Topics

41

General Mach Discussion / Rewiring should I use a motion controller or stay with BOB?

« on: December 18, 2016, 07:44:28 PM »

So I'm rewiring my bridgeport mill as I'm moving the controller and tidying it up. It's been working flawlessly for more than a decade on a C10 Breakout board. Is there any reason to go with a motion controller, maybe such as POKEYS57CNCDB25 or UC100 USB MOTION CONTROLLER? Thought I'd ask as I have everything ripped apart.

42

General Mach Discussion / Accurate Homing and the Boards that can do that, What is everyone else doing?

« on: December 13, 2016, 01:07:58 PM »

So I've read the other threads about homing and such. I don't think for my application limit switches will work, unless the built in ones are exceptional.

I'm retrofitting a Mori Seiki SL1 CNC Lathe. What is everyone else doing to home their machines accurately? I used to, on my old Mach 3 lathe, take cuts and measure and go from there, but I'm retrofitting a real cnc lathe and want to use the new hardware to make it work as it should. Which to me means index pulse homing.

At first I was going to use the Pokeys 57E, but after all my research I found out it can't do index pulse homing. I'm probably going to go with DMM 1.8Kw servos and they might be able to do that internally. I've a got an email into them asking that.

As far as boards that can do index pulse homing I'm not sure which direction to go if the DMM can't do it internally.

Here's a list I've compiled of motion controllers that seem to be full functioning.

Galil
Mesa
Rogers Machine Sound Logic Encoder Interface
Dynamotion (kflop)
Smoothstepper, I think.
Vital Systems
CS Lab

43

PoKeys / Help me decide which Pokeys Please

« on: December 09, 2016, 01:15:37 PM »

I'm converting a Mori Seiki SL1 CNC Lathe. I've decided on Pokeys, probably 57E with M16 Mobo or, it was suggested, 57E with an M15 and a C62. I'm curious whether 57CNC might work as well. Here's what I need to accomplish:

I want to run mach 3 as I understand the lathe portion of mach 4 is not quite there yet.

1. X and Y AC Servos
2. Accurate Home, after touching limit switch, with the pulse index differential thing on the servos, not sure how this works yet.
3. I was told I can thread by using the pulses of the servo encoders and adding an encoder to the spindle motor.
4. Spindle Speed control by way of 10V out to a VFD.
5. Will need to control an automatic tool changer, figured I could us PoBlocks to program it as a PLC to control this function. I'm familiar with ladder logic.
6. Standard inputs and outputs, limit switches, buttons on a custom pendent to control simple functions such as start, stop, run, etc...

44

General Mach Discussion / Machine Retrofit Servo Zero Point

« on: December 06, 2016, 11:34:40 PM »

So I'm retrofitting a Mori SL1 CNC Lathe. I'm changing out everything and use some AC Servos and Drives. My question is, as i've been told, that on the original machine once you set the home function for each axis - which is it goes to it's limit switch and backs off - it then finds the the correct position on the servo's encoder to be exactly at the same point when you start the machine each time. It was explained to me that there is a home position on the encoder or something to this affect.

How would I program that in Mach 3. Basically what I want is to home the machine when I turn it on everyday and have it be accurate. To me, on a lathe, backing off after touching off of a limit switch is not accurate enough.

Thanks.

45

General Mach Discussion / Mori SL1 Retrofit Control Advice

« on: December 04, 2016, 03:48:36 PM »

Ok so I'm going to be retrofitting a Mori SL1 lathe.

I guess what should I use? Mach 3 or a standalone controller with it's own software and interface?

I already have multiple machines running mach 3 and i like it.

What would i Need to Run Mach now, my old machines are mach 3 with a computer holding onto XP. Nothing new allows xp to be installed as far as I know, the drivers are just not made.

So if I go 32bit Windows 7 what BOB should I use with my new servos? And will it run windows 7 effectively? I'm not convinced that Mach 4 will do everything Mach 3 will, yet.

Also how do I control the other items such as automatic tool changer?

46

SmoothStepper USB / New ESS works but has problems with Spindle, Motor Tuning and Limit SW

« on: July 21, 2015, 12:40:56 AM »

So I just installed a new windows 7 64 computer and OS and ditched my PP C10 CNC4PC BOB. I hooked everything up to the ESS directly with crimp on female pins. Everything works, but there's a few bugs I can't figure out.

1. When everything is turned on to the time I launch Mach3 the spindle rotoates a little. The VFD is on and at it's slowest speed. I'm using a C6 Spindle Control and obviously it's getting a little power from somewhere. It turns on, but when off it still moves.
2. The limit switches do not work despite the imported XML files from my last Mach install.
3. The motor tuning seems to do nothing. No setting makes the slightest difference while in the motor tuning page.

Please help.

47

Mach3 under Vista / New Windows 7 computer not working help with spindle

« on: July 17, 2015, 07:12:10 PM »

Hi, my XP machine finally died and all i could find new were machines that could run windows 7.

I bought windows 7 32bit
Gigabyte LGA 1150 Intel H81 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX DDR3 1600 Motherboards GA-H81M-DS2V Motherboard
Kingston HyperX FURY 4GB 1866MHz DDR3 CL10  Ram
XFX AMD Radeon HD 5450 1GB GDDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI Low-Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Celeron G1820 Processor 2.7GHz 5.0GT/s 2MB LGA 1150 CPU
Rosewill PCIe Parallel Card 1 Port Components Other RC-302E

I set up the computer and brought my old setting over via the xml and chnaged the port number for the parallel port. When I turned it on all the stepper worked but the spindle doesn't turn on. I checked all the setting and everything looks good.

Any suggestions?

I installed the latest version of Mach 3, VR3.043.066, regular. I DID NOT install the version and patch for Vista. Could that be it or something else.

here's what the computer is hooked up to. I think I have a C11 Break out board and a C6 Speed Control Board for the Spindle.

48

General Mach Discussion / Mach Plasma and GCode Help

« on: October 24, 2010, 05:58:06 PM »

OK, so I just got a plasma cutter and want to use it on my Bridgeport Converted CNC Mill and my 4th Axis to cut some Sch.80 Stainless Steel Pipe Tube Miters. I'd rather not buy any new software or learn anything NEW LOL! I'll be draping my mill with welding blankets to keep any sparks from damaging it. I'll be making an attachment to hold the torch in the R8 of the Spindle and lock the motor.

My question is if I have a pilot arc plasma cutter and I want to use it on my Mill should I use the Mach Plasma Screen or stick with my regular Mill screen (which I'm very familiar with.)? What does the plasma screen do differently.

The big question how do I alter my existing Gcode to make it plasma friendly. I guess I want to just have it move to the starting position goto pierce height and then cut height and not move the Z anymore, which the program I wrote already does as it follows one continuous path? Attached is the Gcode for cutting the tube miter. I use Rhino and RhinoCAM. Basically I just make a line on the round part to represent the cut path and then cut it using engraving as I couldn't figure out in Rhino how to make the cut as a follow path as it's on a 4th axis. Seems as though it'll work fine.

49

General Mach Discussion / Huge Threading Problem Help

« on: October 22, 2010, 09:03:57 PM »

OK I think I've posted this before years ago and don't think I got a response and can't find the post.

Anyway, I'm trying to thread some 304 Stainless on my Converted 9x20 Lathe, the piece is 4 1/2" in Diameter External Threads 16 TPI at 1000 RPM with a 16 TPI Thread Insert. What happens is when it's cutting it's losing some RPMs and I know the RPM and strength of the motor is the root problem I need to solve BUT what Mach does after the second or third pass cutting is it knows the RPMs are slowing, obviously, but instead of stopping or self correcting it starts to cut at a taper and ruins the threads. Why does it do this, why would it move X inward as it's cutting. I could see it moving X for the positive to make the cut more shallow thereby making the RPM stabilize, but CUT A TAPER IN??? Please help.

50

General Mach Discussion / Edit Button -- Code for Jog Speed?

« on: October 19, 2009, 08:15:16 PM »

Howdy, I hope someone can help me. I'm adding some buttons to my Mach Turn and I need the VB script or whatever to change jog speeds. Basically I'm making a button so I can change from 10 IPM to .3 IPM when I'm parting. Thanks.