Messages

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General Mach Discussion / Re: What Is My Read-Out Reading Out?

« on: July 14, 2021, 05:16:29 PM »

Tweakie--

I am not sure what caused the problem, although I have read a few posts in other forums from people who turned on their computers and loaded Mach3 after a long hiatus only to find that the program had "changed" items in their Mach3 configuration. The cause of this odd behavior might never be found, but now at least I know what to do, thanks. My axes configurations were miles off. I have a fairly large table, and when I asked Mach3 to move the X axis 50 millimeters so I could calibrate it, the cutter head shot across the table over 700 mm and crashed before I could hit the kill button. So I started out moving it by 5s and 10s, believe it or not, and finally got it calibrated. Just cut a obne-hour job while experiencing a ton of anxiety, but all went well.

Just curious, but do the motor settings in Mach3 affect how hot the my NEMA 23 motors get after running for a couple of hours? I'm cutting at 4000 mm/minute, but I'm sure the machine and motors could handle 6000. How hot is too hot?

Also, for CNC questions not directly related to Mach3, could you recommend a forum that would be suitable for someone at my stage of the game.

Thanks again!

--Bob

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General Mach Discussion / Re: What Is My Read-Out Reading Out?

« on: July 13, 2021, 06:09:08 PM »

Tweakie CNC--

I think you are right. I am going to tune the motors and calibrate the axes tomorrow. I've only done this once before, so I need to get up to speed again on how to handle my Y axis, which is driven by two motors. Any suggestions to keep me from disaster? I should also mention that this machine has been out of use and disconnected from line power and Internet since the pandemic shut down my shop over a year ago. The rig was working perfectly on the last day, and I don't think it "knows" whether it's been sleeping for 12 hours or twelve months. I powered up for the first time last week, and it clearly needed help. Not sure how it gets so far out of calibration, but you can hear the motors complaining so somehow it did. Is this a known possibility, or am I just one of the lucky ones?

--Bob

3

General Mach Discussion / What Is My Read-Out Reading Out?

« on: July 13, 2021, 07:50:04 AM »

I've asked this question elsewhere, but I think I didn't ask it clearly enough.

What is my DRO showing?

After setting the Y axis to zero, I jogged my machine along the axis one physical inch. My Mach3 is, and always has been, set to millimeters as the measurement unit. After this move, I would expect the DRO to show 25.400 (mm). If it somehow got reset to inches, I would expect the DRO to show 1.000 (inches). My actual read-out was 4.066 (whatever).

Would anyone care to repeat this little exercise on their own machine and share the result?

Not sure what is going on here. I have no idea how to inform Mach3 of the size of my table, and trying to set work coordinates results in odd positioning in the display window.

Thanks!

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Confused on Units

« on: July 12, 2021, 02:26:26 PM »

OK, my trouble with setting machine coordinates seems to be resolved after I remembered to set the DROs to zero and refresh the interpreter. Large DUH factor here, but that brings me back to my original question;

If my machine unit is set to millimeters, should the DROs display millimeters? If they should and they're not, what do I do?

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Confused on Units

« on: July 12, 2021, 11:05:05 AM »

No limit switches, alas, until I can save some post-pandemic pennies. I've used soft limits successfully in the past, but would be afraid to do so now until I know I have the machine coordinates sorted out.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Confused on Units

« on: July 12, 2021, 07:49:32 AM »

Greetings From Across The Pond, Graham!

The machine moved correctly before the hiatus. I cut mostly sheet stock (3/4" or 1/2" plywood) to make molds and forms for musical instruments, and that's where I'd like to start again. I'm using a 3-axis CNC router fitted with ball/leadscrews, two motors on the Y axis. No problems there. The computer running Mach3 is never connected to the Internet, and during the hiatus it was disconnected from mains power, so I think line surges can be ruled out. The motors are driven through an ESS Smoothstepper, and all seems to be working as it should because I can jog the machine manually. I can send you some screen shots. Let me know what views would be most helpful to you.

My feeling is that I should first ensure my machine coordinates are set correctly. I click on "machine coordinates," jog the machine to the lower left corner of the work area and zero the X and Y axes. Then I raise the Z axis near the top of its travel, zero it, then click on "ref all home." Turn off the machine coordinates so the red light goes out, and in theory I should never have to touch that again. Is this essentially correct, or has memory failed me?

I'm sure there's something simple I did wrong when I restarted my machine, or just a setting somewhere that I overlooked. But it's really frustrating to be blundering around the innards of Mach3 and not be able to find it!

7

General Mach Discussion / Confused on Units

« on: July 11, 2021, 02:55:44 PM »

I was just coming up the learning curve with Mach3 when the pandemic hit. After 15 months away from my machine, I find that I'm having problems with setting machine and work coordinates (probably due to fumbling fingers here). It's depressing how much info you can forget when you don't use it. My Mach3 is set up in millimeters, but when the axes move, the numbers displayed are much lower than what I'd expect. For example, when the Z axis moves up 20 mm (as measured with a steel tape measure), the readout shows a movement of only 4-point-something. Is this normal? If not, how do I remedy the problem?