Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Probing g31 question

« on: April 05, 2017, 08:42:40 PM »

I am guessing that you may not have the grounds connected.
If you are connecting the voltage from the board with external power supply to the Pokeys, they must share a common ground. Try connecting a ground on your board to the ground on your Pokeys and it should work. Do not connect more than one of the 5 V supply lines to the same board but it is OK (actually it is required) to have common grounds.
Graham

I have been testing home switches and a funny thing I made two boards to wire the home and probe thought..

one board I connect to the pokeys57cnc 26 pin connecter to draw the +5v and gnd, that board works fine home switches trigger and  mach4 sees them

the second board I connected external power +5 and gnd, and when home switch is triggered mach4 doesn't see it

tested the voltage going to the input of pokeys when triggered and they are both the same..
and both the same when not triggered...

so I am confused here will they on work if the +5 - are only from the pokeys board?.
for me at the moment that seems to be the case...

gary

2

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach 3 : Windows 7 vs previous OS's

« on: March 06, 2015, 08:48:04 AM »

I believe that if the PP driver is not installed, the unlicensed Mach will display and "run" more than 500 lines.
This would account for the difference the OP is experiencing.
Graham

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: GSim Mach4 Material Removal Simulator

« on: February 06, 2015, 05:24:35 PM »

Art,
I would also like to throw in a vote of support

It's working well with M4 2214 and Darwin 2176 on Win7 32 bit. Machine is 3GHz Core Duo 4Gb with 1Gb Video supporting Open GL 3.3

Thanks,
Graham

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Touch probe?

« on: November 22, 2014, 06:09:52 PM »

Not sure if it will help, but here is the schematic for my small CNC mill with G540

Graham

Didn't work but i think I might have my mill wired up wrong.
Going to build a bigger cabinet and start over.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Touch probe?

« on: November 17, 2014, 10:24:15 AM »

The G540 input #4 is already pulled up with an internal pullup resistor. This means that Pin 13 port 1 in Mach3 will be high with no connection to the G540 input and low when the input is connected to ground.
When you connect the probe between Input#4 (G540) and ground, the Pin 13 port 1 input will go low. When the probe is activated, it will go back high showing the circuit is open.

Your screen prints show the correct settings but also show that the circuit is open (i.e. not being closed by the probe in its static position)

I suspect that your ground connection is not correct. You said the ground on the power supply.... Is this the same ground that is connected to the G540? It must be.

A separate subject is that you probably want all your grounds connected in a star configuration, however, for now, it is important that the probe ground connects directly to the ground on the G540 (pin 12 on the G540).

If this is not the cause of your issue, then there is a problem with your connections of the probe or the probe itself. To check the probe when not connected, the Ohm meter should read zero between the probe wires when the probe is static and infinite when the probe tip is displaced.

Graham

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill Not Cutting Like Shown in Simulations

« on: November 12, 2014, 05:25:04 PM »

Sully,
Thanks for the update. Glad it is working out.
Graham

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill Not Cutting Like Shown in Simulations

« on: November 10, 2014, 11:47:37 PM »

1. Your code looks fine in my Mach3.
2. If you are using radius mode for arcs, then my previous comments are not relevant for this job
3. I am not too clear about your picture but it looks to me as if you have some mechanical problems or are losing steps.
Check your backlash, loose belts/pulleys/something....
Have you checked that your steps per unit are correct? 3" movement on DRO is 3" on the table?
Have you done the repeatability test in the Mach User Manual Section 5 I think around page 15.
If the steps per unit are OK and you find no significant mechanical issues, go to motor tuning and cut you speed down by 75% and your acceleration to 10% of the new speed and try again.
Graham

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 CNC cutting 1/32" too far in both X and Y axis

« on: November 10, 2014, 10:01:53 PM »

The debounce settings add some delay in seeing limit switches. If they are significantly different, it could move he home position as the time that Mach sees the switch is changed

Easy way to look for lost steps is to write a short GCode program to exercise the motors. You will need some way to determine the actual position of the spindle.
For example, put a piece of rod in the spindle and set up a dial indicator near X=3.0 Y 0.0. Move the spindle to X3 y0 and zero the indicator. Make sure that it is not bottomed. A 1" or 2" dial indicator would be safest.
Then execute
G0 X 0
G1 X 2.8 F10
G0 X 0
G1 X 2.8 F10
G0 X 0
G1 X 2.8 F10
G0 X 0
G1 X 2.8 F10
(Then check the position)
G1 X 3.0 F1

You should adjust the distances and speeds to match you mill. You could go to X 3.0 each time but it is probably a better test to go back and forth a number of times before you bother to check.
When you command X 3.0 the dial indicator should still be zeroed. If you are losing steps on the rapids back to X 0, the indicator will read high.

I suggested losing steps in the minus direction because you are gaining 1/32" when traversing in the plus direction. I is probably worth doing this test in all directions X+, X- Y+ Y-. The key is that your test program rapids in one direction and moves at cutting speed or less in the opposite direction.

Graham

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill Not Cutting Like Shown in Simulations

« on: November 10, 2014, 09:47:32 PM »

Check that your cam source and mach agree on the IJ Mode.

If your cam program is outputting arcs with IJ in absolute mode, you will get all kinds of wild tool paths unless the GCode also specifies G90.1 for absolute IJ mode
Normally Mach is configured for incremental mode. This can be set in general configuration or in GCode with G91.1

Either may be used but the way the GCode is generated (absolute or incremental) MUST match the Mach settings

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: M3 and M4 compiler issues...again

« on: November 10, 2014, 08:35:26 PM »

I wouldn't think autostarting Mach3 is the problem since the M3/M4 issue seems to be in the core of Mach.
But if you are using the parallel port driver, I would not do autostart. The PP driver breaks a lot of WIndows rules and operates somewhat under the radar so it could be possible that it might get hit if windows hasn't finished initializing everything when Mach starts it.

Please post of you learn any more. While my problem is in remission, I doubt it is gone completely.

Graham