not machine coordinates vs part coordinates.   It actually feels like the software's locking up.  Nothing moves, nothing zeros and the part display is blank (it's white- the table doesn't even show up.  You can change screens and open menus, but it's like the meat of the engine died.  Again, shutting it down and restarting it seems to work.

On the new profile- which so far doesn't have this odd problem- the Y axis DRO is in bold print, but the X, Z and A are all in normal print.   Let me go out again and get a screen cap.

Thanks!  -Jim

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General Mach Discussion / Greetings and..I need help with DROS that won't zero and DROs in bold...

« on: October 19, 2008, 02:01:05 PM »

Hello Gang,

I am working the kinks out of my freshly constructed "Joe Hybrid" style CNC router and came to the Mach forum for help, both giving and taking as necessary.   A little about me: I'm a jack of all trades and a master of nothing.  I work as an audiovisual engineer for the Gov.  For fun I play guitar, throw boomerangs, dabble in CNC, and keep a variety of exotic animals.  I used to keep and breed octopuses, but there's no room for the aquaria in our current house, partly because we converted one bedroom of our house to a Tanzanian Rainforest for keeping and breeding old world chameleons. http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Free-Range-Habitat-for-Mellers-and-other-Large-/.   My wife is a pet portrait artist who can be found on http://www.gibbonsrock.com.   I'm not here to advertise- I need help, please!

Specifically, I registered today because I'm stuck trying to figure two things out:

Very often after homing the machine (it's got switches) I can't zero any of the axis' any more.   After homing, I move to where I want to cut the part, and then I can't zero the DROs.  I have to shut mach down (and it always asks for a "Fixture Save") and restart it.   Then I can zero the axis' and go from there, but it's lame having to "reboot" mach just to zero my axis'

I tried making a new profile, but for whatever reason the Y axis is in bold print and the others are normal.

I can't find any other mention of such phenomena in the forums.   Can anyone help?

Thanks!  -Jim