Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 12, 2016, 09:34:54 AM »

Hi Gary,

The issue you are speaking about is what I believe is causing my problem with the gantry going out of square.
Almost every time I turn the controller on the motors "jump" and lock into position. when I'm trying to manually square the gantry I turn off the controller to turn the screw by hand to adjust the dial indicator. when I turn it back on it jumps anywhere from .001" to .005" in either direction. I seem to spend a lot of time chasing this to dial it in so it's square.
Would going from 1/16 step to 1/8, assuming my Xylotex controller gives me that option, help in anyway with this or make it worse?
Any thoughts or this isuue just an inherent problem with steppers?

Thanks,
Joe

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 11, 2016, 12:51:17 PM »

Hi Gerry,

my fingers are going faster than my mind and i hit send to soon.
Do you have any info on your hall effect sensors?
Are you using Xylotex's BOB?

Thanks again,
Joe

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 11, 2016, 12:48:31 PM »

Hi Gerry,

I'm not 100% sure but i believe the setup I have is using 1/16 microstepping. I remember in one of Dave Gatton's video's he mentions that Jeff made some modifications to the newer controllers. In his video i recall some of his settings for the motors and he had 3200 steps.
Mine is set for 6400 steps per the instructions from Jeff @ Xylotex.

Is 1/8 better? Smoother? More accurate? Not necessarily for the gantry issue but general use
Can i change it?

Do you have any recommendations on an accurate switch or method to square up the gantry?

Thanks,
Joe

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 11, 2016, 10:47:47 AM »

Hi Gerry, Gary & Rich,

Appreciate the feedback.
I have no programming experience but will definitely look thru the VB scripts and start lurking thru the Tool Box & screen sets. You never know where it might lead me on my quest to figure this stuff out.

It has become apparent that the proximity sensors I bought are not capable of doing what I intended. That said there is little doubt that I am getting carried away with some of the things I'm doing. I built the CNC from SidewinderCNC. Had a blast building it, using it for a bit so far and furthering my knowledge on the whole CNC world. The accuracy of the machine is probably far less than I'm worrying about with these sensors. I plan on building another machine, hopefully much for accurate in the future. I'm using what I have to learn about different things so I can make informed decisions when that time comes.

I'm using the Xylotex controller and motors, is there a way to change the microstepping?
I'll do some reading about microstepping but what are the pros & cons of it? Is accuracy diminished going to full steps?
Can you provide a link or some names of accurate limit switches?

Really appreciate all the effort everyone puts into these forums. They have been a tremendous source of information and hopefully someday I'll be able to repay the favor to someone that needs help.

Have a great day,
Joe   

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 10, 2016, 01:23:56 PM »

Hi Gerry,

I THINK i have it figured out. After trying every possible combinations of every button I could find with no luck I erased the Ref All Home script and typed it again.
it appears to be working now. Being totally unfamiliar with the macro language and formats I'm not sure if ther was rouge space, return, etc. somewhere that was causing a problem.
That leads me to another issue with the proximity sensors. Definately struggling to get any sort of repeatability/ consistency out of them. They are a Chinese NPN NC 3 wire sensor.
I'm chasing to get them to activate at the same time. I get them absolutely perfect, withing .0005", and then the next try they are off by .015". I'm thinking that since I'm trying to square the gantry that the accuracy of them coming off the sensor is more important than when it goes into the sensor. Any thoughts on that?
I've read numerous posts and it's split on whether I need to add a resistor or some other electrical component to make them operate properly.
Do you have any advise on them? Are they supposed to be the most accurate and repeatable of the options that are out there?
Can you also point me in the direction of a good tutorial on the Mach3 macros? Again, I've looked and can only find references to the commands, nothing explaining what they really mean and how to use them. Mach3 macros for dummies (does it exist?)

Appreciate the help

Have a great day,
Joe

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 10, 2016, 08:43:21 AM »

Hi,

3.042.020 & parallel port

thanks,
Joe

7

General Mach Discussion / Ref All Home & Auto Square Not Working

« on: July 09, 2016, 10:43:10 AM »

First time post and fairly new to CNC & Mach3
X & A slaved
"Home slave with master" is unchecked
"Ref All Home" script - RefCombination(9)
No limit switches on Y & Z yet
X & A are reversed so they work correctly, home negative is checked for both
X & A are identical in the motor tuning setup

I installed 2 hall effect proximity sensors on the X & A axis - separate pins on BOB (pin 13 & 12 respectively)
When the magnet approaches the sensors the light on the sensor goes out and the light on M1Home & M4Home activates

Problem is when I "Ref All Home" the gantry moves toward the sensors (negative) as it should
one of the sensors will activate, the other side will stop moving, still not activated
the activated side continues moving negative and racks the gantry

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Joe