Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Gearotic Forum Crash

« on: June 27, 2021, 07:51:43 AM »

Tweakie:

   I think the password database may have been screwed up.. Im looking into that as well..

Thx
Art

2

General Mach Discussion / Gearotic Forum Crash

« on: June 27, 2021, 06:59:54 AM »

Hi All:

 Sorry for intruding on Mach support for a Gearotics announcement, but I know many of my
users are Mach users as well. My Gearheads forum has permanently crashed. I have rebuilt
but am still converting and transfering data as well as fixing up configs. The new Forum is
at gearotic.com/GearHeads and is now functional. So if you been wondering when the errors
will end with Gearotics forum, please try the new address, at least all the archived data from the
last decade is available again.

Thanks
Art Fenerty ( Gearotic.com).

3

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: July 05, 2020, 09:06:06 PM »

Tweaky:


  Great thing about the black marble is the scattering of the light makes it turn very white at the cracks, so no rubbing needed. Pretty brilliant image. (Hmm, it may have been polished black granite tile..,Ill have to see if I can find the same I did..)

  Sry to hear the M4 laser isnt quite there. Im sure they'll get there eventually.

Art

4

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: July 05, 2020, 09:01:29 AM »

Interesting, hadnt heard of that technique. I like it.
I also find that black marble tiles do an excellent white image
 on the black tile as it cracks it slightly and the cracks are white.
Good contrast.

Art

5

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Pulley Ratio Accuracy Problem

« on: August 25, 2019, 01:23:05 PM »

Brian:

  Sorry, I wasnt quite understanding. I do see the problem, I used a conversion to
2 decimals when I converted it to a string. I used

_gcvt( Ratios[c] , 2 , NumOut.GetBuffer(20) );

instead of
_gcvt( Ratios[c] , 10 , NumOut.GetBuffer(20) );

  Unfortunately, there is no way for you to grab this or change its default. Its not
a value you can change and have it stay changed, I checked the code and its simply
hardwired to 1 decimal. One of those errors not noticed in time to correct.

Art

6

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Pulley Ratio Accuracy Problem

« on: August 25, 2019, 11:46:04 AM »

Hi Brian:

 The spindle ratio for each pulley is stored as SPINRATIO1 etc in the xml file. IT is however a calculated value in
calibration windows, so when you look at it, like shrodingers cat it can change from what you think you set it to.
So long as you dont look at it, it should stay stored as you selected it.  Its fairly complex and likely a bit buggy in
that section so check your xml to see what it thinks it is..

Art

7

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 15, 2019, 03:45:49 PM »

I use opto's, the speeds really arent all that high in the scheme of things..

8

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 08, 2019, 07:48:07 AM »

   The problem is not getting PWM, many boards offer a PWM output, the problem is always getting
the PWM to change during motion based on a photo. This requires the CNC program to deal with either
a photo or a data-file representing that photo. This is not a normal thing for a CNC program to do,
it requires handling data in realtime that a typical CNC program doesnt like to do, its busy enough
doing the motions and GCode translations.
   Mach4 will do it with an ESS , the capability is in the ESS's driver as Greg was kind enough to add
that capability for Laser users. Auggie will do it because it was designed from the start to control a
laser.
   You will find with lasers general CNC programs are difficult to coax into doing laser engraving of
photos just as Auggie is difficult to coax into doing normal CNC milling work. It can do so , but its
primary purpose is Laser.

  Luckily, if you wish to do any normal Milling , the PoKeys will work with Mach3 or Mach4. Auggie is
a free program so its just a good thing to have in the toolbox if you have a Laser capability on  a
Milling type configuration.

Art

9

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 07, 2019, 07:20:17 PM »

>>exists a better controller board to be able to manage the laser for engrave ?

  Not that I know of. The 57CNC will provide a new PWM setting each ms. I understand though that
the ESS will now also engrave with laser using mach3. I believe it also uses a 1ms power setting
frequency.

Art


   

10

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 07, 2019, 05:26:25 PM »

Yes, so long as the driver kits take step/direction as their input , thats what you need.
You may want to read some on the gearotics.com forum, theres quite a bit on the laser hookup.
 Just send the operator a note asking for membership to the forum. Its request only to stop spam.

Art