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Messages - CanAm1

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1
General Mach Discussion / Re: I'm Back - But need Help
« on: March 22, 2014, 12:29:19 PM »
All,

Well, I answered my own question on the arc reference. It does not make a difference changing to absolute as Mach3 still goes haywire trying to regain it's reference.

My issue was trying to resume from program halts which I have learned one does not do. Just re-reference things and start over (Providing one still has a cutter in one piece and the material is not ruined).

Thank you again everyone for the help.

Mark

2
General Mach Discussion / Re: I'm Back - But need Help
« on: March 22, 2014, 10:53:42 AM »
Thanks All for your inputs,

Gerry, In answer to your question, no there are no messages on the screen.

I have solved my radius error message. Found I had CB and Mach3 set opposite on where the center of a arc is referenced. Set everyone the same, re-ran the tool path and g-code generation in CB, loaded code and ran Mach3 and error message is now gone.
Found my issue with my pendant. I guess I had a brain fart when I built the thing a couple of years ago and I have the pause and stop button wired backwards. No big deal to fix, just swap the plugs inside the pendant. Never noticed the difference, but I pretty much only used the pendant's joystick in the past.
Great explanation on the pause and stop button usage. Explains a lot.
What if one was to set the arc references in both CB and Mach3 to absolute which I have read references the center of the arc instead of a last previous position? Could this setting alleviate the getting lost syndrome?

Thanks

Mark

3
General Mach Discussion / Re: I'm Back - But need Help
« on: March 22, 2014, 08:14:55 AM »
Thank you for your input and I apologize for the delay in getting back.

Well, I did some checking and the CNC itself seems fine. All cabling is good, shields are grounded and nothing is bound up. I then ran the code within Mach 3 by itself with the CNC off in what I guess would be called SIM mode. Problem was still there. OK, time for upgrading the program, must have a corrupt file somewhere. Went through the gyrations and installation went smooth. I then ran the code on just the computer and once again I still have the problem.
Since it seems to be an issue when cutting a circle or something I drew up just a simple circle by itself and generated the code. Ran it and how about that, the problem did not occur. One interesting thing that did occur on just the circle code was when I pushed the stop button an error message came up saying “Radius to end of arc differs from radius to start” (whatever that means). I did not get this when running the code that has the issue.
So far,
•   I push the pause button and the program slowly stops and then I can push start and things start up again OK with both codes
•   I push the stop button and receive the error message when running the circle code, but not when running the issue code.
•   When in stop mode with the circle code running I have to rewind back to the start to get things running again
•   When in stop mode with the issue code I can push start and the program will start running again. It seems Mach 3 is still running the code in the back ground while stopped. And when started the cutting point moves around slowly trying to catch up with where it is suppose to be and eventually gets there. Depending on how long I wait to push the start button is directly related to how long it takes for the cutting point to catch back up too.

This is a strange one and once again any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

4
General Mach Discussion / I'm Back - But need Help
« on: March 19, 2014, 08:51:04 AM »
Hello All,

I have been in a Hiatus status for over 2 years, but am back finally. I retired and then moved to Washington State to be near the grand kids. We have a great 2 ½ acre plus site in the trees which even has a pond with an island. It is off the beaten path, but close enough to amenities and is absolutely gorgeous. This has been keeping me busy to say the least for a while.
Anyway, finally found time to unbox the CNC outfit and get it up and running. Everything seemed to function and of course I am having to relearn almost everything. Unfortunately I have a couple of problems that I did not have before. Hopefully you Guru’s can understand my wording and help me come up with a solution.
First issue is the machine will be chugging along and then just stop. No repeatability and completely random. I have tried various things to stop this and nothing has helped. Second issue which is the real problem is that when I try to continue it takes off in X and Y all on its own. It then plunges to the depth that Z was at before it stopped and of course “Bang” there goes an expensive carbide cutter plus wasted expensive material. This obviously can’t continue.
I have now started air cutting, trying different things and have found some interesting issues. It looks like I can force mach 3 to throw an error which appears to match what has been happening. The code will be running and I will hit the screen stop button. Everything of course stops, but when I restart the program X and Y will swing out and circle around clockwise. Eventually it finds the correct and original cutting line and then continues on as if nothing was wrong. Now the strange one is that if I hit the screen pause button and then restart things everything is OK and works like it should. Even stranger is that the buttons on my pendant act just the opposite of the screen buttons. Stop allows me to stop and start without issues, but pause causes the X and Y error.
I am going to try add a copy of the machine code and a screen shot showing the original circle cutting path and the obvious crazy error path.

Running under Windows 7
Version of Mach 3: Licensed and whatever was current January 2012
(I know, I should just go ahead and load the latest)

Thanks in advance

Mark


5
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bit Height Offset
« on: August 18, 2011, 09:24:01 AM »
Hello All,

I figured it out. ;D

After checking out the screens and going through the help (which seems a little vague to this newbie) I stumbled on what is going on. I am working on page one adding my buttons and scripts. When one makes a button global it gets a red ring around the button, changes your (I’ll call it for no better words “button configuration block”) to be a three line description and puts the button on page zero. If you then go to page zero and click on your new button, the configuration block shows everything once again, which will allow you to tweak things if needed.
The one thing of course that you have to remember is that when you make a button global it will show up on every page in the same location. I did not have a chance last night to see if the program prevents over writing other items on other pages.

Thanks again everyone for the help.

Mark

6
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bit Height Offset
« on: August 17, 2011, 05:16:18 PM »
My button making and attaching scripts to them works. Everything functions the way I want it to.
The problem occurred when I hit the yes on the global selection at the top of the button defining box.
So, I just won't make things global and all works fine... At least until I find out what the global yes/no does....

7
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bit Height Offset
« on: August 17, 2011, 12:40:38 PM »
Hello All,

Thanks for the additional comments.
I have done some experimenting with Klaus’ Screen Designer as the original Mach3 Screen Designer comes up slightly scrambled on my computer. Yes, I am using a copy of my screen set and have come up with a couple of solutions that work for my needs.
I was trying to get the functions that I typically use to run the CNC setup on my pendant to keep from playing contortionist in reaching my keyboard.
My pendant has two “GOTO” positions on it that were not working. One was Tool Change Position and the other was Safe Z Position.
First, I added another button to the Tool Information Block on screen 1 and labeled it “Tool Change Position” to replace the button that disappeared during revisions.
Second, I discovered that the Auto Tool Zero button in the same area currently is not being used as you get a “Yet to be implemented” message if you click on it. I relabeled it to read “Zero Z +.375” as I don’t feel I need a safe Z function.
Next I played around with the button defining blocks for these two keys. I used Hood’s (thank you) script for the Zero key and it works. I can click on it with the mouse or use my pendant to get that function to perform. I still need to tinker with the script for the tool change key to get it up and working.
Not too bad for an old fart Huh???

One question I do have is that when I was defining the keys in the screen designer I noticed that at the top of the defining block there was a Global yes/no selection. I figured this may mean that the function of the key could be allowed to occur no matter what screen you were on. Well, I clicked yes and things really went strange on me. The button wound up with a red line around it and the defining block changed to 3 lines with all my scripting and labeling vanishing. What gives with this happening??

Thanks everyone.

Mark

8
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bit Height Offset
« on: August 14, 2011, 10:31:46 AM »
Hood.

The pendant has 2 spots for macros.
I guess I'll start reading up on them.

Thanks

Mark

9
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bit Height Offset
« on: August 14, 2011, 09:19:29 AM »
Thanks Gerry.
That works, but is there a way to have Mach add the .375 when I hit the zero button?
In other words, when I am setting my bit height and I get it where I want it to be all I have to do is zero the Z and Mach3 will zero Z and add .375.
I may have to have some sort of macro to do this.
I am trying to get things setup to where I don't have to fiddle with the keyboard and can just do things from my new pendant.

Mark

10
Thanks Guys.
Backups are one of those areas where we know we need to do it, but so often put it off until it's too late.
One other issue I had was having 2 versions of Mach on the computer, different folders, but it sure seemed to confuse the loader and other things.
Now I am back to one version period.
What started my troubles is I have just put a pendant together and 98% of it works. There is still a couple of functions that have issues so I went ahead and prematurely tried dabbling into the Mach inner workings.

Mark

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