Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Feature Request

« on: July 04, 2017, 04:56:59 PM »

Separate motor acceleration and deceleration settings would be nice. I need a slower accel rate but then I'm also stuck with a longer time to decel and stop when I jog. Would be nice to have a slower accel rate but quickly decel when I let my finger off the jog button.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Small Increment Steps (0.001") are not consistant

« on: July 04, 2017, 01:43:45 PM »

Playing with setting some more, you also have to set the "Accelleration Rate" of each motor just right. If set too high (accel at a faster rate) this will cause it to not step properly every time. I then set the accel rate to be slower and it moves by 0.001" every time.

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Small Increment Steps (0.001") are not consistant

« on: July 04, 2017, 01:17:35 PM »

I think I fixed the problem: I set the KL-4030 Drivers to 1/16 microstep and doubled the "Counts per Unit" motor settings in Mach4

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Small Increment Steps (0.001") are not consistant

« on: July 04, 2017, 01:00:39 PM »

Slowly getting my Sherline Lathe dialed in.  I'm using a new laptop, Win10, Mach4 Lathe, UC100, C10 breakout, and KL-4030 Drivers set to 1/8 microstep.
I've got the "Incremental Steps" dialed in perfectly. Any stepping distance from 0.002" and up gives me exactly the distance of movement requested.

However, when I ask for a 0.001" step increment, the motor will attempt to move on the first mouse click (motor shaft chatters but returns to initial position) . Then when I click a second time, the motor does move by 0.001".
This pattern repeats every time. The first click does not fully move the motor, but the second click does.

Any suggestions?
Thanks, Kevin.

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Lathe: Displayed X-Movement Does Not Match Incremental Jog Setting

« on: July 03, 2017, 08:23:39 PM »

Makes sense, thank you!!!!

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 Lathe: Displayed X-Movement Does Not Match Incremental Jog Setting

« on: July 03, 2017, 07:50:17 PM »

See attached pics. With both X and Z position displays "zeroed out" (they both read a position of 0.0000) and with the incremental jog set for 0.1000" each time I click the X or Z movement buttons, the following happens:

1) If I click Z+ or Z-, the position display shows that I moved 0.1000".
2) If I click X+ or X-, the position display shows that I moved 0.2000" even though the jog increment is only set to 0.1000"

The attached pics sow the display after I clicked on X just one time after resetting the displays to "0"

Any advice???
Thanks, Kevin.

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Motors Configuration Screen - All Boxes are Grayed out

« on: July 03, 2017, 05:26:38 PM »

Got it working! In my case the problem turned out to be just a setting in Mach4, as follows:
In the "Configure/Plugins/UC100" window, on the "Step/Dir Settings" tab, I needed to place a check mark in the "Neg" box for each motor's "Step pin"

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Setting up Mach4 for the first time - Motors won't turn

« on: July 03, 2017, 05:25:26 PM »

Got it working! Steve is correct, ENA + & - can be left unconnected. In my case the problem turned out to be just a setting in Mach4, as follows:
In the "Configure/Plugins/UC100" window, on the "Step/Dir Settings" tab, I needed to place a check mark in the "Neg" box for each motor's "Step pin"

9

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Setting up Mach4 for the first time - Motors won't turn

« on: July 03, 2017, 12:21:30 PM »

Hi Craig, thanks for the tips, I'll try these tonight.

Additional questions:
1) For the C10 output pins 2-9, do I set the jumper for pull-up or pull-down? I'm connecting to a KL-4030.
2) The KL-4030 has ENA+ and ENA- terminals. Do I need these connected to 5V and GND or can I leave them unconnected?
3) You say "each time you brush the PUL- terminal"  -- brush it with what, GND? (0V I'm assuming?)

10

Mach4 General Discussion / Setting up Mach4 for the first time - Motors won't turn

« on: July 02, 2017, 11:12:20 PM »

Building a brand new CNC setup. Followed all the directions but my motors won't turn when I try to "jog" them. I've checked everything I can think of.

Using Win 10, Mach4, UC100, C10 parallel port I/F board, KL-4030 Drivers. Double checked my wiring. The motors "lock up" when power is applied and occasionally when I'm clicking buttons in Mach4 I'll hear one of the motors  "click" like it's getting maybe a single pulse, but that's all, no real motor movement. Not sure what pull-up or pull-down jumper settings I should use on the C10. Tried many different combinations, nothing makes a difference.

Is there a way that I can test the KL-4030 by putting +5 or GND and a squarewave generator on the inputs of the KL-4030? If I can prove that the KL drives the motors then I know the problem is upstream.

-Kevin