Messages

1

PoKeys / Re: Can I do this jogging with Pokeys?

« on: August 25, 2009, 08:26:25 AM »

It is possible to that with PoKeys. There are 3 variants:
- PoKeys is emulating keyboard. You should use arrow, pg up and pg down and shift keys as on your ordinary keyboard
- Use Mach plugin for PoKeys
- You can use MPG with Mach plugin for PoKeys. Look on www.CNC4PC.com.

I do not want to use a MPG so I prefer using Mach plugin for PoKeys.

So can I:

- Define different behaviour when pressing a button short or longer than for instance 1 second?
- Define different behaviour when pressing a button together with some other button?
- Use step jogging and 3 different speeds of contineous jogging without changing speed and mode each time?

regards

2

PoKeys / Is pokeys save to use for jogging?

« on: August 25, 2009, 05:38:09 AM »

Is it save to use pokeys for jogging?
The reason I aks is this:
When I jog using the arrow buttons on the keyboard it some times happens that (when jogging fast by
pressing the shift plus arrow button) mach keeps jogging even when releasing the keys! This can lead to dangerous situations.
Can such I thing happen when using pokeys? Is it possible the release of a button is not correctly reported to Mach3?

3

PoKeys / Can I do this jogging with Pokeys?

« on: August 25, 2009, 05:33:39 AM »

Hello I recently bought pokeys55 and want to use it for my milling machine now.

I did some thinking about how I would like to ideally jog with some buttons.
This is what I really would like:

For each direction (-X, +X, -Y, +Y, -Z and +Z) I would like to have two buttons, plus one common 'fast' button.
When pressing the first, it should move 0.01mm (step). When holding longer, it should go into a very slow continues mode (like 0.1mm/sec).
When pressing the second it should move at medium speed (like 10mm/sec), and when pressing the 'fast' button too it should move faster (like 100 or 200mm/sec).

Is this possible with pokey?
If so, how can I do that?
And if not, is there some other way to do that?

4

Mach Screens / Re: Font size problem

« on: June 18, 2009, 10:43:20 AM »

For me it helped to set the font size in Windows XP to 'medium' or 'normal' (I'm not sure what the correct name is).
It was set to 'large' and that was causing the problems.

5

SmoothStepper USB / Re: When does the next update come?

« on: June 08, 2009, 03:17:45 AM »

Adrian,
   I assume you've been watching this :   http://www.warp9td.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=33&func=view&id=682&catid=7&limit=6&limitstart=0

Might want to drop a line.
RC

What should we see at that page?
When I go there, it says: "You are not authorised to view this resource."

6

SmoothStepper USB / Smootstepper doesn't support backlash compensation??

« on: June 08, 2009, 03:13:33 AM »

I have a backlash problem on my Mill.
Off course I will try to solve that mechanically. But if not possible I will need to do it in software.
Mach3 supports backlash compensation, but SmootStepper doesn't ?

I read posts saying that it will be added soon and these posts are very old.
So when is it expected?

I really would like to know to be able to make a good decision (keep SS and wait or switch to something other).

7

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / some little annoying issues

« on: June 07, 2009, 04:24:33 AM »

Hello
Just bought the Newfangled Solution Wizard.
I'm very pleased with it, but I have some annoying things:

First of all, each time I genereted the GCode and go the the mach run screen, the system is in reset. I whave to click the reset button to get it out of reset.
WHy is that? Can I avoid this?

Second, when used some of the NFS wizards and when I want to return to the Wizard to make an change (go last used Wizard), I have to click thru all selection menus again before getting at the last used Wizard.
I would like to return the the laters used Wizard immediately.

Third. I read somewhere here in the forum that a Z-start parameter for the hole drill wizard(s) would be added soon (in a few days). That was in februari and but there is no such parameter yet.
Or do I have to uload some upgrade?

I hope a lot of usefull Wizard will be added in the near future!!!

8

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / explanation about Circular pocket ramp

« on: June 06, 2009, 01:21:59 PM »

I just bought the NFS Wizard.
Looks very good!

When using the circular pocket, you can specify a ramp angle and a ramp dist.
I can not find information about how to interpret these parameters.

How is the ramp angle defined? In degrees? And 0 means vertical down (no ramp)?
And what is ramp dist.? Is that ramp distance? Why do I need a ramp Distance when already a angle define?

9

General Mach Discussion / Spindle motor control problem

« on: June 05, 2009, 05:54:01 AM »

Hi

Using a relais I can turn on and off the spindle motor of my Mill using Mach3.
The spindle motor has a safety build in that once power is switched of, you will have to puch a green button after power is switched on to make the motor run again.
So when switching the motor on using Mach3 I also have to push this button. Switching of using Mach3 works fine.

The problem is that some of the Wizards do generate code to switch the motor on at the begin. This is not handy for me, because the motor only starts when I also push this button.
When I switch the motor on before running the Wizard code however, for some reason it switches the motor off at the begin! (and probably on again, but that does not work because of the green button).

Any idea how to solve this?

10

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 resets after running Wizard

« on: June 05, 2009, 05:40:13 AM »

Each time I run a Wizard and generate GCode, Mach3 goes into reset.
Is that normal? Why is this?
Can I avoid that?